Season 3, Week 6, 7, and 8: Shadows! Trains! Small Worlds! Betrayal! Deception!

Week 6

Shadow Hunters

One of my first blog entries was a rather political piece about elements of racism in the card game (and dice chucking spin-off)Bang!  The issue I had was the representation of Aboriginal people, and the idea that they are a faceless savage hazard without character.  In a high school setting I have to be careful how we present issues associated with race and gender.  For this reason I don’t include Bang! in our repertoire of games, nor would I ever introduce the expansion for Flick ‘em Up called Red Rock Tomahawk, even though the original FeU is one of my favourite titles.  The problem with removing games due to their content is that you sometimes exclude games that are quite fun and engaging, so I was disappointed that Bang! was not something my group would enjoy... but then I met Shadow Hunters.

Shadow Hunters does exactly what Bang! sets out to do: hidden roles, deception, unique win conditions, and over the top wacky violence.  SH also features an intriguing looking board, four and six sided dice, wooden pieces, and some interesting cards.  Players secretly dealt cards indicating their role, Shadow (a creature of darkness), Hunters (warriors who fight the Shadows), and Neutrals (characters who are independent).  The Shadows win if they kill off the Hunters or the Neutrals, Hunters win if they kill of the Shadows, and each Neutral has a specific win condition for that character.  Roles are hidden at the start of the game, but an interesting mechanic called Hermit cards allows players to receive clues about the identities of their fellow gamers.  Players can attack each other, use special weapons or equipment, and attempt to heal themselves and teammates.  Once a player reveals their character, they often trigger special abilities as well.

The students loved this game, and even though SH features player elimination, it did not detract from the experience.  The few times players were eliminated they were eagerly waiting to see who won, especially if it was someone from their own team.  Interestingly enough, both games were won by Neutral characters, who managed to remain quiet and unassuming during each fray.  I think the best part was watching alliances form and crumble within minutes as each other as identities were revealed.  Both games were fun, and I think Shadow Hunters will hit the tables again.

My only major gripe with the game is the card art.  Prior to playing the game, I pulled a few cards and set them aside due to the presentation of women.  Agnes and Allie in particular are an issue, and the character Fuka appears to be dressed in some kind of fetish/nurse wear.  It is very representative of a certain Manga style, but similar to our experience with Blood Rage, I’m just not happy with having to discuss sexism and the presentation of women, especially when half of my club, including staff supervisors, are female.  It’s an easy issue to fix however, no one was the wiser, and the game-play didn’t suffer at all.

Week 7

Ticket to Ride, Small World, Small World: Underground

I decided this week to bust out two of the classics, Ticket to Ride and Small World.  Both game days were well attended.  There’s no need to review how the games are played.  I’ve covered them before, and most gamers are well versed in the two titles.  The students really enjoyed these games, TTR being the more casual of the two.  Tuesday’s session was well attended, and Friday’s session brought in even more students.  One group played Small World: Underground once they were familiar with the base game.

Small World: Underground, for those unfamiliar with the game, is a stand-alone sequel to Small World.  The core concepts are still there, but the game adds some interesting twists.  The “Lost Tribes” are gone, replaced by monsters.  Players can also get unique treasures or score unique locations that grant abilities.  The board is much more claustrophobic, and there are new hazards as well.  Luckily, one of the players is a huge fan of the game, and plays it frequently outside of the school’s club.  He talked the new players through the game, and even though he played as well, a new player won the game.  I find it incredibly rewarding when a student steps up to teach a game.  It lets me step back and be a player instead of a coach.

There’s not much more to report as each session went like clockwork.  People had fun, and playing these titles was like visiting old friends.

Week 8

Betrayal at House on the Hill/Widow’s Walk

Halloween week called for our annual tradition: Betrayal atHouse on the Hill.  The more I play Betrayal, the more an appropriate metaphor for the game begins to coalesce in my brain.  Betrayal is like walking into a massive smorgasbord/buffet restaurant.  At first, you’re amazed at the huge variety of food: pizza, sushi, salmon, Vietnamese spring rolls, Caesar salad, jello, etc, etc, etc.  It’s all immediately impressive, and your mind reels in delight at the sheer number of options… and then… you eat the food.  No one item is particularly amazing.  They range from decent to awful, but you know you might be back because there was no way you could have tried everything on your first visit.  In a nutshell, that’s Betrayal at House on the Hill.  Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s pretty rough.  There are other horror games that hit the mark in a stronger manner (Mansions of Madness, Fury of Dracula, Zombicide, Shadow Hunters), but Betrayal’s appeal comes from variety and never being sure which direction the game will go.  It’s like the buffet restaurant, only you’re served a random plate of food…enjoy!

For Tuesday’s session, I included all of the cards and tiles from the first expansion for Betrayal called Widow’s Walk, which adds new cards, new tiles, new haunt scenarios, and a fourth floor to the house.  The instructions for Widow’s Walk advocates simply incorporating the new tiles and cards into the game, and letting things play out.

Here is where I made a colossal error; I played the wrong "haunt".  We interpreted the chart incorrectly, and as a result, ran with the scenario called "Tentacled Horror".  As a fan of HP Lovecraft and all things Cthulhu, I was happy to oblige being the traitor.  Unfortunately, because we were playing the wrong scenario, the key item the players needed was buried so deep in the Omen stack that they would never draw it out.  They lost, but because we miss-read the Haunt chart.  Yikes... 

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, and chess converts become board-gamers

For Friday’s session, I decided to run a new game I picked up just the day before, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong.  Deception mixes together the best parts of The Resistance, Clue, and Codenames into one easy to play and tense game.  It plays up to twelve people, and can be played multiple times in a session.  The game begins with players being assigned a role.  Most roles are hidden, and some are not used if the player count is too low.  The player who draws the Forensic Scientist essentially runs the show.  The rest of the roles remain hidden until the end.  Players can be Investigators, The Murderer, an Accomplice, or the Witness (the last two roles are optional). Once the Forensic Scientist has revealed their role, the rest of the players receive eight cards, four representing key pieces of evidence, four representing murder weapons.  Everyone closes their eyes except the Forensic Scientist.  The Murderer (and Accomplice if applicable), opens their eyes and points to one of their weapons and one piece of evidence.  If the Witness is in play, the Witness gets to learn the identities of the Murderer and Accomplice, but not which is which.  Once everyone opens their eyes, the fun begins.

The Forensic Scientist tries to get the Investigators to accurately deduce the murder weapon and key piece of evidence.  To do this, the Scientist places bullet tokens on cards that represent the condition of the corpse, cause of death, location, occupations, clothing, etc.  The Investigators begin building a scenario based on the clues, and take three rounds attempting to solve the murder.  The Murderer and Accomplice try to steer suspicion away from the Murderer, while the Witness tries to steer it back in their direction.  If no one successfully identifies the murder weapon and evidence, the Murderer and Accomplice win.  If the Investigators deduce the weapon and evidence, the Investigators and Forensic Scientist win.  The Murderer and Accomplice can steal the win if they can identify the Witness.

This game was very well received.  One thing I found interesting is that most bluffing/hidden role games do not favour EAL students (English as an Additional Language).  Because students struggle with the language, it’s difficult to master the art of bluffing and subtlety.  That’s not the case with Deception.  I think because of the iconic nature of the clues, and the fact that each player is given designated time to present their ideas uninterrupted.  There’s still time to debate the facts and theories, but the playing field is quite level.  Part of the joy is trying to figure out how these strange murders went down, based on the evidence.  How could a victim be poisoned by radiation, but leaving behind a mosquito as key evidence?  In a game as deeply morbid as deception, there’s plenty of room for laughter.

For the last few weeks, Friday sessions have had some extra visitors: chess players.  Every noon hour chess players descend on our library, and there are usually five or six games going at once.  A small, dedicated group like to play after school, but with the library closed by 4:00 on Fridays, the chess players have hung out in my room playing chess while we’ve run our board game sessions.  My fellow staff advisor decided to pitch a board game to the chess crew.  Once again, Ticket to Ride hit the table.  The chess crew really enjoyed the game.  After all, both games are about area control.  They might return to exchange their pawns and queens for meeples and dice.  We’ll wait and see.

Another verbose post.  Thanks to all of you for the positive feedback and readership.

Next week, it’s our annual Smash Up superdraft!