05/29/2024 – Berkshire Gamers Session Report #24-22
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14 at the UNO Park Community Center for an evening of Word and Deduction Games
Our June 5 session will be a request night with 2 purposes:
1) Word and deduction games we didn’t get to play on 5/29 – Paperback, LetterJam, Message From the Stars and more (requests for repeat of any games played on May 29?….email Steve to arrange a leader)
2) Recent arrivals from either retail or crowdfunding – Trail Blazers, Courtisans, Faraway, Guns or Treasure, Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef, Tangram City, Mille Fiori and more
5/29/2024 @ UNO Park Community Center
IN: Steve & Sandy, Sean & Wendy, Tony & Rachel, Armando, Matt, Chris, Ethan, Reimi, Anna, Nicole, Rob O
ON OUR TABLES:
The Number (led by Sean) 2020 game of bluffing, risk taking and deduction played over two rounds. Each round consists of 5 turns, during which everyone plays simultaneously by secretly writing a 3-digit number on their wipe-off boards. When the boards are revealed they are ordered from high to low and checked to see if their number shares any digits for the numbers below its value. If a player’s number is approved they earn points for the first digit used but can’t use any numbers from their board for the remainder of that round. A fast, fun filler best used as an opener or closer.
BuyWord (led by Chris) 2004 Sid Sackson word game where players buy letters and then sell the words they form to the bank. Values on the tiles get squared both in buying and selling.
Bananagrams 2x (led by Tony/Ethan) 2006 word game where players use a selection of 144 plastic letter tiles to independently create their own ‘crossword’ faster than one’s opponents. When a player uses up all their letters, all players take a new tile from the pool. The object of the game is to be the first to complete a word grid after the “bunch” of tiles has been depleted.
Apotheca (led by Sean) 2016 deduction and puzzle game where players craft potions in a secret marketplace. Players hide ingredients to deceive opponents, and use magical powers to mix concoctions. It is played on a 4×4 grid where players gain points by making matches of three potions of the same color in a row. The first player to make three matches wins. It’s easily learned, but the combination of asymmetric powers and secret facedown potions make the game a delicious challenge.
Veiled Fate (led by Matt) 2022 social deduction game where players are secretly assigned one of the nine Demigods as their offspring, trying to protect the identity of their Demigod by striking a balance between misdirection and mischief to get the most points and capture the throne. Players try to complete quests that will help their Demigod gain the most renown points but have to be really clever about it. The deluxe KS version has stunning miniatures and other components.
Psychic Pizza Deliverers Go to the Ghost Town (led by Ethan) 2018 Japanese game re-issued in 2022. Players explore ghost town, as the mayor slowly reveals your surroundings and players try to find pizzas, fight off ghosts and deliver the correct pizzas to the correct houses.
Code 777 (led by K-ban) 1985 Alex Randolph game where players have to deduce their 3-digit code that everyone else can see. Each player, in turn, answers a question from the deck of 23 cards from their unique perspective – which gives the other players sometimes valuable information to eliminate possibilities and figure out their own code. This was the gold standard of deduction games back in the day and has been reprinted several times over the decades.. The 2018 Korean multilingual reprint includes large wipe-off boards that help players with their deduction. It is similar in scope to Egghead, Headbands and Coyote
Codenames (led by Ethan) 2016 Spiel des Jahres winning word-based team clue giving game to identify spies and avoid bystanders and the Assassin.
Paint the Roses (led by K-ban) 2022 Alice in Wonderland themed cooperative deduction game where the fickle Queen of Hearts is making not so veiled threats against her gardeners (the players) to make the roses conform to her ever changing whims. Whim cards can be easy (color only), medium (color or shape) or hard (any combo) but have color coded backs. Players in turn place a tile into the garden and everyone else places their colored cubes to indicate the number of matches to their whim card. Each turn the team has to make at least one deducted guess – if correct the gardener miniature advances, if not the Queen of Hearts advances twice as fast as usual. If the Queen catches up to the gardeners – it’s off with their heads! If the garden is completed the gardeners win. WE WON !!!
Cryptid (led by Armando) 2018 unique deduction game of honest misdirection in which players must try to uncover information about their opponents’ clues while throwing them off the scent of their own. Each player holds one piece of evidence to help them find the creature, and on their turn they can try to gain more information from their opponents. Be warned; give too much away and your opponents might beat you to the mysterious animal and claim the glory for themselves!
Steve
14 at the UNO Park Community Center for an evening of Word and Deduction Games Our June 5 session will be a request night with 2 purposes: 1) Word and deduction games we didn’t get to play on 5/29 – Paperback, LetterJam, Message From the Stars and more (requests for repeat of any games played…
14 at the UNO Park Community Center for an evening of Word and Deduction Games Our June 5 session will be a request night with 2 purposes: 1) Word and deduction games we didn’t get to play on 5/29 – Paperback, LetterJam, Message From the Stars and more (requests for repeat of any games played…