Have you ever asked a question that makes you question if your question was correctly heard by the opponent in question? Maybe they heard a word that seemed absurd if no context was inferred.
Therein lies the beauty of games based in the enigmatic nomenclature that is the English language. So many words could have hidden meanings, funny sounds, or added weight based simply on the way a person says them.
This is how one of the all time classics in board gaming has managed to stick around with such little change in the past 3 and a half decades. So Guess Who i’m talking about in this post. How’d you know? Was it the skillful clues I gave? Or the smattering of images directly below this text?
Equally subtle in its delivery, there’s no way you can know a person in the game without asking all the important questions like, “do you have a big nose?” or “do you have a hat?”(Pulled directly from the cover of the "Retro" box) These are the types of questions that come only after countless plays, built on the solid strategy of looking at faces on cards. It’s equal parts battleship and racial profiling. Keeping your personal identity secret while trying to uncover if your opponent is white or slightly less white(I just wish we could have a few more white males on the box covers. Would really shake things up). This has to be the part of the game that has aged more like a carton of milk than a bottle of wine. The mid-day nightmare of having a child’s first question be “are you white?” in a game based on guessing outward appearance is almost unavoidable.
Unfortunately this criticism isn’t the only way the game excludes players today. Representation issues aside, the game only plays 2 players at a time, pitting one person against the other in a nakedly red vs blue contest that becomes increasingly problematic one out of every 4 Novembers.
Political Jokes aside, this game really does require a fair amount more disclaimers than any of my previous entries as a board gaming granddaddy. So why include it at all? The game makes for a great reintroduction point to the hobby of board gaming. You bring up a game people played in the distant past and show them more fun, inclusive, and interesting riffs on the original idea.
So just as the most fun part about Guess Who is gaining limited information through questions, Spyfall introduces more players and unique roles while keeping to the question asking formula. Now with that abrupt segue out of the way let me give you the gist of the gameplay.
In Spyfall, 3-8 players will be given a card in secret, detailing what the shared scenery looks like and what their role is in the location. One person every round will be given a spy card instead of a location card. They do not know the scenery shown on all other players cards and must try to ask and answer questions without raising suspicions. The spy wins if they guess the location before the other players find out who the spy is. The genius of this game is in the individual roles on each card which act as a kind of safety net for those friends that are particularly bad at lying. Players take turns asking and answering questions as the role on their card dictates. So maybe they stuttered on purpose, maybe it’s nothing, maybe it’s maybelline?
Say for example the location is a cemetery. And one of your friends gets the role of heir. You may ask “How does your future look?” or “Do you like being here?” To which your friend might say “Better than before!” or “It’s what I gotta do to get what I want!” Now if you assumed they were a fellow mourner this kind of gleeful response is entirely out of place and all but confirms that they are a woefully confused spy. Then suddenly the blame is cast on you for asking questions that didn’t make sense with the location. Then a friend just laughs in response to every question. I mean that can’t be a bluff, can it? These twists and permutations lead players to blindly accept lies and move on or question everything from everyone because we all must be the spies! If I were to find any fault with this game it would be the tricky balancing act that goes on in the phrasing of questions. Trying to let others know that you know but not letting the spy know what you know. Most often a spy will win long before suspicion can be cast by simply listening the way questions are asked and answered. Unfortunately this problem manifests itself in people taking inordinate amounts of time looking for the perfect query or asking for a sheet of pre-approved questions. Both these scenarios are not ideal, but also not unbearable. If you were on the fence before these ending notes just know they are not meant to be deal breakers but simply a disclaimer about the variety of ways any social deduction game can go with different types of people. So if this game is a hit with your group you may want to look at Spyfall 2 which adds more locations(24), more players(up to 12), and the ability to play with 2 spies!
TL;DR So if you have a group of fun-loving friends who enjoy telling each other lies, and being called spies, then please give this fantastic game a try. It’s a joy you cannot deny.
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