Pretense
Designed by: Jason Tagmire
Pretense is an oddity; it’s not a game you play by itself but one played in tandem with other games. As such it’s not really a starting point for new gamers, but one to consider if you play regularly and fancy seeding a bit of silliness into the evening.
The game’s rules are simple – everyone is given a card at the start of the the games session, which they keep secret. If the event on the card occurs, they reveal it, and get to take another player’s card from them, and try and achieve that role as well.
The events on the cards are simple – get a player to sit in your chair, get a player to take a picture of you, or pass you money. Lose two games in a row or win two games in a row, and so on. Whenever you stop playing whatever other games you’re playing, the person who has flipped the most cards is the winner.
We’ve play a simpler version where everyone gets 2 cards and there’s no stealing at all; it’s just first to flip both cards.
Sam says
How much you like Pretense depends on how much you enjoy the meta-aspect of a game about playing games. It has the potential to feel either ludicrously nerdy or curiously fun ( – possibly both) It does give a one-off games evening an air of mystery, but is somewhat compromised beyond that by players becoming familiar with what the objectives are and becoming on their guard for them – and that sense of suspicion can start to take away from the normal fun of a games night. An odd, interesting curio, but one I’m glad to have experienced once.
-
Take That!
There is role-stealing from each other but it's not exactly identity-theft.
-
Fidget Factor!
None. Unless the other games you're playing are making you fidget.
-
Brain Burn!
None.
-
Again Again!
The nature of the game will change slightly once people know what are on the cards - a first play or two and (unless you all study them beforehand) what everyone is trying to achieve will be a mystery. If you play regularly and everybody knows the cards, then an element of bluff starts to creep in.
