The Premise
Up to 8 (phony) art critics has come together to work for an opening of the Gallery. Their first task is to decide on which artwork to exhibit. Unfortunately, every pieces acquired by the owner turns out to be counterfeit. However, in the heat of debate, not one critics has noticed the problem.
Initial Idea
I wanted to do a simple party game.
two major mechanics in the game is "Secret role" and "Voting"
Game starts with a shuffled deck of cards. Each card depicts an artwork that is strictly composed of 4 colors. Each card has a different combination of the a total of 8 colors through out the deck.
Each player will receive a "favorite color". They keep it secret (hence the secret role).
Each round, you flip over the the top card, each player sticks out their hands and on a count to 3, everyone votes. Players have 3 options:
Yes (thumbsup
) - You want to add the art to the display of the gallery.No (thumbsdown
)- You don't, obviously.Point at another target player (
) - You reverse the your target's vote IF he or she is voting. No effect otherwise.After that, the votes are tallied up. if the vote is a tie, or if there are more thumbs up, it's a pass. The art will be displayed in the Gallery.
Otherwise the art is discarded.
Then start a new round, rinse and repeat.
At the end of game, before player reveals their "favorite color", everyone gets to guess what each other's color is. Each correct guess is worth 2 points. Each Art that is passed to display in the Gallery with a player's color scores that player one point.
Other mechanics and bookkeeping
There will be a fixed number of "counters" in the game. (7 per player)
Each time an art passes, a counter for each "natural yes" (despite of being reversed), will be put on the card. The counter will also note the corresponding sitting position of the players so you know who voted yes.
Once the counter runs out, the game ends.
The problem after a 2 play testing
- Fun
While every turn out of the vote is quite entertaining, something still feels lacking throughout. It goes from "lol why you point at me" or "wow no one voted yes" to "okay lets flip the next card - *went into silence* - 3, 2 ,1".
Feels like there should be something more to each round or that the positive "voting turn out atmosphere" should be capitalized more.
- Tension
Points are tallied up in the end. While everyone usually does have an idea who's winning, it's not blatantly apparent and it doesn't create tension.
- Wasted information
At this point, I don't know what to do with the discarded art. There are a LOT of information that is useful. I have tried playing with the rule stating : When an art is rejected, one of the player who voted yes must bring it "home" (collect the card and put in front of them), each art in your home that doesn't have your color score you -3 points for being an eyesore. It did help the secret color deduction process but it was super "mechaniky" and not very fun.
This much for now. I will think of something more to post later.
EDIT:
Marketing/potential selling point
Another thing I like to mention is that the artwork on cards will be actual famous pieces. Like Mono Lisa or Starry Night, only that they are "tinted" in 4 solid colors. Hence "counterfeit".