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Did this situation deter me from recording an overview video? It did not! Although it did change where I recorded the video. Here I am on the floor of the Hilton across the street from the convention center. The lighting might actually have been better in that location than in the center.
Note that in our game, we were not playing with the final rules as the French rules were unclear as to how the bonus tokens should be used. Thus, we went with one interpretation and assumed it was correct rather than not being able to play the game at all. The final details of gameplay might differ. Note also that I won the game and am current Spyrium champion of the U.S. I'm open to rematches once this game hits the market, with Ystari Games releasing it in France and Asmodee releasing it elsewhere, and I fully expect Eurogame fans to go gaga over it at that time.
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One thing I forgot to mention on camera and will instead mention now is that while the gameplay in Council of Verona is decent, the game needs to be longer. How, you ask? Well, watch the video first so that you know how to play the game, then I'll get to my suggestion, which can still be implemented as the game has not yet gone to print:
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While each round in Love Letter is short – lasting only 1-2 minutes unless you're playing with slugs – you must play several rounds, anywhere from four to thirteen, in order to determine a winner, and the impact of playing those multiple rounds is part of the reason why the game succeeds as well as it does. Bluffing and deduction are huge parts of the game, and because you play multiple rounds, you get to bluff and deduce over and over again in the same (or similar) situations: "Last round he used Priest on me, then followed up with a Baron. Is he holding a Baron after this Priest, too?" "She threw Countess away last round while holding a low card. Is she doing it again?" "He seems to always play Handmaid on the second turn, so let me guess that he has it in hand now." And so on.
Even better are moments when the unexpected happens – then happens again. In a game with four players, for example, Jon was one of two players left in the round, but was forced to Prince himself with the Princess in hand as the other player had laid down a Handmaid to protect himself. Boom! Jon's out, too, and we go to the next round. Once again, Jon was one of two players left in the round, but was forced to Prince himself with the Princess in hand! What are the odds?!
Actually, I don't care what the odds are. The point is that I don't recall who won that game, but I do recall that moment with fondness, and it happened because the game experience in Love Letter builds on itself round after round. You get those fun moments again and again because you find history repeating and twisting and reinventing itself and because the experience is more than a single pass through the cards. This is what Council of Verona needs, ideally with the simple solution of requiring three rounds of play with three players, four rounds with two or four, and five rounds with five. You'd then tally the scores afterward to see who's best at composing the Council and bringing Juliet and Romeo together. Sure, this change would lengthen the game time, but in the process you build an experience that's currently lacking. You'd now have multiple card drafts, giving you the opportunity to deduce (rightly or wrongly) who has taken which cards; you'd have extended bluffing and deduction, with players using your actions in previous rounds to try to figure out what you're doing now; you'd have multiple chances to get it right, even if only in one round so that you could then feel like you have something to build on next time. There's still time to make this happen, Patrick, should you find this suggestion helpful.
Maybe I need to start a new side career in game development...
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