SPIEL '18 Preview: Game of Suspicion, or Nailing Down the Numbers

One of my main regrets about working for BGG is that I lack the time to cover everything that I want to cover. Because I'm in a prominent place in the hobby game industry, I receive many sample games — usually not by request as I know that sometimes I take a while to get to things — yet if I do cover a game, then it gets a fair amount of exposure that it might not get otherwise, so publishers send me games anyway. I feel an obligation to do those games justice, but often it doesn't happen as time keeps happening and newer games bury slightly less new ones on my review shelves.

On occasion, though, an "older" game rises to the top of the pile again, as is the case with Game of Suspicion, a design from Blue Magpie Games that Taiwanese publisher Sharp Point Publishing had at SPIEL '17 in about the worst location possible. I wasn't familiar with the publisher, so their games weren't listed on BGG's SPIEL '17 Preview. I talked with the representative a bit to find out about them and looked over their games, and by the time I left the booth, I had two games in hand. (I'll cover Terra Shifter in a separate video by mid-October 2018.)

Now I've discovered that SPP will be at SPIEL '18 with these games once again, so I can redeem myself with a couple of overviews. This game is still new to you, right?

Game of Suspicion is a micro-deduction game of 18 cards playable by 3-4 players. Each player gets a hand of four cards (with four cards revealed face up in a three-player game), while the remaining two cards are placed face down on the table. On a turn, you either take a card from the center, add it to your hand, then place a card back on the table, stating whether you exchanged it or not; play a card face up from your hand and use its power; or attempt to guess the numbers on the cards held by an opponent. If you guess their numbers exactly, that player is out and you receive a point for each card they held, in addition to getting to guess another player's hand immediately. If you guess wrong, your turn ends and you are sad.

Players compete over multiple rounds until someone has scored fifteen or more points, at which point whoever has the most points at the end of that round wins. Gameplay is super simple, but intriguing. The deck has five 0s, five 1s, and one card each of 2-9, with those latter cards have great powers to use — but when you use them, you shrink your hand size, which might make it easier for others to guess what you hold.

I've played twice so far, once each with 3p and 4p, and the four-player game was far more interesting since no information was revealed at the start of a round. You had more to uncover and more to do, a greater ability to throw others off what you might have. The biggest change is that in a three-player game, if you guess someone's cards and knock them out of the game, then you usually have only one chance to eliminate the remaining opponent before they oust you, simply because most of the cards have been revealed by that point. With four players, cards are revealed only when you look in the center, use a card power, or knock someone out, so more info stays hidden, which makes the gameplay trickier and more enjoyable.

So there it is, either eleven months late or one month early, depending on your point of view. Phew, one more game off the list and only, um, a lot still to go...

P.S. Turns out that I had also seen Game of Suspicion during the press day ahead of Tokyo Game Market in May 2017, yet I didn't recall it. I've seen too much or gotten too old — or both!

Game of Suspicion from Sharp Board Games (尖端出版) has welcoming art, but I learned nothing about this game, alas. Maybe tomorrow... —WEM pic.twitter.com/q5M8Fm3AF9
— BoardGameGeek (@BoardGameGeek) May 13, 2017