Tag: Targeted Clues

Games with a Targeted Clue mechanic allows players to give each other hints that are helpful to some players, but not all.

Diabolik

| T3d-1978
Diabolik

Diabolik

In Diabolik: Heists and Investigations, players will experience in first person the “impossible thefts” that are told every month in the comic books, both from the side of Diabolik and Eva Kant, and from Inspector Ginko and the police.

The mechanics are that of hidden movement, but with the exception that when discovered, the criminals will be forced to flee on the main board, visible to all cops. Thanks to the cards, every turn offers different situations.

The Criminals will have to complete two heists out of the three available to win the game and to do so they will have to move hidden in the shadows, leaving traces of their path that the Police will have to find to ruin the plans of the Criminals.

The Police will have the hard job of investigating the traces of Diabolik and Eva, but they are not alone, in fact they will have the opportunity to call four total Police Officers to help, to keep every corner of the city under observation. To win the game, the cops will have to raise the Danger Level to the maximum on the Danger Track. Usually, solving a Clue increases the Danger Level by 1 point, but that’s not the only way to do it. On the other hand, if Eva or DIabolik complete a Heist, the Danger Luevel is lowered.

In their turn, each player can perform a maximum of 3 individual actions. The only exception is for drawing, discarding or playing cards, which is a repeatable action.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Deduction
  • Hidden Movement
  • Programmed Movement
  • Targeted Clues
  • Team Based

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • ~90 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 2.00

Word Heist

| T3d-1978
Word Heist

Word Heist

Your goal in Word Heist is to create clever words that others don’t steal, while ideally snatching words from their grasp.

To set up the game, take a number of consonant, vowel, and special letter cards based on the number of players, shuffle them, then place one card each in the +1 and +2 slots by the game board, while laying all the other letters in a row. Reveal two “bonus vault” cards that show special ways to score.

Each player then simultaneously and secretly writes a “heist” word on their player board using only the letters revealed, with as many copies of those letters as they like. Once everyone has finished, each player drops clues to their word by placing their personal clue tokens on as many public letters as they wish; if you use a letter multiple times in your word, you must mark the letter that many times.

Next, after looking at those clues, each player writes a “halt” word on their player board that they think corresponds to an opponent’s word.

All players then reveal their words one by one. If two or more players have the same word, none of them score for that word; if an opponent has “halted” your word, then they score for that word instead of you! A word scores 1 point for each clue token you placed, +1 or +2 points for you using the letters placed in those slots, and bonus points if you met one or both “bonus vault” challenges.

After writing all the used “heist” and “halt” words on a public board, shuffle the letter cards, then play another round. You cannot repeat a previously used word. After a third round conducted in the same manner, the player with the highest score wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Targeted Clues
  • Word Game

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 20 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.80

Wavelength

| T3d-1978
Wavelength

Wavelength

Wavelength is a social guessing game in which two teams compete to read each other’s minds. Teams take turns rotating a dial to where they think a hidden bullseye is located on a spectrum. One of the players on your team — the Psychic — knows exactly where the bullseye is and draws a card with a pair of binaries on it (such as: Job – Career, Rough – Smooth, Fantasy – Sci-Fi, Sad Song – Happy Song, etc). The Psychic must then provide a clue that is *conceptually* where the bullseye is located between those two binaries.

For example, if the card this round is HOT-COLD and the bullseye is slightly to the “cold” side of the center, the Psychic needs to give a clue somewhere in that region. Perhaps “salad”?

After the Psychic gives their clue, their team discusses where they think the bullseye is located and turns the dial to that location on that spectrum. The closer to the center of the bullseye the team guess, the more points they score!

Game Mechanics:

  • Party Game
  • Racing
  • Targeted Clues
  • Team Based

Game Specifications:

  • 2+ Players
  • 30 – 45 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.11

Phantom Ink

| T3d-1978
Phantom Ink

Phantom Ink

Renowned mediums are competing to figure out a secret object and prove they can connect with the “World Beyond”. The first team to figure out the secret object wins!

To set up Phantom Ink, divide players so that the Sun team and the Moon team each have one Spirit and up to three Mediums. The mediums on a team share a hand of seven question cards, and the spirits begin the game by choosing one of the five objects on a card as the secret object. On a turn, the mediums pass two question cards to their spirit, with sample questions like “What color is it most commonly?”, “What fictional character has it or uses it?”, and “If it were a musical instrument, what would it be?”

The spirit discards one question card face up, then returns the question card it’s going to answer to their mediums, then slowly writes the answer one letter at a time for all to see. As soon as the mediums think they know what this clue word is, they yell “Silencio”, and the spirit stops writing. The other team of mediums might see only the letter “Y”, but if you know the question is “What color is it?”, then you know the clue must be “yellow”. To end your turn, draw two new question cards.

On a turn, instead of handing over question cards, you can attempt to guess the answer — and to do so you write like the spirits, one letter at a time. If you write an incorrect letter, the spirits will stop you, marking out your error, with your partial guess giving the other team more information. If you guess the entire word correctly, you win!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deduction
  • Limited Communication
  • Party Game
  • Puzzle
  • Targeted Clues
  • Team Based
  • Word Game

Game Specifications:

  • 4 – 8 Players
  • 10 – 15 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.33

Mystic Paths

| T3d-1978
Mystic Paths

Mystic Paths

In the deduction game Mystic Paths, players are challenged to navigate paths through a labyrinth called the Eternal Forest. Each player’s path is unique — and only you know the way. However, you cannot traverse the forest alone. Your teammates are needed to open the sealed portals along each step. Give clever clues, hope your teammates can read your mind, and complete your journey!

To complete the journey, each player takes a turn providing clues about which portal is their next step. Each step can have up to five different portals, but only one is the correct one, so players give clues that relate (hopefully) to the correct next step.

The challenge is that the only clues available are cards that have been dealt, so sometimes the clues may not relate to the next portal of a journey, which means you have to get creative. This is where you need to try to read the minds of your teammates. For example, the next portal on your journey could be the word “anteater”, and your clues are limited to cards you are dealt, like scary, or tall, or handsome. Which would you choose as your clue?

The game takes place in five rounds. Beat the game by having everyone complete their own journey before the five rounds are over.

Game Mechanics:

  • Cooperative
  • Deduction
  • Limited Communication
  • Party Game
  • Targeted Clues
  • Team Based
  • Word Game

Game Specifications:

  • 2 – 6 Players
  • 45 – 60 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.70

Hues and Cues

| T3d-1978
Hues and Cues

Hues and Cues

What hue do you think of when we say “apple”? Hues and Cues is a vibrant game of colorful communication where players are challenged to make connections to colors with words. Using only one and two-word cues, players try to get others to guess a specific hue from the 480 colors on the game board. The closer the guesses are to the target, the more points you earn. Since everyone imagines colors differently, connecting colors and clues has never been this much fun!

Gather around with three to ten people to play a quick and simple game with a prism of possibilities! First, a “cue giver” hides a specific color they’ve chosen out of a deck of cards. There are 480 shades on the board in front of you! After getting one- and two-word cues, everyone places their marker on which color they think is being described. “Coffee.” Is it dark brown, as in freshly brewed? “Au lait.” With milk. That means I should pick a lighter shade!

Use examples from everyday life, from nature to pop culture, or materials and moods. Everyone around the table gets a turn to give cues and guess. The better your hints or guesses, the more points you earn. Play off others’ experiences to narrow down what they have in mind!

Game Mechanics:

  • Deduction
  • Limited Communication
  • Party Game
  • Targeted Clues

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 10 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.17

Dixit

| T3d-1978
Dixit

Dixit

Each turn in Dixit, one player is the storyteller, chooses one of the six cards in their hand, then makes up a sentence based on that card’s image and says it out loud without showing the card to the other players. Each other player then selects the card in their hand that best matches the sentence and gives the selected card to the storyteller, without showing it to anyone else.

The storyteller shuffles their card with all of the received cards, then reveals all of these cards. Each player other than the storyteller then secretly guesses which card belongs to the storyteller. If nobody or everybody guesses the correct card, the storyteller scores 0 points, and each other player scores 2 points. Otherwise, the storyteller and whoever found the correct answer score 3 points. Additionally, the non-storyteller players score 1 point for every vote received by their card.

The game ends when the deck is empty or if a player has scored at least 30 points. In either case, the player with the most points wins.

Game Mechanics:

  • Party Game
  • Racing
  • Storytelling
  • Targeted Clues

Game Specifications:

  • 3 – 6 Players
  • ~30 Minutes
  • Difficulty Weight 1.26