RogerBW's Blog

Back to Reading, at the Great Expectations (post refurbishment, though the beer quality is still a tad below par).

I started off teaching Coup: six people wanted to play, so I acted as "neutral" advisor. Some players were a little slow to pick up the details, but it all pretty much worked out.

Some of us tried Sheriff of Nottingham, one I've been meaning to play but haven't previously been around for. The core mechanic, of trying to bluff about what's in your sealed pouch, is great; other stuff round the edges, particularly the market phase, seemed as though it were a bit superfluous and trying to justify the game's existence as a distinct game by adding complexity. Still good fun, though, and I wouldn't mind playing again.

Finally, Dead of Winter, which I haven't had out in too long (not since other people were playing it at the last games day here, in fact). Our game-winning objective was to gather enough medicine, and we just about managed it, in spite of losing a survivor to zombie-bite on the very first action. In fact this game went a lot better than quite a few I've played. None of us quite managed to achieve our personal victory conditions, though three out of the five players were very close.