The Black Death certainly wasn’t a time of fun and games, even if Bristol 1350 happens to be a fun game about the Black Death. Those who are falling prey to the black death gleefully seek to fan the flames of transmission, while those who remain unscathed must stay alert and agile to suspicious passengers. I had noticed the increasing mentions about the rise of fascism in other countries (1930's) as the show went on, with the usual talk of not needing to worry about it. The art, on the other hand, really brings out the flavor of the game, and our group spent a lot of time just admiring the different characters.

When he isn't feeling conflicted about Morrissey he likes to play indie games with a dubious 80's aesthetic.On the surface Bristol 1350 is part co-operative teamwork, part racing strategy, and part social deduction. Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH). Impressions of Sail, Witchcraft, Undaunted: Battle of Britain, Patterns, Bacon, Lunar, Mori, and Pies! The rules generate an interesting tension by acknowledging that it’s easier to win with the plague but also requiring healthy players to avoid catching it.

These cards progress from low value symptoms like a cough or a headache all the way to the dreaded buboes themselves. Signaling is when a player hints at their identity by taking an action that pushes the game-state toward their desired outcome.

The gratification may be hollow, but who’s ever fretted over hollow gratification when they’re receiving it? The best strategy (the one I find works) is to find likely plagued and healthy (via math) and manipulate their moves WITH YOUR OWN, or by talking to them. To put it another way, Bristol 1350 is a terrible social deduction game — and a real zinger of a party game. It takes a similar theme to the other Dark Cities Series games and adds the unique twists of the race to leave the city and the cooperative and backstabbing aspects. It is a very interesting mix of social deduction, cooperative teamwork, and making sure you win at any cost.

A Spanish Galleon floats nearby, and you’ve talked your crewmates into working together to steal all of its treasure. It's right in the vein of the light hearted quick paced, minimal strategy themes of the Tortuga, Deadwood, and Salem.But even then there's so many different factors to account for and so many different styles of games with different aims, investments and ambitions that I struggle to contract my impressions of them to a numerical shorthand. Each symptom card houses a number signifying the severity of its manifestation, from the relatively benign headache to the full-blown horror of bubonic pustules. With probability as the driving deduction force, there can only be suspicion and almost never outright sureness, which means one has to take risks, increasing the tension in the game. I absolutely hate the star rating system- reducing anything to such a binary delineation is reductive and I'm rubbish at it. Dead of Winter adds personal goals that might appear like betrayal, when in fact the player is a junkie who doesn’t want to share their medicine.