Haunted House Deduction Game [In the Lab]

Haunted House
This is an odd little deduction game I am noodling at the moment. It's very rough, but here's the loose outline.

You and the other players are trapped in a haunted house, chased by ghosts. Each of you has a unique path you must take to escape the house. Though of you is trying to be the first to escape, you are forced to stay together. Will you convince others to join you on your path? Will you compromise your path for the greater good?


CARDS
The deck is comprised of door cards, treasure cards, and goal cards.

Door Cards: Each card has a closed door on one side bearing three signs. The reverse shows an open door showing one of those three signs. Some of those cards also show a ghost. Scary!

Goal Cards: Each card shows a sequence of 7 signs.

Treasure Cards: Each card shows 2 signs at the top and some game information at the bottom.

Vote Cards: Three cards for each player, each showing LEFT, CENTER, or RIGHT.


SETUP
Deal a set of vote cards to each player. Deal one goal card to each player. Keep it secret. Draft two of three treasure cards to each player. Deal three closed doors in a row in the middle of the table like so.

The LEFT door may have an X, triangle, or star.
The CENTER door may have a X, square or circle.
The RIGHT door may have a hexagon, triangle or star.


PLAY
Vote: The players debate which door to open then place their votes. All votes are revealed simultaneously. If there is a tie, the second-place choice is the winner. Flip over the chosen door card and discard the others.

The players voted for the LEFT door, which turns out to be a triangle.


In time, a whole row of door cards is revealed and placed in a continuous row called the PATH.

An example of a complete path.


Ghosts: Several ghosts lurk in the haunted house. If a ghost is revealed, keep it in the path.

Treasure: Players may play a treasure card if the path shows the signs at the top of the treasure card. When you play a treasure card, place it in front of you. Thereafter, certain signs may count as other signs just for you.

Goal: You're trying to make symbols in the path match the symbols on your goal card.

The goal card on the left shows that you're trying to get two Xs, two squares, one triangle, one star and one circle.
The treasure card on the right shows that you need two stars in to play it. If you do, a star or circle may count as a triangle or square just for you.



END OF GAME
The game ends when there are ten cards in the path, when a player wins, or if four ghosts appear in the path.

If the game ends because of ten cards, the player with the most symbols in the path matching her goal card wins the game. Each symbol only counts once, so if your goal card shows two stars, there must be two stars in the path. The exact order doesn't matter.

If the game ends because of ghosts, all the players lose. No one escaped the haunted house. Boo!

If there all the signs in the path match your goal card, the game ends immediately and you win. You escaped the haunted house!


NOTES
This game is ideally suited for a "crystal mandala" deck design. This allows the players to memorize the exact probability that a ghost lurks behind certain doors. However, the voting mechanics, treasure cards and hidden agendas add enough unpredictability to spice things up. That's the idea, anyway.

Comments

  1. Tempest's FuryJune 10, 2012 at 9:43 AM

    I'm not seeing the strategy of the Ghosts from the description here. I would think there'd need to be some sort of mechanic that would allow you to predict where the ghosts are, so people have reasons to make sub optimal choices, or maybe I'm just missing the point.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tom GurganusJune 10, 2012 at 9:53 AM

    I really want to play this Daniel.

    ReplyDelete
  3. DanielSolisJune 13, 2012 at 8:13 AM

    This could be accomplished by stating up front that there are X ghosts in the deck; Y per suit. That adds to the deductive element of the game.

    ReplyDelete
  4. DanielSolisJune 13, 2012 at 8:20 AM

    Me too! I'll need to design the cards first, of course. :P

    ReplyDelete
  5. Zirong ZhangDecember 24, 2012 at 1:56 AM

    Do
    you want to Diablo 3 Itemsconvince
    some
    others to
    join you,
    on your route?
    Will
    you bargain
    your GW2 Gold
    path with
    the larger
    excellent?

    ReplyDelete

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