Review: Mystery of the Abbey:: Have you seen Novice Guy?

Review: Mystery of the Abbey:: Have you seen Novice Guy?: "

by blinks

Three to six players, best with four or five.



About an hour and a half to play, almost always casual, lots of logic and psychology.



I haven't been able to play Clue for a long time. My friends stopped wanting to play with me after I developed my system of notating information that turned it into an extended logic game -- the only way they could win was with a lucky guess. (Mastermind is also totally ruined.) Days of Wonder has come out with several Clue-likes recently (see also Mystery Express), though, and they're all full of mechanics that mess with my pure-logic system, so I figured I'd check it out. I was not disappointed.



If you've played Clue, you'll understand Abbey. There was a murder, the culprit is represented by a card (hidden under the board in this case, instead of an envelope), and the players get cards that cannot be the culprit (because they're not under the board). The game takes place over a series of rounds where you move around the board collecting clues, and the first person to guess the culprit [probably] wins.



There are several interesting differences there that I'll elaborate on. First, there's no weapon or place to determine, just the culprit. This means that all the clues in the game are people. Second, the first person to guess correctly only probably wins. A correct accusation gives four points, but revelations (where you guess one of the traits of the culprit, such as whether he has a beard) can score two points. Incorrect accusations also don't end the game for that player -- another person reveals that card, and the accuser loses two points and their next turn.



So far, it's still pure logic. I can pay attention to people's movement and cards, and determine precisely who has what. Abbey throws a wrench in all this with two great mechanics. First, when you meet another player in the Abbey (by moving to their location), you must ask them a question that they cannot answer with a card. That is, you cannot ask them to name a bearded monk, but you can ask them if 'Novice Guy' is in their hand (yes, an actual card). The questioned player isn't required to answer (they may take a 'Vow of Silence'), but if they choose to do so, they can ask a question that you must answer (with the same restrictions). This has several effects on strategy. You want to avoid players that you have lots of information about, because they'll get more from their question (which you must answer) than you will from yours (which you must ask). If questioned, you want to make sure you don't give too much information away (because you don't have to answer), but answering questions gives you an opening to force an answer.



The second mechanic is more frustrating (to me :shake. After every four turns (three if you're playing with six), the monks call mass by ringing a little bell (provided in the game). All players move back to the chapel, you get a random event, and then everyone chooses cards to pass to the person on their left. The first mass only makes you pass a single card, but that number increases 'til you're passing your whole hand. Because of this mechanic, it's impossible to know for sure what cards someone has after mass. Since it happens so often (four rounds is short), you lose a lot of the pure logic.



There's still a place for strategy, though. Abbey turns Clue into a true victory point game, where you get victory points through Accusations (the traditional method) and Revelations. The latter is important to remember, as two correct revelations is equivalent to the accusation that ends the game. Since a revelation must be positive (the culprit is bearded!), public, and can only be made once, it's useful to make them early and often, based on hunches. Of course, if you're playing against my psychic cousin Isak, you'll still lose when he accuses correctly only a few masses in -- I still think he was cheating.



If you're burnt out on Clue, but still like deductive reasoning games, Mystery of the Abbey is a great new game to try. I haven't even talked about the books in the library, the confessionals that give you a card from another player's hand, the random event where you all sing, or the questions that come up when people get silly (when's the last time you clipped your toenails? Answer me!), which make this a casual game to remember."