Mascarade is a bluffing, memory game.
Title: Mascarade
Year Published: 2013
Designer: Bruno Faidutti
Publisher: Asmodee
Players: 2-13
Game Time: 30+ Mins
Set-up Time: >5 Mins
Ages: 8+
Theme: Medieval
Mechanic: Memory, Player Powers
How to win: Gain 13 Coins
Game Description
Players in Mascarade start with six coins and a randomly dealt character card. Characters stay face up just long enough for players to more or less memorize them, then are turned face down. Your goal is to be the first player to hold 13 coins, and while you start nearly halfway to that goal, you can go down just as surely as you can go up!
Set Up
Give each player 6 Gold.
Place the rest of the money in the middle of the table near to the Courthouse.
Take the Characters from the deck depending on the player count and add the character tokens into the middle of the table.
Shuffle and deal a character to each player face up.
When everyone has had a chance to look at each player’s role, all cards are turned face down.
Mascarade Game Play
Starting with the first player, for the first 4 turns that player must take another player’s card and secretly, without looking, swap, or not swap roles with that player.
From the 5th turn onwards each player must take one of the following actions.
Swap Cards – As described above
Secretly Look – Secretly look at their role card
Announce their character – The player can claim which role they have and use its ability. A player can not do this if the player immediately to their right forces the player to reveal their card.
If a player announces their role, other players have a chance to claim they are in that role.
Should no one claims to have the role, the player activates that role’s ability without revealing their card.
If one or more players claim to be in that role, all players turn over their cards. Those that are incorrect pay a 1 Gold fine to the Courthouse. The person with the correct role uses the ability of that role, even if it isn’t their turn.
Play continues left.
Game End
When a player has 13 coins they win.
If a player goes down to 0 Gold, the richest player wins.
Round-Up
A good game that is very random. Quite often you have no idea what character you are and wasting a turn looking is generally pointless as people will probably swap (or not) with you to mess you up a bit.
It does seem a lot of the play is guessing or hoping…
Having said that, there are a lot of laughs when it is played.
Mascarade Rating
Not too bad…
I give it 5/10
Mascarade Initial Review August 2013
Mascarade is a memory game…
Urgh, my brain hurt!
Well, that pretty much tells you everything. It’s a complete headache trying to remember who you are, who everyone else is, or who could be… Also trying to remember the rules and teach the game to 8 other people.
We played with these Characters…
Judge – Take all the Gold in the Courthouse
Bishop – Take 2 gold from the Richest player
King – Take 3 Gold from the bank
Fool – Get 1 coin from the bank and secretly swap (or not) 2 other players’ cards
Queen – Take 2 Gold from the bank
Witch – Swaps their money with another player
Peasant (x2) – Gains 1 Gold from the bank. If the other Peasant reveals themselves, they both get 2 each
Cheat – Wins with 10 coins instead of 13
It’s a fun game. We struggled tactically and no one swapped roles with the King or Peasant for a while so they just gained money. Next time we’ll do better 🙂
Social Deduction Game Tips Here!
Mascarade Update 24/05/2018
IF, I’m in the right mood and IF I trust the other players to play this well I MAY play it again.
But there are SO many games that could be played instead. Anything from Love Letter to One Night Ultimate Werewolf even though the gameplay is closer to Coup. All of which are more fun, and less taxing on the brain 🙂 I would even prefer to play Kill the Overlord more…
Jesta ThaRogue