Bemused Card Game (Boxed)

Product Description

Bemused is a card game for 4-6 players in which the players take on the role of a muse seeking to elevate their chosen human virtuoso to the greatest height of celebrity & influence To do so the muse must eliminate their virtuoso&s rivals by levying doubts & dreads upon them until they are driven insaneor worse Bemused is not a social deduction game Although there are elements of deductive reasoning Bemused is a social interaction experience that encourages shameless table talk bluffing & deal-making as players seek to maximize their scores in a "take that" environment Bemused is best described as a strategic "ruin your rivals" game with hidden goals & asymmetric player powers It is also a much deeper strategy game than it first appears Each player has a virtuoso card that designates their human protege & a hand of doubt & dread cards Each turn the player draws two doubt cards for their hand places a doubt or dread card from their hand onto a virtuoso card then discards a card from their hand In some cases a player may play two doubt cards from their hand but this action permanently reduces their hand size Each virtuoso has an ability that their muse may use such as change a dread to a doubt or move a doubt from one virtuoso to another Scheming negotiating & table talk are encouraged! When a virtuoso is saddled with a combined total of five doubt andor dread cards the virtuoso is driven insane An insane virtuoso still gets their turn & may still win the game but their options for which cards they may play on their turn is limited by their insanity If an insane virtuoso has more dread than doubts that virtuoso dies & becomes a fantasma that haunts the remaining living virtuosos A fantasma may still win the game! Each muse&s protege also has a gemina a secret virtuoso in the game that holds a psychic link with their protege & a secret that describes how their protege feels about their gemina & how the player&s score will be affected by the state of their protege&s gemina when the game ends (eg the player may gain points if their virtuoso&s gemina is not insane at the end of the game) Once a virtuoso&s gemina is revealed a player may use the gemina&s ability as well as their protege&s ability! A player may also reveal & use their virtuoso&s gemina for a price but whenever a virtuoso goes insane their gemina automatically flips over & can have severe consequences for play