The NEW New Boardgames Thread

[frunk]

I've played it once.  The theme and graphic design is great.  The endgame/victory conditions felt wonky.  I know this is a hallmark of Wehrle's designs but I had trouble mapping in game strategy into getting the game to end they way you want.  In particular "group happiness" (I forget what it was called) seemed very difficult with even one player resisting it.  We were all new to the game so it's possible we had one or more rules wrong though.

[bogh]

I am a massive Wehrle fanboy, but the theme of Molly House just does not really interest me. Wouldn't mind trying it and be proven wrong, but it's just less exciting than his other stuff on the face of it.

[Habbaku]

I had the same experience as Bogh. I'd say mildly positive opinion of it at the moment, with a willingness to try it again.

One of the positives is definitely the theme. There is a good pull towards throwing loud and extravagant parties to score big, but that comes at a much higher risk of discovery and being indicted, which can be immensely punishing. Instead, it seems like a better overall strategy to play more carefully and keep the community safe until near the end where you can go for larger/higher scoring parties to push for the community objective.

The problem with that, of course, is the incentive for defectors playing to their own advantage--completely the point of the mechanism, of course. Cylons are everywhere.

[Oexmelin]

My student group is getting the hang of it - mirroring Habbakku's experience. That being said, that group, which includes LGBTQ people, often decides to play cooperatively without playing competitively too much or too aggressively. It gains a lot through roleplay, a bit like Obsession.