{"id":3623,"date":"2004-01-17T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-01-17T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2004\/01\/17\/westpark-review-masquerade\/"},"modified":"2004-01-17T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2004-01-17T11:00:00","slug":"westpark-review-masquerade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2004\/01\/17\/westpark-review-masquerade\/","title":{"rendered":"Westpark Review – Masquerade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Masquerade<\/a><\/h3>\n

As I recounted in my Essen 2003 report, this game was basically forced upon me by 2
\noverly eager Japanese game designers at a neglected and overlooked booth in Essen 2003.
\nBut somehow I knew this could be something, so I brought it along to our group until an
\nopportunity arose to try it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cMasquerade\u201d is, like the Adlung evergreens \u201cVerr\u00e4ter<\/a>\u201d
\nand \u201cMeuterer<\/a>\u201d, a boardgame disguising itself as a cardgame. First
\nimpressions are not overly impressive \u2013 the box is small, filled to the rim with
\n(extremely sturdy) cards with manga-like pictures and an English rulebook in the dodgy
\ntranslation that one probably expects. But don\u2019t be deceived \u2013 this game
\nreally is better than you think!<\/p>\n

Players represent weird mythical forces who decide to play a game instead of
\ndestroying the world (now THAT is an interesting thought for our world leaders!). Each
\nplayer selects a \u201cmask\u201d which gives him a secret victory bonus \u2013 you
\ncan decide to reveal it at any time in the game, but you forfeit any VP game from combat,
\nif you do so (Although it is not clearly stated in the rules, we assumed that you can
\nalso hide yourself again if you want, but with the disadvantage that the other players
\nnow know who you are). Usually it is best if other players don\u2019t know your secret
\nVP bonus, but there are combats whose results are worse for you than keeping a
\nsecret.<\/p>\n

Each player now selects a \u201cdancer\u201d; who represents him in the fantasy
\nworld. Each dancer has different abilities and strengths \u2013 some let you play spell
\ncards at a lower cost, some are stronger than others, etc., The turn order is also of
\nimportance (it is random in the first round, but then players choose another position
\nthan the one before each turn, an interesting system which works pretty well). If you
\nwant to go first you won\u2019t get any advantages, but if you are happy to be late in
\nthe turn order you might get an additional heal for your dancer or draw additional spell
\ncards.<\/p>\n

\"MasqueradeNow each player, in turn, selects a \u201cplace\u201d
\nwhere he puts his dancer to be active. Each place fulfils a different function: At the
\narena you challenge other players for combat to gain VP\u2019s, at the library you
\nreplenish your spells, at the tower you fight a guardian to gain treasure, etc. Each
\nplace also has a stacking limit which means that if you come late in the turn order you
\nmight find the place you want to go filled up already.<\/p>\n

The spell cards are all important: They are played with a strength cost, meaning you
\nhave to remove additional spell cards if you cast a stronger spell. Spells are mostly
\nvery naughty, especially the spell which destroys other player\u2019s spell cards
\n(usually before they want to use them to fight a guardian monster). You need a lot of
\nthem, and a regular visit to the spell library is top priority. Interesting is also the
\nplace where you can gain \u201cevent\u201d cards \u2013 these are chosen and not drawn
\nrandomly. Most effect cards affect all players, but there are also some devious ones like
\n\u201cwall flower\u201d (see below), which work as a kind of super spell. Then there
\nare also the \u201cEmblems\u201d, special VP cards which can change the owner, for
\nexample the first player who defeats another player at the arena gets the
\n\u201csword\u201d emblem (worth additional VP if you play a certain mask), the next
\nplayer who then slays the emblem holder now gets the sword emblem and so forth.<\/p>\n

Fighting the guardians gains you treasure \u2013 you compare your dancer\u2019s
\nstrength to the strength of the monster (the order of monsters to be defeated is not
\nrandom, so you always know what you\u2019re up against) plus a random spell card draw.
\nOf course you will use spells to boost yourself up as well!<\/p>\n

In fact it is astonishing how many different card types and effects the designers
\nsqueezed into this small game. Although the basic rules are quite simple, the amount of
\nvariation and combination in the card effects is staggering\u2026<\/p>\n

The game ends when all monsters have been vanquished (did I mention that treasures
\ngive you additional abilities?), when all event cards have been played, or the spell
\nstack has been used up a certain number of times (depending on the number of
\nplayers).<\/p>\n

So how does it play? First I must say that this is not a game for everyone, although I
\npersonally had a lot of fun. Like many other fantasy games this game has many elements
\nthat will turn off \u201cGerman\u201d gamers – a generally chaotic development of play,
\ndepending who plays spells on whom, and a big \u201ckingmaker\u201d effect, as the
\nplayer in the lead usually gets attacked all the time, and some actions will make another
\nplayer the winner, instead of really benefiting the player him\/herself. But on the other
\nhand this game doesn\u2019t have the usual randomness of these games. Monster order is
\nfixed, and you can select whatever event you want. You can decide which places you want
\nto visit, which player to attack, and which spells to play. In fact you can plan pretty
\nwell, (you are not \u201cplayed\u201d by the game) and there are possibilities for some
\ndevious strategies which aren\u2019t apparent the first time around. You can even push
\nthe game end through various means, if it fits your plans (some players even get extra
\npoints if the game ends in a specific way). The masks are more important than one first
\nthinks, as the margin of VP is usually small \u2013 the winner might win with 7 VP, so 2
\nextra VP really do make a difference. And achieving that particular VP goal can be an
\ninteresting thing in itself. Or should you rather reveal your secret identity to get a
\ncertain win in a combat situation? It isn\u2019t certain if your opponent perhaps does
\nthe same\u2026<\/p>\n

Think \u201cCosmic Encounter<\/a>\u201d \u2013 although this game is not a copy, it
\ncertainly has a similar feeling to it. Chaotic? Yes, but you can clearly play it better
\nor worse – if you have some grasp of strategy, the outcome will be more likely a win for
\nyou.<\/p>\n

Although the reception of this game at our table was mixed, I personally recommend it
\nwholeheartedly. There is a lot of game for little bucks here.<\/p>\n

One final note: The English card translations are dodgy to say the least. A Japanese
\nfriend who checked the original also told me that the original Japanese is sometimes
\nunclear as well!<\/p>\n

One card that got us is the event \u201cwall flower\u201d \u2013 In it\u2019s
\nEnglish wording it can be misunderstood, so here is the definitive translation by a
\nnative Japanese speaker:<\/p>\n

\u201cEach player except the prophet loses 1 life. If one or more of these
\n(life-losing) players has\/have the most victory points, he\/they lose 1 additional
\nlife\u201d.<\/p>\n

I know \u2013 it still sounds dodgy, but that\u2019s what it says.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Masquerade As I recounted in my Essen 2003 report, this game was basically forced upon me by 2 overly eager Japanese game designers at a neglected and overlooked booth in Essen 2003. But somehow I knew this could be something, so I brought it along to our group until an opportunity arose to try it … Westpark Review – Masquerade<\/span> weiterlesen →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spieleabende"],"views":4,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3623\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}