Boardnado revisits Avalon

In a land of myth, and a time of magic, the experience of a great game rests on the shoulders of a young player. His name... Merlin.

 

If you know where the above altered quote comes from: that show, although great, was responsible for the most disappointing ending in human history. Killing off Morgana! How dare they! #TeamMagic #QueenMorgana

 

But erm, hmm .... I'm digressing a little.

This time I'd like to talk to you about a real party game. One that answers to all criteria on what such a game should be like: The Resistance – Avalon. It's been out for a while and it's a standalone game based on 'The Resistance' set in the fictional time period of King Arthur and his knights of the round table .... oh, and adversaries.

 

You and your friends play as noble *cough* knights loyal to Arthur and Camelot. Together you must embark on epic Quests to secure the prosperity and future of the kingdom. However! The ranks of the knights have been infiltrated by minions loyal to Mordred, sworn enemy of Arthur! Although these evil 'traitors' know each other none of the remaining good and loyal knights know who they are or whom they can trust. Who is loyal and who is a treasonous troll? Will the quests to save Camelot succeed? Or will evil reign supreme? (I vote for evil)

 

HOW TO PLAY

 

The game plays a lot like the original 'The Resistance' in that it has two phases. Now called the 'Team building phase' and the 'Quest Phase'.

 

During the 'Team Building Phase' all the players try to form a party to go on an epic quest. You do this by randomly appointing a leader who will then pick players according to how trustworthy he thinks they are (he can also pick himself and in fact this is almost always preferred because can you not always trust yourself to be good?) The number of people required for a Quest are always shown in the centre of the map on the mission tracker. After he has done this everyone at the table will discuss the choice, often hurling accusations, lying and widely proclaiming that they are certainly NOT traitors no matter what anyone says.

 

Once everyone is ready it will come to a vote. Players have a 'yes' or 'no' vote that they put flipped down in front of them. Then when everyone has voted the tokens are flipped up revealing their choices. The majority wins and if the team is approved we move to the second phase. If it is rejected, leadership will pass on clockwise and the vote marker will be moved by one (It moves on what I call 'the chaos track'). When 5 teams in a row are rejected the realm descends into chaos and evil wins. This is very different from the original resistance where just the mission failed. Fortunately the chaos track resets with every quest (no matter if it fails or succeeds).

 

Do bear in mind that even though the chaos track is more dangerous now, experienced players still almost always go through several team builds before settling on a final one.

 

Sidenote: If half of your playerbase is, erm, slightly tipsy (which can happen at parties) or feels very insecure about social deduction games you could make it so people always vote face up. This provides a lot more information for everyone and moves things along faster, but (slightly) unbalances the game.

 

In the 'Quest Phase' the players selected to go are given two cards with 'Fail' or 'Success' on them. As a loyal oaf of the round table you will always choose Success. As a more enlightened knight loyal to Morgana and Mordred, however, you are able to choose either option. Naturally you want as many missions to fail as possible, but sometimes it could be useful to maintain your cover and shift blame to someone else. The cards are then collected, shuffled and revealed one by one. If even one of those cards is a fail the entire quest ends in disaster. If all cards are a success however the 'Good' guys get a point. If three such missions are a success 'Good' wins. If three end in favor of what the game calls 'Evil' (we prefer 'misunderstood') then they win.

 

That is pretty much the game and so far it is almost exactly like a normal game of 'The Resistance' would be played (apart from the theme), but there is one major addition to this version and those are special characters and abilities.

 

You see: a lot of the cards have, instead of a generic knight or lady, a special character on them from the legends of king Arthur. Like the overrated Merlin, his annoying protector Percival or the stunning Morgana. Each of those characters also has a special power that can sway gameplay in favour of either Good or 'Misunderstood' (Evil).

 

Merlin is the biggest, most important addition here (boo!) and is what this system is mostly built around. He knows who is loyal to whom at the start of the game. However he is always played alongside the assassin. If the assassin finds out who Merlin is she can assassinate him at the end of the game (yay!), thus securing victory for 'Misunderstood' (Evil) no matter the outcome of the quests. This creates an entire shift in the game as Merlin must somehow convey this information to his fellow knights without revealing himself.

 

Other heroes build upon this and can be added to the mix. Percival for example will always know who Merlin is and the person playing Percival will try to impersonate Merlin so he gets assassinated instead. Morgana could thwart this however by using her magic to confuse Percival and make him think she is Merlin, thus reducing the effectiveness of his ability. Don't worry. In the instructions it is very clearly stated how to give everyone the proper information to play their role in secret by means of eye closing and hand gesture shenanigans at the start of the game. I'm just not posting them here as it is a bit boring.

 

Actually, don't take most of these rules too seriously. A lot and I mean a LOT of game groups play this game differently. They add special rules and tweak some others according to their own needs. So don't get too bogged down in 'how you're supposed to do it' and play however you want to play that's fun! If you want everyone to talk in stately Lord of the Rings-speak and have the losers thrown in your basement while blasting them with Justin Bieber music as punishment then go for it!
(Although the latter would be pretty cruel of you.)

 

MY THOUGHTS ON THIS GAME AND POSSIBLE ISSUES

 

So usually at this point I say something about 'Your experience will vary depending on the people you play with'. I know I say this often, however it is always true. I know there are some games that will work great in my game group and others that will not, but they might work with some other people I sometimes play with that aren't in my core group, etc. In the case of this game it is a little more important to think about as you will be actively lying and accusing each other, which some people take personally after a while. You could also be such a master at this game with such an awesome poker face that nobody will trust you. Or perhaps you might have some shy or uncertain players who don't really participate fully. It can happen and you should take this into account.

I can say though that apart from one time (and even that wasn't all that bad, it was just very uninteresting) all my experiences with this game have been very positive. It's also highly addicting, especially if you're a social person because the player interaction component is so incredibly strong. It also meets all requirements of a good party game in that everyone has something to do and look out for at all times. There aren't really set turns, sure there is 'the leader' but those who aren't picking the group have an equally important role in making sure they get selected and those they don't trust aren't. Also no player elimination, yay!

 

Another positive thing is that you can play this game with up to ten people. That's huge. I don't think I personally have many games that could be played with that many people at once. It is advisable to add more characters or optional rules like 'Lady of the lake' when you do though. I won't go into those rules right now, but trust me they help things move along.

 

The main benefit that I think 'Avalon' has over a regular game of 'The Resistance' is the addition of those special characters. They really add a lot of depth to what is already a quite heavy deduction game. They can also help tweak the balance for either good or misunderstood (evil) if you find that either one is winning too often in a row. 'Avalon' can also function with several of 'the Resistance' expansions like those for 'plot cards' which is very nice of them to include.

 

And I like the theme a lot more. I mean, I'm all for the dystopian evil government stuff, but this just appeals more to me. That probably has to do with the fact that Merlin, Morgana, Oberon, etc are such recognisable characters while in 'The Resistance' base game you're basically playing a random Joe.

 

If you want to perhaps do a little roleplaying or increase the immersion a bit more I highly recommend that the leader make up a quest before selecting teammates. This could even be something funny like: Steal the left shoe of all the bandits living in Southern Camelot. (My sister comes up with some wickedly evil quests sometimes, but then again she's probably a witch ... or a vampiress .... or both!)

 

Lastly there's an oddity I found while perusing the manual. Unless I missed it 5 times one of the core rules of 'The Resistance' "You are allowed to say anything, to any one, at any time -- as long as it is said publicly" is missing from this version. This sort of opens the floodgates for all kinds of sneaky stuff like texting each other or whispering in someone's ear. Personally I think it's probably an oversight and not intentional, but hey .... technically it's allowed. Just don't yank away someone's cell phone to go through their texts okay? That's not only rude, but an invasion of privacy.

 

CONCLUSION

 

'The Resistance – Avalon' is an ideal party game. It's easy to carry and set up, involves all people at all times, doesn't come with player elimination and has simple rules. Plus it can be played with up to ten silly humans which is huge! It's a very social game, which makes it positively addicting but does add some warning labels. Although I've probably been too much of a Mother Bear and overestimated those in this revisit.

 

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Morgana still should have won though .... stupid Merlin.