Masques: A Game of Intrigue

I purchased this game without doing much investigating into it, so I had no preconceived notions of how it worked or played. It did take a while to sort out the rules (about 30-45 minutes), but then gameplay was straightforward and fun. It is more complex and strategic than it appears at first.Basically, every player is given a "family" and all of that family's Guest Cards are put into a deck, including one extra family that nobody controls. Every player is given 4 random Guest Cards from that deck to start—so you may have a hand of other player's family and none of your own to start with. Players keep 1 card, and pass the remaining to the left. Rinse. Repeat until everyone has 4 new cards. The purpose of these cards is to claim ducats (currency to hire agents) or favor tokens (win condition) from the palace. For each player playing (max 4) there will be a "hallway" created at setup which looks like a Palace Card containing a ducat, then a blank space (for Guest card to be placed), then Palace Card containing a favor token, then a blank space for another guests, and so on. Players will take turns placing Guest Cards from their hands onto hallways spaces (spaces between palace cards) with the purpose of claiming either the ducats or favor tokens on those cards. To successfully win something, you need a family member's card adjacent to it, and it needs to be of the highest value (guest cards are valued 2-5). On a tie, nobody wins. This is when it is beneficial to throw down other people's family members next to palace cards that would ordinarily be won, just to stop them from getting whatever it is with a tie.If you manage to get ducats, you can hire agents that will do specific things like move a guest card, kill a guest card (flip it over, so it becomes a value 0), steal from a palace card, etc. Agent Cards are purchased and then immediately placed like guest cards would, but are a value of 1 so will not be helpful in claiming a palace card reward.The first player to either get 4 favor tokens of one kind, or a favor token from each guild (of which there are 5), wins.It's a deceptively simple game. It's very small and compact and easy to setup and play once you've done it before. Very portable and easy to learn if you have someone explain it to you. Good purchase for the price.

This card game, is just so tedious to set up and read the rules. The gameplay, is well its boring. Honestly your better off with Citadels, or Dominion, or even Betrayal at the House On the Hill. They are much more fast paced games, have more interesting mechanics and are amazingly simply once you play them once.Explaining this game to a new player is like watching paint dry. Its dull, boring, and unintuitive.

I bought this game for a friend for Christmas and ended up enjoying it so much, my brother in law gifted it to me soon after. It's a very simple game to understand, yet still requires a bit of strategy. Perfect for our little game group.

Fun Game for the older kids/adults because you do have to pay attention a bit.

Such a fun game to play with friends

Quick shipment! Great Product A+++

I did buy this game elsewhere, but I wanted to review it here nonetheless. The premise of the game is that each player controls a family that is at a ball and you must use your guests' influence and hire agents to gain the most favors to win the game. That is what enticed me to try it out, plus I liked the artwork of the game. It takes a bit of time to figure out the rules (roughly 30 minutes), but once you get the hang of it, it's a relatively fast paced game. I've tried it with 2 players and while it worked relatively well, I think it would be more enjoyable with 3-4 players. It's quite a deceptive looking game- easy to set up and learn... but once you start playing then you really need to start using your wits and strategize to become the most powerful family with the most favors.Overall, a fun, quick strategy game with lovely artwork and easy to learn.

Haven't played this yet, but there are lots of write ups and explanations on sites such as boardgamegeek providing far more feedback than I could as regards use. Extremely well printed on thick card and in excellent packaging, so in that respect highly recommended.