The Guest

• Designer: Arkaitz Caride
• Publisher: DEVIR
• Players: 5-12
• Age: 8+
• Time: 30 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

«The commander is dead, thrown into the cold, unforgiving void, and it was I who voted against her, sealing her fate. Now, uncertainty torments me. The ship’s doctor claims that the host was not on board; that the threat is still latent among us. Communications have been extinguished since we left the planetoid, and I know that at least one of the crew is harboring those abominations that infiltrate the brain and usurp the will…».

«…5 days after the last vote, we remain isolated from everything, crossing the void at a dizzying speed, living day by day on the way to the Aurora space station. Time is running out and return is impossible. The new commander has called for another vote, and the engineer’s gaze shines with a disturbing suspicion, or maybe I’m losing my mind… anyway, I think I’ll vote for her…».

In The Guest, players will represent the crew of the extrasolar ship Beagle, which is attacked by a strange parasite that lodges itself in people’s brains, controlling their will. A hidden role game in which the tension is real in each vote. Some players will represent infected crew members who try to infect or kill the rest, and others will be healthy crew members who try to safely reach the Aurora space station.

The objective of each team is to kill the members of the opposing team, but no one knows who the crew members infected by the hosts are. But be very careful, a third side could appear if someone loses their mind.

To set the game up, first give each player a role card at random – the majority will be humans, and 2-4 Guests (dependent on player count).  The game deck is then fomred from all of the action cards. Each player is dealt a hand of 3 of these cards, and then each player discards one of these.  Once the starting hands are established, some Vote cards are then shuffled into the deck to get it ready for the game.  Each of these cards has a fairly large illustration on it, then some teeny-tiny text explaining the action, and then at the very bottom – a reminder of when you can use that particular card.

On a turn, the active player first draws a card, if it is a Vote Card, a Vote immediately happens.  Otherwise, the card is added to the player’s hand, and then the active player may play any number of cards they want from their hand.  When they are done, they end their turn and play moves clockwise.

If a Vote is triggered, there is a period of debate where players can freely discuss their plans with each other.  After discussion, players vote in order for who they want to vote off the spaceship.  The player with the most votes is eliminated from the game and they must reveal their orange role card.  Note that there are a number of cards that can affect the outcome of the vote, and these must be taken into account.

After the vote, it one team is the only one remaining – they win the game.  This includes all the players already eliminated who started on the surviving team.

As I discuss the game, it is only fair to start by saying that I cannot rate the game (nor any in the social deduction space).  This is perhaps my least favorite type of game, and honestly, they’re all simply not for me.   

The game starts out as a werewolf-y sort of game with the Humans trying to band together to use their numerical advantage to get rid of all the Guests.  Of course, no one is quite sure who anyone else is – so that’s the challenge.

The Guest adds in a bunch of special action cards though that really twist things up

• Blaster Prototype – if target is infected, removed it.  If they are Human, eliminate the. If they are a Guest, change them to Human
• Change Body – Choose 3 players, including yourself, and randomly distribute their Character cards without looking at them
• Infection – cards that slowly convert people into Guests
• And, of course, counterspells to negate cards played
• And many more.

So, if you’re into that sort of chaos, this would be the choice for you.  If you know me, this is possibly the worst possible combination of things – let’s take a social deduction game and make it chaotic.  In one game, I was eliminated before I got to play a card because I was human and someone played a Blaster Prototype on me.  Yeah. Hard pass here.    But, knowing that may mean it’s entirely your cup of tea; based on the short description above, you’ll likely already know this or not.

Until your next appointment

The Gaming Doctor