BLOOD HUNT - A 2GP Review of Nosferatu by Eagle-Gryphon Games

Two-Gun Pixie Presents:

LEGENDARY

GAMING

017 – Blood Hunt

Fog thickens the moonlit night as a group ventures out to end the curse of the un-dead. The creature’s human servant, Renfeld, has been captured and is in your custody but why does it feel like he’s holding all the cards?

Peeling the misty veil before you the hunt begins. Rituals can be cast in tandem with other hunters if you all work together. The ancestral stake the group has can end the monster once and for all but you can’t kill an innocent with it nor can the hidden enemy use it. Doubt claws through your mind and questions about your fellow hunters creep around the shadows of your thoughts.

Who can you trust?

Why is Renfeld “helping”?

Who is the...

Nosferatu

Designer: Pierre-Yves Lebeau

Artist: Ismael Pommaz

Publisher: Eagle-Gryphon Games, Grosso Modo Year Published: 2013

Manufacturer Suggested Player Age: 10+ Number of Players: 5 – 8 Average Play Time: 20 - 30 minutes Game Type: Bluffing, Card Game, Horror, Vampire

Game Mechanics: Hand Management, Hidden Role, Hidden Traitor, Partnership Weight: 1.5 pounds

The Box

This is a great little box. It only measures about 4x2x4 inches and is quite sturdy for its size. That makes it great for picking up and taking out to friend’s places, gaming conventions, parties, etc. The art on the box grabs your attention with the intense face of an angry vampire count. Although it is small it will look glaring down from your gaming shelf.

The Components

Do you like keeping track of tons of chits, tokens, counters, dice, and pawns?

Well this game has none of those. :-]

1 folded rules sheet and a deck of 74 square cards.

The cards are all good enough stock and the artwork is fantastic, love it.

The rules are very, very easy to read and flow organically.

My only problem with the rules is the physical presentation; the large single sheet folded several times. The page is thin and in danger of tearing easy. The fold corners dog up easily and after just a few folds begin to show wear and tear.

I truly feel that a small booklet would have been better. Hopefully later editions of this game will make that change.

Set-Up

Separate out the 8 Character Cards and choose one player to play as Renfeld (This should be the player with the most experience with the game or similar hidden role/traitor games). The Renfeld player the passes each other player a Character Card face down denoting hem as either one of the Hunters of as the Vampire. The players look at their roles BUT DO NOT REVEAL their identities to the other players. ONLY RENFELD KNOWS WHO IS WHICH CHARACTER.

Next Renfeld takes out as many Night Cards as there are players and add the Dawn Card to create a Clock Deck. The Renfeld player shuffles this deck and places it face down next to him.

Then Renfeld takes the remaining Night Cards along with all the Newspaper Cards, Bite Cards, and Incantation Cards. These are shuffled to create the Library Deck which is placed in the center of the play area.

Place the 5 Ritual Cards face up near the Library Deck.

With The EXCEPTION of Renfeld, each other player draws two cards from the top of the Library Deck. After looking at them secretly and telling the other players what cards you have leave them face down in front of you.

Then Renfeld gets to choose who will be the first player to act for the upcoming first initial round by placing the Ancestral Stake Card in front of that player.

That completes the set-up. It is easy and actually goes quite fast after the first time you play this game.

Game Play

The game is broken into 3 separate segments;

A) Playing a Round,

B) The Effects of Cards Given to Renfeld,

C) Killing the Vampire with the Ancestral Stake,

Then the cycle continues if the vampire was not killed.

A) Playing a Round...

Starting with the First Player (Hunter or Vampire, shhhhhhh...) and continuing clockwise each round consists of players taking individual turns. In between each players' turn Renfeld turns over a card from the Clock Deck to see if the round continues (night) or if the round ends before all the players get to take a turn (dawn).

First the player draws two cards from the top of the Library Deck and adds them to their cards WITHOUT TELLING the other players what cards were drawn.

Then the player chooses one of the cards they hold and secretly pass one FACE DOWN to Renfeld, who may look at the card.

A second card is then chosen by the player and placed face up in the discard pile next to the Library Deck.

After each player completes their turn Renfeld draws one card from the top of the Clock Deck and plays if face down next to that deck.

IF the card drawn is a Night Card the round continues to the next player clockwise.

IF the Dawn Card is drawn players who have not played will not do so this round.

ALSO the round ends IF each player (except Renfeld) have played once.

B) The Effects of Cards Given to Renfeld...

When the Dawn Card is drawn OR when each individual player has played ONCE during the round the next game step is taken.

Renfeld shuffles the cards and then plays the cards he has been given by the players during the Playing a Round step.

IF ALL the cards in his possession are Incantation Cards the player holding the Ancestral Stake may choose one of the Ritual Cards o gain the effects of that card which is then turned over, face down. That particular card Can Not be played again this game.

IF Renfeld is holding any Bite Cards he can place them in front of any payers other than himself. This represents that player being bitten during the night by the Vampire. IF 5 BITES HAVE BEEN PLACED IN FRONT OF PLAYERS (in total, not per player) THE GAME ENDS AND THE EVIL TEAM WINS!

ANY Night Cards are placed in the Clock Deck.

The Clock discards are shuffled back into the Clock Deck to start anew the next round.

C) Killing the Vampire with the Ancestral Stake...

IF THE ROUND ENDS BECAUSE THE DAWN CARD WAS DRAWN The holder of the Ancestral Stake Card MAY choose to use it if that layer feels they have enough evidence to choose wisely.

IF you choose to use the Ancestral Stake turn over the accused players hidden Character Card and reveal their role.

IF you choose the wrong player to impale the HUNTERS LOSE THE GAME.

IF you choose the Vampire to impale then the HUNTERS WIN THE GAME!

At the end of the round, if there are not 5 Bite Cards on the table in front of Players and if the Ancestral Stake was not used then the round continues.

Who gets the Ancestral Stake next and starts the next round as the First Player? That depends on how the round ended.

IF the round ended with a Dawn Card then the player holding the Ancestral Stake gets to choose which player to give it to next (NOT RENFELD).

IF the round ended with a Night Card then Renfeld gets to choose who gets the Ancestral Stake and begin the next round as the First Player.

As a point of note, IF ALL 5 RITUAL CARDS ARE PLAYED THE HUNTERS WIN!

Round-by-Round that is how the game is played.

Keep in mind...

It is against the rules to look through the Discard Pile.

It is also against the rules to SHOW OR DESCRIBE your hand or your Character Card.

Some advice for playing the game is presented in the rules...

Hunter Players should state to the other players when they pass an Incantation Card to Renfeld.

The Vampire Player should NEVER hesitate to LIE! State out oud what card you are passing to Renfeld but be truthful or dishonest as it fits you.

Renfeld Should take part in player conversations and never hesitate to sow doubt in the others’ minds whenever possible.

Final Thoughts

Myself and the Twenty-Sided Warriors all really enjoyed this game and look forward to playing Nosferatu again. We did feel that unless the player running Renfeld is comfortable in the role of running a character that seems to have less to do than the others this role might actually put some players off. However, an experienced player or one who enjoys a role of deceit and manipulation will really enjoy playing Renfeld.

Nosferatu brings the familiar fun of hidden traitor games fans enjoy.

As with other games of this mechanic it plays better with more players. The minimum of 5 players is very fast and fun. The turns and rounds go fast enough thanks to the unexpected drawing of the Dawn Card so even larger group of players up to 8 never truly extend the play time of this game by much.

The atmosphere of the game is brought to life by the beautiful art of Ismael Pommaz however, as a minor point we feel it would have been nice if each hunter looked different and there was some sexual diversity among the hunter instead of all them looking like the same man. The cards seem well-made enough to last for many games. As far as the cards being square, I can see no reason for this shape except for novelty and to be different. That’s fine. This is just a point of perception and has no direct bearing on the game itself other than the personal preference of the gamer if they like square cards or not.

All the rules are written in the Rules Pamphlet. The cards themselves only have artwork on them. This makes the game very light when it comes to how language dependent it is. After understanding the rather simple, straight-forward rules everything the players need to know are simply displayed with art, the cards have no words on them.

The large, single “road-map folded” rules sheet is a big disappointment to me. Even if the paper quality was of a high, tough grade I would still have to fail it because the folds will always create major weak points in the page. However the paper is rather thin and feels in danger of ripping if handled less-than-gently. Please don’t use this rule book design again, after just a few uses my sheet is already showing signs of dogging where the points fold. A small stapled booklet would have been better.

The writing of the rules and their layout design are great; easy-to-read, easy-to-follow.

CHECK OUT THE TWO-GUN PIXIE FIRST-GAME VIDEO PLAY-THRU OF NOSFERATU RECORDED LIVE...

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