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63 About this deal
Our group of three were keen not to let these early setbacks dampen our expectations of the game, and we were subsequently pleased with the quick set up and speedy explanation of the rules.
Mystery Hour is no longer only available one hour a week - play with your friends and family whenever you want. And even if you’ve seen them all, you would need to be something akin to Rainman to retain every factoid the game has to offer. Each player is encouraged to look through the cards they have been dealt, familiarise themselves with the text on each card and think up their own false answers (if they wish) before the game begins. Mystery Hour is no longer only available one hour a week - play with your friends and family whenever you want! I tried to invent one answer “on the hoof” - I was successful, luring one of the other players into choosing it as the correct answer, making sure I stumbled through the “correct answer” text to make it seem like I was making it up on the spot.Psyching an opponent out by claiming you know an answer for 3 points before hearing the options (even though you don’t) can work in your favour at critical points in the game. Questions can come from the world of science, literature, language or be as bonkers as “Why do pigeons have manky feet?
The host can also score two points from each player who chooses their invented answer as the correct answer. For me, the discussion generated following the reveal of a correct answer is where the true value of the Mystery Hour Board Game lies.Having said this, the more we played, the more we settled on the idea of James O’Brien’s Mystery Hour having all of the ingredients for a fiery Christmas Day family gaming experience. The Mystery Hour Board Game won’t change the world but for fans of trivia or those simply looking for a casual family game that will teach you interesting things and ignite discussion, this game certainly deserves a round of applause. The size of the scoring board is responsible for the box size, but the excess cardboard padding could have been easily replaced with more question cards to boost the longevity of the game (more on that later). And if they choose not to spend time beforehand inventing false answers, the game has the potential to descend into a 50:50 guessing game.
Mystery Hour is no longer only available one hour a week – play with your friends and family whenever you want. I purchased a copy at my local games outlet and began wondering just how well the concept would translate to the table. While this may sound a bit petty, space is a serious consideration for avid board game enthusiasts and families who need to justify a game’s place on their shelf. There is a correct answer and a false answer on each card, but the player asking the question (the host) is allowed to invent a false answer of their own to replace the one on the card before the game begins. No nonsense LBC Radio host James O’Brien first came to my attention during one of the pandemic’s many lockdowns.With only three, we found ourselves embroiled in heated discussion fairly frequently, so you imagine what the game would be like during the festive season, with a room full of family members who only see each other semi regularly, all at each other’s throats over the wording of an answer. This makes committing to answers for 3 points not as high stakes as it seems - a big payoff, but little to lose by sticking your head above the parapet. If you’re a pedant, surely a yes or no should be enough to get points here, as it doesn’t ask you to justify anything).
On the plus side, the game is very educational, albeit dealing in quite obscure but interesting tit bits of knowledge. Interaction reaches its pinnacle as ideas on why an answer may or may not be true are exchanged, which can often lead players along odd and exciting tangents.
Three points are scored if a player answers the question posed correctly without hearing the correct and false answers first as prompts.
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