Visit the Amberden Mansion
England, the 1900s. At the famous Amberden mansion, a grand dinner party is in full swing. Amongst the distinguished guests are an illustrious baron, a decorated general and the enigmatic governor’s wife. You aren’t one of them, though – you’re just a staff member, trying your best to cater to the esteemed visitors’ needs. However, things are about to run afoul: one of you is a miscreant imposter who is posing as a servant in order to poison one or more of the guests! Worse: if you’re not careful, someone might actually accuse you, whether you’re the culprit or not! Trust no-one and try to keep your wits about you while moving around the room. Perception, gossip and misdirection may prove key to come out on top!
Mechanics
The Amberden Affair is an exciting intrigue-based game and frantic fetch quest. In each of the 3 rounds, cards are (re)shuffled and new characters are randomly assigned, which means the role of imposter will oftentimes go to different players during a single session, making for a more diverse experience. In addition, players all act simultaneously instead of taking turns, turning The Amberden Affair into a truly involving, original experience.
Each player takes on the role of a single butler during a prestigious dinner party at the Amberden house. However, their identities are kept secret, as one of them has been randomly assigned to be the miscreant imposter.
The game consists of 3 rounds, each of which either ends after everyone has played 10 turns or after a certain number of rumor tokens have been laid down. During a turn, players all act at the same time. They each have 3 actions, which can include moving a space throughout the room, picking up an order from the head butler, getting an item at the appropriate location, delivering an item to the appropriate location or simply looking at a stack of item cards. One of them – the miscreant imposter – is also trying to poison the guests by getting different kinds of poisons and using them on the attendees.
If a round ends by playing a rumor token, all players can guess the identity of the miscreant imposter. Those who succeed, receive extra points. Those who guess badly, lose points. If the identity of the imposter is guessed correctly, the culprit also loses points.
Whether the round stops because of rumors or because 10 turns have passed, all players also get points for having delivered items to the designated guests, but lose points if they are left with unfulfilled orders. The miscreant imposter also gets points for completing orders, but only if (s)he has also managed to poison one or more of the guests. Additionally, (s)he can’t get any points for delivering items if (s)he didn’t manage to poison anyone during that round.
After each round, the game is effectively reset. The player who has the highest total score after 3 rounds wins!
Why You Want This Game
- In 2013, The Amberden Affair pushed through to the finale of the Cards Against Humanity Tabletop Deathmatch, judged by famous game designers and distributors
- Plays a little differently according to the kind of players at the table
- The role of miscreant imposter potentially shifts around as new rounds are started
- Easy to learn, but very involved gameplay
- Limitless replay value
- Intrigue adds an extra dimension and fun at the table
- Actions are simultaneous, allowing for fast and exciting gameplay
- Beautiful and yet functional design
- Best with 4 to 6 players, but playable with 3
- Games typically last 1 hour, but you’ll want to play for longer than that!
What the Press is Saying
‘I thought this was a very good game. … It’s enjoyable, it’s got the right amount of tension, it’s got some asymmetrical things to it… It’s really interesting, because when you’re the imposter and you’re trying to poison people, you’ve got this paranoia feeling. It’s hard to explain it. When you’re playing, you’re putting poison where people are and you’re watching who goes there later. When they look at [the poison], you think everybody knows that you just did it. You think everybody’s watching your every move. There’s this sense of paranoia and it’s an interesting experience to play as the imposter. On the flip side, when you’re not playing the imposter, you’re pretty much like everyone else and you’re off doing your orders. You’re trying to go over here and do this, but you’re watching what everybody else is doing. If you do see a pile with poison, can you remember who was there? Or if you do see a pile earlier and there’s no poison there, but later [there is], who was there in between? Then the table talk of who has a rumor. If they put a rumor token there, is the information they’re sharing good? … This is a pretty unique game, it’s unlike anything I have in my collection.’
Game Boy Geek
‘… It’s really a cool game. You have a lot of different things that you can do to gather up information and you only have a certain amount of time, so you’re gonna have to make every move count. … This is a great game to bring out to play as a couple who has other couples over for an evening of entertainment. It’s [cool], you get lots of laughs, you can cast some suspicions and some doubts on one another, so it’s really good that way. The game is also going to put your perception skills to the test. Definitely a cool game!’
Here is the game overview trailer:
Specifications
- # of Players: 3 – 6
- Ages: 12+
- Playing Time: 60 minutes
- Contents: 1 rulebook, 1 board, 6 player pieces, 18 rumor tokens, 10 time tokens, 66 cards
- Released by: Two Penny Games
- Distributed by: Ad Magic
Source: Press Release
I have always enjoyed playing video games and am a programming team lead for a video game company. I co-founded Gaming Cypher because I enjoy the gaming community and would like to provide the best news service around. Feel free to ask me any questions and I will make sure to get back to you quickly.
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