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The Shipwreck Arcana Fan Site

Rating: 6.4 Fair
Popularity:3
Difficulty:Easy
Year:2017
Players: 2-5 players
Playing time: 30-292 minutes
Age:12+

Official Site: http://www.meromorphgames.com/shipwreck-arcana/


Created by: Kevin Bishop, Matthew Bishop

Published by: Meromorph Games

Description:

Trapped in a drowned world, you and your allies are doomed -- or are you? Using a mystical deck and a healthy dose of logic, you can predict each others' fates and escape unscathed.

The Shipwreck Arcana is a compact, co-operative game of deduction, evaluation, and logic. Each player's doom constantly changes as they draw numbered fate tiles from the bag.

By choosing which fate to give up and which card to play it on, you can give your allies enough information to identify the fate you're holding...which is important, as the active player cannot communicate with their allies during their turn!

Each card has strict rules governing what fates can be played on it. As doom builds up, the cards themselves fade, becoming one-time powers to help the players while new cards cycle in from the deck.

Skilled play requires carefully rationing powers, hints, and cycling, while paying attention to not only where each fate was played -- but more importantly, where it wasn't.

The rotating active player creates a different group dynamic each turn, preventing any one player from dominating the game. Inexperienced players can still use the group deduction phase to ask questions (while they are not the active player).

Prices:
Retail Price:$0
Expansions:
The Shipwreck Arcana: Promo Pack
The Shipwreck Arcana: Stars Below
The Shipwreck Arcana: The Imago Promo Card

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The Shipwreck Arcana Game Rules

Trapped in a drowned world, you and your allies are doomed - or are you? Using a mystical deck and a healthy dose of logic, you can predict each other's fates and escape unscathed.

This is a cooperative deduction game for 2-5 players. You and your friends are fortune tellers trying to prevent terrible fates from befalling each other. To win you must collectively make 7 correct predictions before your doom reaches 7.

Components

  • 20 Arcana cards
  • 1 The Hours card
  • 2 Score/doom trackers
  • 1 Token bag
  • 21 Fate tokens
  • 35 Number line tokens
  • Instructions

Setup

  1. Place The Hours card at the left edge of the central play area, with the green score tracker at 0. Place the red doom tracker according to your desired difficulty. …


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Winning The Shipwreck Arcana Strategies

When you are the active player, you'll need to carefully choose where to play (and where not to play) to convey information about your remaining fate to your allies.

Your play will help them narrow down the possible values of your fate until they are able to confidently predict it (which may take more than one turn).

Pay attention not only to where you can play, but where the other players may assume you could not play.

For example, if another player plays a fate with a value of 1 onto the Midnight arcana card ("If one of your fates is lower than the other, play the lower one here"), that player has not conveyed much information (they could still have a 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7). …


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The Shipwreck Arcana F.A.Q.

Q: If the group has an ability (such as the faded power "Twice") that allows more than 1 prediction during a turn, does each incorrect prediction incur the doom penalty?

A: No. If any of the predictions are correct, the entire prediction is treated as correct.

Q: What if I play a fate in front of an arcana card, but then realize I played illegally?

A: Announce this to your allies. Leave the illegally played fate on the table, discard the fate in your hand, and proceed to the Fade step, skipping the Predict and Resolve steps. …


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