OBSCURIO

OBJECTIVE OF OBSCURIO: The objective of Obscurio is to complete your hidden agenda according to your hidden role.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2-8 Players

MATERIALS: Cardholder with time track, game board, book board with two butterfly markers, 6 loyal cards, one traitor card, 7 character markers, 7 character cards, 14 trap tokens in a cloth bag, 30 cohesion markers, a minute hourglass, a room tile, 4 plastic illusion inserts, and 84 illusion cards.

TYPE OF GAME: A Deduction and Hidden Role Game

AUDIENCE:  10+

OVERVIEW OF OBSCURIO

Obscurio is a semi-cooperative game where players have secret roles that determine how they play the game. Most players will be wizards trying to escape the treacherous library they have gotten trapped in. To aid them a player will be the Grimoire, a sentient book giving them clues to which door will help them escape. There is however a traitor amongst the wizards’ ranks who is trying to trick the wizards and keep them trapped forever.

SETUP

To set up Obscurio, players will pick their characters and one player will be the Grimoire. A number of loyalty cards equal to players minus one will be shuffled and handed out. These cards are secret and will tell the wizard if they are loyal or a traitor.

While the wizards view their cards, the Grimoire will set up their part of the game. The illusion cards must be shuffled and then 8 of them secretly slipped into the slots of the cardholder. Once that is done, the board can be placed in the center of the table and the book board in front of the Grimoire, along with the two butterfly tokens. The hourglass is also sat near the Grimoire, as well as the bag of traps.  

The players place their markers on the center of the game board., and a number of cohesion tokens are placed on the board according to the chart in the rulebook. The game is ready to be played.

GAMEPLAY

Obscurio is played over several rounds until either the wizards’ escape or all the cohesion tokens have been removed from the board and the wizards lose. 

To start a round a trap is pulled. According to the trap chart in the rulebook determine what your trap will mean for this round of play. The Grimoire secretly pulls an illusion card, this will be the correct door for the round. This is set aside facedown for later. Then the Grimoire will pull two more illusion cards and place them in the book board and begin making clues for the wizards. The Grimoire will place the butterfly tokens to point at parts of the picture that will lead the wizards to pick the secret door they saw earlier. Then show the wizards their clues. A moment is given for them to see and discuss before the Grimoire instructs them to close their eyes. 

After all eyes are closed, the Grimoire asks the traitor to open their eyes and the traitor will pick up to two cards from the cardholder that will confuse the wizards. The cardholder is refilled every time a card is picked. After the traitor has chosen their cards, they will close their eyes again. The Grimoire will shuffle the traitor’s cards, the real answer card and a number of random cards are drawn to a total of 6 cards. Once the cards are shuffled all players may open their eyes, the cards are placed around the board. Once the cards are revealed the wizards have a minute to discuss and pick a room, they think is the correct answer, wizards do not have to go to the same rooms nor do they need to agree with one another. If the timer runs out before the wizards have picked the timer is flipped and additional traps are added next round (see the front of the cardholder for the time track. 

Once all wizards have picked a room, the Grimoire will say who is correct. If you are incorrect you take a cohesion token from the board, if any wizard is correct the room tile is moved up on the tracker at the top of the board. 

If no wizard is correct the tile does not move.

The rounds continue this way fluctuating with traps. If all the cohesion tokens are removed from one portion of the board the wizards must then accuse one of them as a traitor, removing two cohesion tokens for every wrong answer. 

Once the traitor is revealed and if there are still cohesion tokens the group continues playing the same way, except the traitor is revealed and does not participate in discussions or picking rooms. The traitor still picks wrong doors with the Grimoire.

END OF GAME

The game ends when the room tile is moved forward from the last room slot or when all cohesion tokens are removed from the board.

If the tile is removed first the wizards have won, but if they run out of cohesion tokens first the traitor has won.

Nakoa Davis
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