Bemused

ETA: Date TBABemusedis a card game for 4-6 players in which the players take on the role of a muse seeking to elevate their chosen human virtuoso to the greatest height of celebrity and influence. To do so, the muse must eliminate their virtuoso’s rivals by levying doubts and dreads upon them until they are driven insane…or worse. Bemusedis not a social deduction game. Although there are elements of deductive reasoning,Bemusedis a social interaction experience that encourages shameless table talk, bluffing, and deal-making as players seek to maximize their scores in a “take that” environment.Bemusedis best described as a strategic “ruin your rivals” game with hidden goals and asymmetric player powers. It is also a much deeper strategy game than it first appears. Each player has avirtuoso cardthat designates their humanprotgand a hand ofdoubt and dread cards. Each turn, the player draws two doubt cards for their hand, places a doubt or dread card from their hand onto a virtuoso card, then discards a card from their hand. In some cases, a player may play two doubt cards from their hand, but this action permanently reduces their hand size. Each virtuoso has anabilitythat their muse may use, such as change a dread to a doubt or move a doubt from one virtuoso to another. Scheming, negotiating, and table talk are encouraged! When a virtuoso is saddled with a combined total offive doubt andor dread cards, the virtuoso is driveninsane. An insane virtuoso still gets their turn and may still win the game, but their options for which cards they may play on their turn is limited by their insanity. If an insane virtuoso has more dread than doubts, that virtuoso dies and becomes afantasmathat haunts the remaining living virtuosos. A fantasma may still win the game! Each muse’s protg also has agemina, a secret virtuoso in the game that holds a psychic link with their protg, and asecretthat describes how their protg feels about their gemina, and how the player’s score will be affected by the state of their protg’s gemina when the game ends (e.g., the player may gain points if their virtuoso’s gemina is not insane at the end of the game). Once a virtuoso’s gemina isrevealed, a player may use the gemina’s ability as well as their protg’s ability! A player may also reveal and use their virtuoso’s gemina for a price… but whenever a virtuoso goes insane, their gemina automatically flips over and can have severe consequences for play…