You've got to hand it to those monks: they know how to arouse the suspicions of everyone. Going to the stables when they have no purpose there? Standing around the gatehouse staring into the distance? Trying to plant a few books? Yes, it's another day in the monastery in The Name of the Rose!

This game was the first for Rich, Josh and Randy and my second. The Name of the Rose is a Euro design by Stefan Feld (In the Year of the Dragon, Notre Dame) where there isn't a single murderer or anything like that: just a lot of suspicious monks. Everyone's guilty! The object of the game is to appear less suspicious than anyone else.



Learning the game rules wasn't difficult, and soon enough we were moving our monks around the map, doing good things, and having small intruders whisper in our ear the true identity of the murderer.



Of course, I wasn't a murderer - I was trying to grow heretical cabbages!

A key part of the game comes when we revealed who we weren't. By the end of the game, there were only three choices that we could be. By dint of poor planning, or good planning, or something else - I don't quite understand how to play this game well yet - we all revealed two of the colours, thus eliminating them as considerations. We knew the four colours we had to be, and either Rich or I was Blue. Given the way that I was punishing Blue, I made it very clear to everyone that Rich was Blue. He was, too!



Everyone guessed who Randy and Rich were; only two people guessed who Josh and I were. The trouble for Josh and me was that we'd picked up a bunch of penalty points for ending the rounds. Taking that into account, Randy was the victor by a solitary point, with Josh and me tied. Rich wasn't anywhere in the frame: we'd somewhat punished blue.

A close game. Not quite as enjoyable as my first one where Pat won with no-one guessing who he was, but still fun. I need to play this one more before I really understand the strategy. It's about the players more than the game, of course. How good are your friends at bluffing?