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krit1789 — 2008-11-21T20:32:42+00:00

Philosophers - "G" through "N" (There is no "J" and "K")

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krit1789 — 2008-11-21T20:32:08+00:00

Philosophers - "A" through "F"

Thread: Everything is Illuminated - A review of "Ostrakon"

vetinari7878 — 2005-11-16T16:24:46+00:00

Basics

Players: 5-12 (even more if playing teams)

Average gaming time: 1 hour (more or less independent from the number of players)

Complexity: Low (typically a party game)

Components

63 cards, of which 24 "philosophers", 24 subjects (8 blanks), 9 pathway cards, 1 calendar, 1 moon, 1 sun, 2 special event cards, 1 summary

Overview

Ostrakon is a party game from Silvano Sorrentino, and one of the many light card games that DaVinci Games has been publishing in the last few years. It is a "questions" game, with one huge twist: the players themselves devise the questions to be asked, and they advance on the track if they manage to "split" their audience with a provocative question.

Gameplay

Each player picks up the robes of a philosopher that is walking along the path around the Temple of Wisdom discussing of (you guess) philosophy. The one philosopher that has walked further along the path at the end of the game is obviously the Most Illuminated One (Author's Note: not at all related) and the winner.

To advance along the path, each player must ask all the other philosophers a philosophical question with two possible answers, such as: Sweet or Salty? Baseball or Basketball? Blondes or Brunettes? He wants to "split" his audience in two different sides, the more balanced they are the better. That is because the player advances a number of spaces equal to the players that voted for the minority option, only if he rightly guesses the most voted option. E.g., there are 7 players, 3 of them voting Baseball and 4 Basketball; if the player guessed that the majority would be on Basketball, he advances 3 spaces; otherwise he stays put and loses his opportunity to advance for that turn. If all 7 players voted unanimously Basketball, he wouldn't advance any space even if he guessed right.

The player doesn't have a totally free choice on which questions to ask: there are subject cards that determine what the question must be about (even if the most entertaining questions are only moderately related to the supposed subject). Each player knows one turn in advance the subject matter for his next question, so he can spend a little bit of time in preparation, before speaking it out loud before the other players. On each card there is also a (feared by some, loved by others) free subject opportunity, with which the player can ask a question on whatever subject he wants.

There is a clever, but a bit fiddly, system to determine whose turn to ask a question it is (the philosopher that is currently being "illuminated" by the sun has to submit a question to the others), and there is a calendar card to keep track of the number of turns until the game end. Moreover, when the first player is on certain "spots" on the pathway, there are additional rules that allow the player asking the question to sway the vote (by revealing the answer given by some of the players, by corrupting them to vote as he did, and so on). There is also a mechanics to allow the players at the back of the pack to catch up on the leaders by declaring themselves (once per game) "followers" of a leading philosopher, and advancing the same number of spaces as this philosopher do.

Comments

I really love Ostrakon even if I can see it is not a perfect game by any means.

I must say that the turn order mechanics are a bit fiddly ("who is the next to ask a question?" is the unanimous cry of almost all the players), but if one more experienced player acts as a "game master" by moving around the philosophers and sun cards, this problem is easily fixed. In my many games, I never had too much of a problem with the players taking their turns; even so, the mechanics don't strike me as very much elegant.

Other problems arise when the players don't know each other. It is not necessary for the players to know each other very well, but it is true that between complete strangers, the game loses pretty much all of its appeal, because you really have no idea of what the others are going to answer to your questions. With people you know well, on the other hand, the game is extremely entertaining, because you have at least a couple of solid guesses on what the others are thinking, and you are also interested in what their answers will be, as well. Other party games (first of all my beloved "Time's Up") don't suffer so much from this kind of "strangers" problem.

The main drawback of the game as it is, however, is the really small number of subject cards. There are only 16 subjects cards, and a whopping 8 additional blank cards. The game lacks in replayability with so few subjects to draw on, so it is necessary to fill the additional blank cards to bring up the total to 24 subject cards. Luckily, the DaVinci Games site has a list of 8 additional subject cards to fill in the blanks with, so you don't need to strain your mind thinking about new subjects to add to the game.

The bottom line is, if your gaming group likes the odd party game once in a while, and if it sports at least some original and witty people, give this game a try and you won't be disappointed.

Wrap-up

Pros
- Nice mechanics departing from a typical "trivia" party game
- If players are at least moderately original and witty, the game is extremely entertaining

Cons
- Some mechanics are a bit fiddly
- Works best with people who knows each other at least a little
- Need to fill the additional blank cards to provide a good variety of subjects

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vetinari7878 — 2005-11-13T19:35:33+00:00

Subjects Cards

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vetinari7878 — 2005-11-13T19:35:33+00:00

Rules, Calendar, Sun, Moon, Summary

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vetinari7878 — 2005-11-13T19:35:33+00:00

Pathway Cards

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vetinari7878 — 2005-11-13T19:35:33+00:00

Philosopher Cards

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GeoMan — 2005-02-27T03:56:25+00:00

Thread: Ostrakon imho :-)

Myszka — 2004-12-22T10:59:08+00:00

Ostrakon imho

There are some things I really like in a party game. Mainly it should be played in a group of many people, most probably people that do not know each other, maybe people who are not really willing to listen to a long rules list.

Well, Ostrakon got quite all the remedies: it's a game that can be told in five minutes and it's a game playable by everyone. Yes, that girl that always cryes "oh no! I can't play, I'm absolutely not keen at it", and that friend of yours that always refuses every single proposal because of lack of tacticism

Ostrakon setting is an ancient greek philosopher group taking a walk to a temple, and being philosophers, they discuss about life, universe, and the really everything [1].
Each of them asks to other players to resolve a question (for instance "do you think, my dear collegues, that love is real or real is love?" [2]).
With a voting pool everyone choose one (and only one) of the two suggested answers. If the asker has voted as the main part, he or she takes as many steps to the temple as many countrary votes gained.

Countrary, yes. So the trick is to avoid asking obvious questions (like "is it better an A+ or an E grade?").
Ehi, didn't I say that were supposed to be philosophical questions?

With people that do not know each other this may be a nice way to get to know (wink! ask if would be more enjoyable hockey or basket and then invite the girl in front of you to the match she likes )
The only restriction (or hint) is that question topic have to be suggested by the card pile.

Thinking that such a game is a really cheap game and is smaller than a hand (so that I can easily hold it in a pocket)… made my decision to buy it.

Have a nice game

Myszka (myszka@treemme.org) aka Riccardo

[1] Doesn't it sound as Douglas Adams?
[2] Uh oh... and this seems to be John Lennon...

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Beefcake — 2004-07-29T11:00:21+00:00

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bobborobbo — 2004-07-09T10:38:15+00:00

Game: Ostrakon

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Thread: Everything is Illuminated - A review of "Ostrakon"

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Thread: Ostrakon imho :-)

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