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Phantom Player Sensation
Joel Abbott
United States
Burlington
Vermont
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Games that might be more entertaining if the participants collaborate by playing an additional "phantom" player. Of course this really only works with open-information games, but I've noticed that creating a phantom player can help to make dry games a bit more fun.

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Posted Wed Jul 13, 2005 4:20 am
1. Board Game: That's Life! [Average Rating:6.49 Overall Rank:754]
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Joel Abbott
United States
Burlington
Vermont
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The game that inspired this list: A few weeks ago, during a four player Verflixxt, one of the players had to take a phone call from her daughter, and after a while the rest of us decided to keep playing. When we got to her turn, the three remaining players collaborated on what she would do on her turn. This made a rather dry game of Verflixxt into something more collaborative and, in my opinion, made it more fun.
2. Board Game: Through the Desert [Average Rating:7.27 Overall Rank:115]
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Joel Abbott
United States
Burlington
Vermont
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Finding the two player version of Through the Desert a bit dry and tedious, (and not having a third player close by) my girlfriend and I played a phantom third player and this addition made the game much more interesting, got us talking, and made it more entertaining.
3. Board Game: Railway Rivals [Average Rating:6.75 Overall Rank:1135]
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Nick West
United Kingdom
Colinton
Edinburgh
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When we could only raise two players for this, we used the optional rules for phantoming a third. Each player takes turns to build the third "players" track.

Cannot remember how we decided if they would race or not as we stopped when it was noticed that the phantom third player usually beat both of us!

Somehow it rather deflated the whole experience....
4. Board Game: Alhambra [Average Rating:7.09 Overall Rank:172]
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Mark Goadrich
United States
Shreveport
Louisiana
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Alhambra for two players includes the "phantom" player in the rules; his name is Dirk.
5. Board Game: Blokus [Average Rating:7.26 Overall Rank:118]
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Mark Goadrich
United States
Shreveport
Louisiana
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In three-player Blokus, the fourth color is placed on the board by the other players, rotating so each player gets their turn being the "phantom."
6. Board Game: IceTowers [Average Rating:6.50 Overall Rank:1596]
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Mark Goadrich
United States
Shreveport
Louisiana
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For two-player IceTowers, you also include "Gus" as your ghost player. He gets his own color, and either player can play for Gus at any time if they follow a few movement restrictions.
7. Board Game: Fifth Avenue [Average Rating:6.17 Overall Rank:1380]
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Scott A. Reed
United States
Lawrence
Kansas
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Fifth Avenue provides for a "phantom" 3rd player when playing a game with two.
8. Board Game: Flaschenteufel [Average Rating:6.86 Overall Rank:415]
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Scott A. Reed
United States
Lawrence
Kansas
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When playing with two players, Flaschenteufel adds the phantom third player to flesh out the game.
9. Board Game: Apples to Apples [Average Rating:6.57 Overall Rank:586]
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Glen Burnie
Maryland
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One time we played this with only 4 of us, so to give us more cards to judge we added a card radomly taken from the draw pile and put it into the game. We called it the Computer, and we were supprised because it started kicking our buts, we eventually caught up and a real player did win the game.
10. Board Game: Louis XIV [Average Rating:7.28 Overall Rank:137]
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Josh Luub
United States
San Jose
California
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Another one where the two-player rules have a phantom third player. The player competes for influence, but can't actually get any victory points. Also, as far as I know he (or she?) doesn't have a name.
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Have faith
United States

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Interesting idea.
Matt Davis
United States
Madison
Wisconsin
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Random side note: My sister had a streak going where she would get annoyed at some point in the game and quit, leaving us to finish for her. Predictably, she would win almost every time. This was years ago with pretty simple games (we were kids at the time), so I can't verify how long the streak went or how impressive her comebacks were, but I swear it worked every time.
Kima Pesan
United States
Albany
New York
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Hmmmmm.... I wonder if a phantom variant for 2-player Puerto Rico or Settlers would work at all...
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