|
Phantom Player Sensation
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
Posted Wed Jul 13, 2005 4:20 am
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
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....
|
|
|
|
Alhambra for two players includes the "phantom" player in the rules; his name is Dirk.
|
5.
Board Game: Blokus
[Average Rating:7.29 Overall Rank:115]
|
|
|
|
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."
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
Fifth Avenue provides for a "phantom" 3rd player when playing a game with two.
|
|
|
|
When playing with two players, Flaschenteufel adds the phantom third player to flesh out the game.
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
Posted Wed Jul 13, 2005 4:20 am
