All the Games on Our Shelves

  I have to leave this game un-numbered for now, as it is not a game on OUR shelves.  It belongs to my brother, and our sons showed up with it this afternoon.  In Obscurio , the players (with two exceptions) are wizards who are trying to escape a sorcerer's library.  One player is a traitor who is trying to mislead the others; the traitor wins if escape doesn't happen.  One other player, known as the "grimoire" knows the correct door to choose for each round and tries to communicate it through images.  The game is a bit like Mysterium , but it has some interesting twists - not only is there a traitor, but there are also one or more "traps" in each round.  There is also a timer, and not finishing a round in time results in one or more extra traps in the next round; this certainly does keep the game moving.   It is a cooperative game, so players talk and try to help and convince each other of the right door to choose, but the traitor has a role...

The heart of me absolutely loves and adores games of pure strategy, but I don't often play them.  I think I'm often looking more for entertainment than for mental exercise these days, and maybe I simply like it when games include some chance elements so that I don't have to take full responsibility for falling behind or losing.  I also think that because I'm a mathematician people have expectations of me being able to absolutely crush my competition with games of pure strategy such as Chess and Go, so playing them can feel more like being in a pressure cooker than like any sort of enjoyment.  Given this sense, then if I win, it's just expected, and if I lose I've REALLY blown it!  Anyway  .  .  .  it was more than time to grab a game of pure strategy off the shelf, and so out came Octi .  David and I have played it twice in the last two days, and I sense that we haven't explored anything near its full potential yet.  The wins came quit...