Crowdfunding Preview: Conspiracy by Urban Games Ltd.

Finding topics that are still fresh in the big board game world is difficult. That's exactly what Máté and Boglárka from Urban Games Ltd did. With their debut Conspiracy, they bring the topic of conspiracy ideologies into a fun and fast-paced party game in a humorous way. We spoke to both of them about the development of the game. In addition, we tested a prototype of the game and can report on our impressions.

A number of games that should not be underestimated were created during the corona pandemic. One of them is Conspiracy by the Hungarian publisher Urban Games ltd. It couldn't have been chosen better thematically. Here the players can take on the role of opponents of vaccination and supporters of other conspiracy ideologies. The aim is to establish itself as the dominant theory that explains the world and to gain enough followers.

How did the game come about?

Máté and Boglárka were only freshly together at the beginning of the corona pandemic. Luckily, they shared a common hobby that they hadn't known about before: board games. One morning at breakfast they had the idea of ​​developing something of their own. Since trying out new ideas was a lot of fun, new ideas kept coming. 

The idea of ​​making a game out of the topic "conspiracy ideologies" came up at an online party with friends. Together they made fun of the absurdity of some conspiracies and later the topic became central to the game.

Boglárka's development of the basic mechanism took less than a month. After about two to three weeks, the core of the game was established. Máté took over the work on the lyrics, his sister Ágnes takes care of the graphic design. After Attila Turcsányi was found to do the illustrations, playtesting became more intense. 

The entire process up to the first professional playtesting took just eleven months. Even if the core of the game was determined quite quickly, there were still adjustments due to the many test games. 

In the beginning, there were mainly card actions that enabled either attacking or defending. After initial feedback, further effects were added, so that there are now 12 different action types. The news cards have also been adjusted. Here, everyone now has a bonus that is activated when the card is turned over. Chain reactions between card actions are now also possible. 

In my opinion, the cleverest sub-mechanic in the game was there right from the start. Attack cards may generally only be played on the first turn of a round. More on that in the next section.

How do you swear correctly?

There are three different game modes Conspiracy. In addition to a competitive mode, there is also a cooperative and a solo variant. The solo variant is only a small variation of the co-op mode. But all variants have one thing in common: they all want to claim the news cards for themselves and win followers for their own theory.

At the beginning of each game, whether in a team, solo or against each other, everyone is given a conspiracy theory that they want to cling to and gain followers for. Followers are mainly obtained by winning and interpreting the news cards.

Competitively, the fight for the current news card takes place in one round over two turns. Every turn, everyone plays a card face down. If you turn them over, the influence points are counted at the end of the round. Before that, the sometimes nasty effects of the cards come into play, with which you can, for example, destroy news cards won by other players or neutralize cards from the current round. Other cards allow you to defend yourself. For better control, attack cards may usually only be played on the first turn.

Whoever has the most influence points on the cards played at the end of the round wins the current news card and must explain why it is relevant for their own "theory". Some of the reasons given here are even cruder than in reality.

In the cooperative and solo mode you don't play against the other players' cards over two turns, but have to trump the previously uncovered cards of the "shadow government" in one turn in order to win the news card.

If you don't turn over the card you played, but take it back into your hand, you can turn over a news card you've already won and get even more followers and a bonus. Alternatively, if you keep the card, you can also draw a new card from the draw pile.

The game ends when one person or the team reaches the number of followers set depending on the number of people, or when the Shadow Government deck runs out in solo/co-op mode. In this case, everyone loses.

Summary

Conspiracy is not a game you unpack with the family at Christmas. It's a classic party game. You shouldn't expect long-term tactics or great depth of play here.
As a party game offers conspiracy, not least thanks to a clever mechanical game trick, varied fun that works even with small groups.

The theme is really well chosen for a party game and the reasons for getting the news cards are always hair-raising (in a positive sense for the fun of the game). It pokes fun at the most diverse conspiracy movements, including all the clichés, and at the same time is more than a political statement against belief in conspiracies, packaged humorously as a game.

Thanks to the cooperative variant, the game works well even with two players. Competitively, as you'd expect from a party game, it's much better with three or four players than with two. Only as a solo game was the game not completely convincing in our prototype test. 

The restriction of when you can play attack cards in a round is particularly good for the game. Assuming you have the necessary card luck, you always have an opportunity to react to the sneaky attacks of your fellow players and can thus keep your followers with you.

The humor, which is certainly not suitable for everyone, is in the foreground here together with the fun of the game. Anyone who can make friends with it will find in Conspiracy a round party game that scores with its unique theme. Thanks to the short playing time and lean rules, the game is great for lightening the mood at the beginning or end of a game night. Anyone whose valuable pendants were stolen by their fellow players usually wants revenge.

The crowdfunding

The game is expected to launch on Kickstarter on April 13th. There you have 32 days to support the game. When around 300 copies of the game are supported, the campaign has taken place. The base game is already finished and ready to go to print. 

However, crowdfunding would not be crowdfunding if there were no stretch goals. Here the two have also come up with a lot. They looked at past successful campaigns and came up with a colorful mix of stretch goals for Conspiracy created.

When it comes to conspiracy ideologies, one thing should not be missing: the aluminum hat. This will be the starting player marker. For better durability, however, it will be made of a sturdier metal and will only be aluminum optically.

But the most exciting stretch goal is certainly expansion. This will be the name capitoline carry. With it, the game can be played with up to five people and there is also a variant to play a round in competitive mode over three turns. So you can play a little more tactically. 

Some stretch goals in terms of component quality are almost standard. The main thing here is higher quality of the cards and an inlay that keeps the box neater. There will also be playing aids as a stretch goal.

The game is completely produced in Hungary. The paper comes from FSC-certified sources and the colors used in printing are also sustainable. The price is 35€. There will also be a print-and-play version of the game.

If there are a total of 500 supporters, there will be other language versions in addition to English. These planned translations also include a German edition.

About Conspiracy

Number of people: 1 – 4; 1 – 5 with extension Age: from 10 years Playing time: 5 - 35 minutes Difficulty: easy Classification: party game Core mechanisms: auction, action cards Game idea: Boglárka Benke, Máté Mayer Illustrations: Ágnes Mayer, Attila Turcsányi Publisher: Urban Games Ltd. Link to Kickstarter campaign: Link Official Website: Link

Last updated on 27.05.2023/XNUMX/XNUMX / Affiliate Links / Images from the Amazon Product Advertising API. * = Affiliate links. Images from Amazon PA API