Game writeup: Coup by Rikki Tahta, La mame Games
For my Critical Play I decided to play Coup. This is a social deduction, fellowship-based game where players are made to deduce other players identities, remember information, challenge other players as well balance risk and reward in order to win.
Each player is given two of five identity cards which each has its own ability, and protections. Some cards can block assassination attempts, while other cards make assassination easier. Some cards allow you to get more money per turn, while others allow you to steal it. The twist, you can pretend to have any card you want, and the players have to risk one of their health points in order to call your bluff. This can lead to several turns where you are trying to see if people’s actions match up with their supposed identity, tricking players, and desperately trying to make things work.
The game’s theme is that of a Sci-fi universe a la Dune with Dukes and Ambassadors. The mechanics of the game revolve around a coin system that powers the abilities the characters use. A player can safely get 1 coin per turn. Or they can pretend/be a duke and get 3 per turn, or get 2 per turn but be blocked by an Ambassador/Duke. This lets some cards have global effects on characters income. The game promises the player a kind of fun stemming from fellowship outwitting the other players. They create this type of fun by being forced to withhold information from others and constantly trying to fool them. This is reinforced through the characters whose expressions all look untrustworthy and mercenary, creating a general theme of anxiety and distrust.
The game handles some abuse by making it very easy to team up and kill a suspicious player. There were several instances in a game where an annoying player was killed by several coups.
I would make it better by adding more cards. This would add more fun to the game, but also take away some of the fun of completely unrealistic card draws(like a person having two dukes). Seriously! How does that happen??
Personally, I love the idea of pretending to have abilities you don’t actually have, and I’m curious how to implement this in my stuff.
