Pretense Game

Great little semi-game to add a little fun to a game night where multiple games are being played. Nothing too complicated, and the points really don't end up mattering, as it's all just for fun anyway. The more people who are participating, the more fun it is (it's probably not really worth it with fewer than 4 or so people playing).

Have you ever invented something that already exists? I have. I invented the mechanism that is used in fast food joints where you can fill up the cups with just enough ice and pop (yes, it’s POP) per size of cup. So it only fills up enough ice and pop to fill a Small cup, for example. I invented that!! Until I saw that it was in use a year later after not doing anything about it. In any case, Pretense is a game that I should have invented. It’s one of those ideas where you think to yourself, “Well gall-darnit, why didn’t I think of that??”This is a Button Shy game so you know it will be compact and fit into one of those nylon wallet things. Mine, however, was Kickstarted and came in and still resides in a clear plastic bag. No wallet. Oh well. It’s a small set of cards that you deal out to attendees of your game night when they arrive. Each player then reads their role cards to themselves and the game is on.A game of Pretense is a meta-game that lasts the entire game night (or longer if you are hard core). When you have your role card you are trying to get someone to satisfy your role’s requirement so that you may catch them, announce your role, and then take their role card to assume their requirements. The “winner” is the person at the end of the game with the most amount of won role cards.As you can see from the Klutz card above, if someone mentions that you suck at keeping your rolled dice on the table, you can announce that you are the Klutz, take their role card and continue playing as someone else. Well gall-darnit, why didn’t I think of that? It’s genius!And it IS genius. It is a simple and sleek design that keeps everyone on their toes for the entire evening, trying to catch each other saying or doing something outrageous or quite normal – just to slap it in their faces and flaunt their gaming supremacy.Components. Again, I have the Kickstarter Button Shy version of Pretense and it’s some cards in a basic clear plastic bag… well, sleeve. The cards are fine quality, and the art on them is quite good. They all have the same portraiture but with different subjects, and a nameplate above the game details. No issues on components or art here.Pretense is a game that I can pull out with minimal (or no) explanation and have people plotting and sneaking all night long. I believe the boxed AEG version also provides role token (a la Werewolf) so everyone knows which roles are in play, but that’s no fun. It’s catching people when they aren’t thinking about what they’re doing that really makes this one shine. It will never make my Top 100 list, but I will also never let it go. I do love it and it has led to many hilarious accusations and subterfuge, so it will be mine for all time. As this game is difficult to really rate (due to it being more of an activity and not so much a game), I have left off any numeric values. This is a good time and you should defo try it out.

I play in a biweekly game night where we sit around and play board and card games at a local bar. An hour in, everyone said Pretense is mandatory for all game nights. At the end of the night, our waitress won because she's a straight up hustler. Good times.

This is a great game night "meta game". You tend to forget that you are playing it and the results can be hilarious.

Great game!

This is a great game!!

This game is brilliant.

I originally purchased Pretense knowing only that it was a meta-game, a small game to be played while other games are going on. After opening it up and getting our game group involved, it turned out to be the hit of the night.The idea behind Pretense is each player randomly selects a role that they will assume for the time they are playing. Your role gives you an action that if someone else performs at some point during the time your group is playing, you call them out on it, revealing your role card to prove it and taking their role card from them. You then assume their role, with the object being to gain the most role cards throughout the course of the game. You can also guess at another player's role, but at the risk of losing yours if you are wrong (at the beginning of the game, you will take cards/tokens for the number of players +4 to give more random assignments and impact the guessing element).I would have given Pretense a 5-star rating, however, their rules didn't explain the token system thoroughly enough to be quick to learn, so we used them as markers for role cards so other players could attempt to guess at which role(s) another person might have. Overall, it added an interesting and enjoyable element to our game night that is easy to play.