Review: One Night Revolution

One Night Revolution

Players: 3 – 10

Publisher: Indie Boards & Cards

Year: 2015
A copy of this game was distributed by the publisher in exchange for this review

The Dystopian Universe is large and in turmoil. As always, this opens opportunities for different factions as well, as they try to seize the means of production, err, power. In this game, the struggle is boiled down to a single one night revolution.

 

Two ID cards, a rebel and an informant

The goal of the game is for the rebels to identify a singly informant. There are rebels and informants, basically the resistance and the spies from the Resistance, and the informants win if they remain hidden. To help with this, there are specialists, which are special roles that players can use to acquire more information. 

               At the beginning of the game, everyone closes their eyes, and the informants get to know one another. Afterwards, beginning with the starting player, clockwise everyone performs a certain action during the night-phase. After the night-phase, during the day, all players take a specialist token, based upon the action that they claim to have performed, debate about the information they have and eventually cast a vote. If an informant is correctly identified, the rebels win, but if a rebel is picked, the informants win.

The headquarters, where three random ID's are placed.

The night action is interesting, as various things can happen, including re-assigning your loyalty. There’s a specialist/role that allows you to swap to people’s IDs, while another one allows you to reveal a person’s ID. This gives the information used in the debate during the day. These actions can also change depending upon your personal loyalty.

               The debate, is short and fueled by the role that everyone claims to have. Eventually the starting player counts down and a vote is cast. If the vote singled out an informant, the rebels win, or vice versa. There’s some information to go on, but it takes a bit of expertise in order to successfully conceal your role. You need to be familiar with the rules and the specialist actions in order to hide or grasp what is going on.

The components are superb quality. The ID cards are small tiles and very sturdy! The only thing that could have been better would be the reference cards, as they are a bit flimsy. The artwork is good and familiar to people that played the Resistance.

While there is concrete information to go on, things have an unexpected twist due to the abilities. People might know more than they are willing to share, but then again, they might also not be who they think they are! It’s a bit of a bummer if you think you’re one side and suddenly discover you’re another. A fun twist is that the amount of informants is unknown, which can range from 0 – 3, depending on the group. Unlike the Resistance you don’t know how many enemies there are and it adds extra paranoia! There are always three more ID's in the game than players and they are placed in the Headquarters. Another benefit is that this game goes quick, so another round can easily be started or if there's limited time.

Most outstanding feature?

I’d say that the components are great! They are sturdy, nicely-finished, and informative. Indie Boards & Cards often has high quality components and they again meet their own standards.

Overall, this game contains elements that appeal to me and others that I’m not such a fan of. I’m a huge fan of social deduction games and this game fits in a familiar spot. I like that the information is pushed forward and that the game is fast. However, I’m not a huge fan of the concept of swapping sides or that it’s so hard to hide. As an informant you need to know the rules and be familiar with them in order to not be revealed. There’s a steep learning curve. However, once you grasp it, you can certainly have a great game.