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Nuns on the Run, published by Mayfair Games
Published:
May 14, 2010
Product: The latest in Mayfair Games' “very casual, social” games, Nuns on the Run is for 2-8 players and takes a little under an hour to play. The game comes stocked with a board, prioress and abbess figures, novice and noise tokens, 66 cards, markers, dice and the rules you need to play.
Gameplay: Remember “Where are you Scooby Doo?” You know, the original cartoon. Every episode had at least one chase montage with trippy '70s music. That montage is exactly what this game is a lot like – people running around dark corridors trying to stay away from the “bad guys” as they bump into each other.
Here the players take on the roles of five young novices tempted to sneak from their rooms in search of their “secret wish” somewhere else on the board. Between them and this temptation are the church cops, the prioress and the abbess. They roam the halls listening and looking for anything out of the ordinary.
One (or two in games with eight players) player takes on the roll of the abbess and prioress following a set patrol pattern – that is of course unless they hear or spy a wayward novice. In that case, they take off in the direction of said novice with devout passion.
Gameplay is an interesting tabletop version of hide and seek. The novices leave their tokens in their chambers, charting their movements on an included pad around the numbered board. Only when they are spotted by the prioress or the abbess do the tokens get moved to their current location, only to “vanish” once again when out of sight.
The game works very well and could be used with different genres, but really lends itself to games with 5 or more players – in fact, the more players the better. With less players, it becomes difficult for the prioress and abbess to locate the novices as the gameboard gives the young troublemakers plenty of opportunity to skirt around the long arm of the law.
Marketing: Nuns on the Run is a good edition to your party game section. Placing it alongside a murder/mystery game makes complete sense and would make a good complement to a game of that type.
While not necessarily a “cooperative” game, the hidden aspects of novice movement keep players from directly interfering with each others actions. That being the case, this makes for a interesting midway game between cooperative and competitive.
Perhaps the best marketing for this game would be to host a “Mystery Night” on some otherwise seemingly innocuous night – say January 6 (Sherlock Holmes' birthday) or March 31 (John Watson's birthday) – with a variety of mystery games like this one for customers to demo. Sprinkle the store with clues and give a prize (gift certificates are great) to the person who figures out why you chose that day for the event.
VITAL STATS
Product: Nuns on the Run
Publisher: Mayfair Games
Stock No.: MFG4117
MSRP: $35
Availability: ACD, Aladdin, Alliance, Brown Box, Centurion Hobby Distributor, Diamond Comics Distributor, GTS Distribution, Mad Al, Premier Hobby Distribution, R&M, Southern Hobby Supply
BOTTOM LINE
- Interesting “hide and seek” mechanic
- Great game for 5-8 people
- Competitively cooperative gameplay
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