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The newly instated Emperor Nero has commissioned a House of Poison to eliminate his rivals, but its Poisonmaster, Locusta, has other plans. Prepare yourself for a thrilling, competitive experience that combines strategy, deception, and a large dose of poison. Step into the world of ancient Rome, where you’ll embark on a quest to secretly complete contracts by deftly manipulating the Poison and Favor pillars of your opponents. Unleash your strategic prowess and set up cunning chain reactions… while expertly sabotaging the plans of your rivals. House of Poison is based on a Narrative Artbook of the same name.
To play, grab your player board and action guide. You will first select a unique character card and draw 1 of 7 secret contracts. Players will take 2 actions per turn, which can be directed at opponents or used for yourself. Your options include: giving Favor, giving Poison, using powerful board actions, or unleashing your unique character abilities. You can also complete Contracts during this step. When you complete a Contract, you will earn victory tokens - but don’t be too obvious about your schemes, or other players may guess your Contract and steal it from you!
The first player to 4 victory tokens kicks off the final round. The remaining players have a chance to match or exceed that count with one more turn. Players then reveal their token values (between 1-5 points). The player with they highest point value wins! The fate of Rome hangs in the balance, and only the most cunning and resourceful will emerge victorious. This is a game for 3-8 players, and can run 20-60 minutes, depending on the player count.
—description from publisher
- Nuanced two-track management
- High interactivity and guessing
- Easy setup and teach
- Variety of character abilities
- Narrative art book adds immersion
- Good for 4-5 players; replayability with many character cards
- Can drag to 1.5 hours; length variability
- Rules ambiguities in prototype; need clarifications
- Possible lock-in of contracts reducing choices
- Asymmetry not very strong in practice
- Prototype box/ components look basic; production later can improve
- Theme integration not direct; could be any theme
- Array
- Ancient Rome
- Narrative art book included; story-driven companion material
- Coup
- Gaia Project
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Action point management — Two actions per turn; players can reset tracks for a coin.
- Action Points — Two actions per turn; players can reset tracks for a coin.
- bluffing / social deduction — Guessing opponents' contracts and bluffing about one's own intentions.
- Card draw / hand management — Completing a contract flips it, then draws a new one; managing face-up and face-down contracts.
- character abilities — Each character has special abilities that affect play; some asymmetric effects (e.g., copying or poisoning).
- Contract 'banquets' and execution — Special contracts (e.g., Banquet) require certain condition (poison) to be played.
- Contracts — Special contracts (e.g., Banquet) require certain condition (poison) to be played.
- Dynamic interaction / disruption — Assassination or sabotage to swap cards; disruption with other players.
- Endgame tension / scoring — Endgame triggered by fourth coin; points revealed at end.
- Hidden Information — Players have secret contracts and face-down objectives.
- Resource Management — Managing poison and favor tracks with thresholds unlocking abilities.
- Two-track resource management — Managing poison and favor tracks with thresholds unlocking abilities.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- The goal is to have the most points which you get mostly through completing secret contracts.
- Two actions per turn... you can do something basic like increasing anyone's Track by one or you can use your character special ability.
- If your favor is high enough you can guess someone's contract and if you guess correctly you get the contract in front of you face up.
- It's surprisingly nuanced for a party game to manage the two tracks.
- End game is triggered when anyone gets their fourth coin.
- There are 18 full characters in the final version which is going to be sweet for replayability.
- This is a prototype; the actual version will have a box that looks like this but everything is going to be more premium.
- House of Poison should be pretty fun to sit around and do the whole bluffing thing.