Renowned mediums are competing to figure out a secret object and prove they can connect with the "World Beyond". The first team to figure out the secret object wins!
To set up Phantom Ink, divide players so that the Sun team and the Moon team each have one Spirit and up to three Mediums. The mediums on a team share a hand of seven question cards, and the spirits begin the game by choosing one of the five objects on a card as the secret object. On a turn, the mediums pass two question cards to their spirit, with sample questions like "What color is it most commonly?", "What fictional character has it or uses it?", and "If it were a musical instrument, what would it be?"
The spirit discards one question card face up, then returns the question card it's going to answer to their mediums, then slowly writes the answer one letter at a time for all to see. As soon as the mediums think they know what this clue word is, they yell "Silencio", and the spirit stops writing. The other team of mediums might see only the letter "Y", but if you know the question is "What color is it?", then you know the clue must be "yellow". To end your turn, draw two new question cards.
On a turn, instead of handing over question cards, you can attempt to guess the answer — and to do so you write like the spirits, one letter at a time. If you write an incorrect letter, the spirits will stop you, marking out your error, with your partial guess giving the other team more information. If you guess the entire word correctly, you win!
Awards & Honors:
Game Makers Guild - Seal of Approval
The Dice Tower - Seal of Approval
- Described as a new-ish party title with visuals aligned to a Dixit universe
- Part of a Kickstarter preview round and later delivery
- Creative party/social deduction
- Party game with Dixit-like vibes
- Light, social interaction emphasis
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Not discussed in transcript — Not discussed in transcript
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Only play the games that have fun that you have fun with that you like
- don't let other people push you into games that you don't like
- research research research
- we're analog we're going old school
- know the rules
References (from this video)
- Fits the tortured poets mood
- Rich narrative flavor
- poetry / gothic vibe
- dark / moody atmosphere
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- multi-layered deduction / area control — players claim assets in a moody investigative setting
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Ticket to Ride is also many people's debut into board games
- you got to go fast
- you got to be swift
- Fearless is the Trailblazer album for Taylor
- Familiar Tales for me is giving me Speak Now vibes
- Bark Avenue because when you say speak a dog Burks
- the gates of Loyang … the box is red
- it's the era of Taylor Swift where she started to not really care and started to make fun of herself
- London boy
- Phantom Ink right because I don't know not only like the name of the game but the vibe
- the longest board game name I can think of
References (from this video)
- Stunning art and theme
- Nice balance of prompts and team play
- Can be wordy in a busy group
- Might require a Halloween-leaning atmosphere to shine
- Communication with spirits through clues
- Seance-inspired party game
- thematic, eerie
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Hidden word teamwork — Teams guide a spirit to a target word using prompts.
- Question-based prompts — Clue givers respond to questions with prompts from the spirit.
- Sequential clue-writing — Answers are written letter-by-letter on a clue board.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Sagrada is a really cool dice placement puzzle
- beautiful art and design of the game
- a really cool bounty hunting pick up and deliver game
References (from this video)
- Fun with larger groups
- Clever clueing mechanics
- Clarity of clues can affect flow
- Word-dueled deduction
- Ghosts and coded clues
- Playful, party vibe
- Ghost Rider (earlier name)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- clue-based deduction — Teams assemble clues to guess a target word with ghostly hints.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- We had a fan girl moment with Beth Sobel.
- We are bad parents, but he's grown and in college now.
- I hate that Facebook algorithm, you can't talk to nobody.
- It's so satisfying to know he earned it.
References (from this video)
- easy to teach
- great for large groups
- word clue quality can vary
- requires enough players for two teams
- Mediums and clues
- Two-team party word-guessing game
- Light, humorous
- Codenames
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- team_based_word_guessing — Two teams compete to guess a target word from clues
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Make this world a better place, one board gamer at a time.
- it's a big hit for our group
- it's all about money
- this is deluxe and exciting
References (from this video)
- Thematic and engaging for late-night sessions
- Strong social and interpretive play
- Complex rules can be dense for some groups
- Ghost communications; one-letter responses
- Seance-themed party game
- Thematic and social
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- letter-limited communication — Ghost provides one-letter responses that players interpret to solve puzzles.
- party_social — Rules lean into social interaction and interpretation.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- this year is flying by
- The Crew is just a perfect nice and easy cooperative game
- i've been really enjoying six nymph
- Phantom Ink is a really great game and would highly recommend it
- Mind Management is a masterpiece
- So Clover by Repost Production is climbing the rankings