“You will be haunted,” said the Ghost of Jacob Marley, “by Three Spirits.”
“I—I think I’d rather not,” said Scrooge.
“Without their visits,” said the Ghost, “you cannot hope to shun the path I tread. Expect the first to-morrow, when the bell tolls One.”
“Couldn’t I take ’em all at once, and have it over, Jacob?” hinted Scrooge.
“Expect the second on the next night at the same hour. The third upon the next night when the last stroke of Twelve has ceased to vibrate. Look to see me no more; and look that, for your own sake, you remember what has passed between us!”
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Spirits of Christmas is a light cooperative strategy game in which players take on the role of the three Spirits of Christmas from the classic novel A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. You will be taking the old miser Ebenezer Scrooge on a journey through Christmases of the Past, Present, and Future, showing him the consequences of his actions. Hopefully he will change his ways before he runs out of time!
Players will move Scrooge through scenes from the classic story, taking actions using a simple rondel. Your goal is to present ten pivotal moments in Scrooge's life to the old miser, playing combinations of Spirit cards (Contentment, Compassion, and Charity) to meet the requirements for each Scene. Each action you take will require Scrooge to spend his precious Shillings. You can only convince him to part with 15 Shillings during each journey this night, and if these run out, everyone loses the game.
—description from the publisher
- Cooperative
- Thematic connection to A Christmas Carol
- Offers variability in communication modes
- Includes replayability through shuffled chapter decks
- Potential concern about long-term replayability due to limited cards per chapter deck.
- One host was on the fence about it being a favorite.
- Christmas Carol
- Based on A Christmas Carol
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- action selection — You're basically action choosing your uh your action. You're taking turns doing that.
- cooperative play — Spirits of Christmas is a cooperative game
- Deck Building — you're going to shuffle that deck of the chapter.
- Rondel — and then yeah, you're moving that uh piece around the rondelle just trying to choose.
- Set Collection — essentially one of the goals. And so, you'll have three or four goals that you're trying missions except that you're trying to achieve.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- And we are talking about one of our favorite topics. Oh, yeah. Christmas games.
- So, um, but today we're talking about the cream of the crop. We are talking about our top five.
- So, whoever has the most decorations of their color on the tree is going to score the most points for it.
- Spirits of Christmas is a cooperative game set in obviously um you know Christmas Carol.
- So, I highly highly recommend Sansa's workshop.
- And this just gives me the quintessential like vintagey Christmas vibes. The art is so charming and I absolutely love that.
- And the art again is charming. They use the art from the 1960s animated version.
- But this is I let's be honest, this is love letter. Um it's just rethemed to have, you know, Santa Claus instead of the princess.
- And honestly, it's it's just simple, fun, easy.
- And that's really why we game. That's the whole reason that we are a family of gamers is because we like to spend that time together interacting and not just sitting in front of the TV and watching something.