Quick
Look: Who’s Bluffing?
Designer: Not Listed
Publisher: Sté Tumba Capital
Year Published: 2019
No. of Players: 2–5
Ages: 9+
Playing Time: 10 minutes
Review
Bluffing? (European Cities and Towns edition) is an easy-to-learn card game the
entire family can play. Because of the bluffing component, players need to be
able to read and understand, or at least recognize, the location on the card
they are choosing to play.
Those
who played Who’s Bluffing? with me enjoyed the game. It was pointed out that
even older players didn’t know all the locations used in the game. This led to
conversation about the places and even one person later looking up information
about some of them.
Who’s
Bluffing? is the size of a single deck of standard playing cards in a slightly
wider box. This makes Who’s Bluffing? a great cabin game. It’s also easy
to pack away for a trip and bring out during those times the family is stuck in
the room, camper, or cabin and are looking for something to play.
time required for playing Who’s Bluffing? also makes it a good filler game.
When you are waiting for players to arrive or between other events, the easy
setup and cleanup along with the speed of play makes it nice for filling the
gap.
continues until one person is able to discard all of their hand.
Bluffing? consists of 5 Ruler Cards and a deck of 50 locations, 10 for each
country identified on the Ruler Cards.
The
Ruler Cards are separate. One is randomly chosen to determine the country to
start the game and is turned up. The rest are left face down.
player is dealt 5 cards from the main deck. The remaining cards are left as a
Draw Pile.
enough room to create a Discard Pile, and the first player is ready to go.
Ruler Card lets everyone know which of the 5 countries they are matching
locations to. A player has a few options on their turn.
can play a card that is one of the locations in the country onto the
Discard Pile—face down—stating the location name on the card as they play it.
they don’t have a card for that country, they have two options. The first is
they can pick a card from the Draw Pile. If the card matches the country they
can immediately play it to the Discard Pile and state the name of the location.
If it doesn’t match, they add it to their hand.
they can play another card and state the name of one of the locations within
the country of the Ruler Card, attempting to bluff. They can also bluff a card
they just picked from the Draw Pile.
another player thinks the player laying a card on the Discard Pile is bluffing,
they can call “Bluffer.”
If
the player is bluffing, they gather the Discard Pile into their hand. If they
weren’t bluffing, the player that called “bluffer” picks up the Discard Pile.
the cards are picked up, the Ruling Card in play is returned to the 5 card
deck, shuffled, and another Ruling Card is put into play. It can be the same card.
person who picked up the Discard Pile starts the next round.
going until someone is out of cards.
and Mechanics
Bluffing? is a straight-up bluffing game. You want to convince everyone else
playing that you’re telling the truth as you play a card.
and Components
cards have pictures of the places identified on the card. Everything pictures
is associated with the specific location. Most are landmarks and some are
identified on the card.
Good
- Easy
to learn - Conversation
starter about the locations listed
Thoughts
played the European Cities and Town edition. There is another one of English
Cities and Towns along with plans for additional locations and topics.
Who Like
- Family
games - Educational
games - Bluffing
games
Daniel Yocom – Reviewer
Daniel Yocom does geeky things by night because his day job won’t let him. This dates back to the 1960s through games, books, movies, and stranger things better shared in small groups. He’s written hundreds of articles about these topics for his own blog, other websites, and magazines along with stories, after extensive research. His research includes attending conventions, sharing on panels and presentations, and road-tripping with his wife. Join in the geeky fun at guildmastergaming@blogspot.com.
See Daniel’s reviews HERE.
