Post originally by Frank Branham at 2003-05-28 12:05:38
Converted from Phorums BB System

The cases where "possibly eliminated" has come up, the answerer asked the questioner to clarify positively or possibly eliminated.

And the rest of us have somehow always assumed that "possibly eliminated" was fairly useless information. And that bit of information has never been requested.

What DOES make an important distinction in our games, however, is whether you have seen the card versus eliminated by deduction.

Which perhaps is the distinction you are describing.

Cards that you have seen are of course ones that you have seriously actually seen.

Cards that you have eliminated are ones that you have figured out by clear deductive logic. The problem with these is that the information might still be bogus if you messed up in your deduction.

Cards that you have possibly eliminated are almost a suspicion that the card is in the game....

Example: If a player asks: "How many hooded Franciscan brothers do you have?" to another player, and receives "1" as the answer. You can make a fairly wild guess that the asker has the other hooded Franciscan brother. Or he might be asking a pointless question to throw everyone off track.

--------------------------------------

The other point you made in the review is the Cubula. They are really too far away, and we almost never visit them either. A few of the event cards will send players to the Cubula, and occasionally someone will enter one if they are in the main hallway and it is close to Mass.

When looking at the game there are quite a few things that could have been streamlined, but the baroqueness of the rules and all of the little bits of theming add up until it is just dripping with theme. I've always thought that Mystery in the Abbey was one of the best applications of mechanics to a theme around.

One of the other complaints I had at first with the game which you didn't comment on in your review is the Secret Library. The player with the fewest cards in hand may wander in once per game. Some of the cards are REALLY powerful. I *THINK* that the balance is about correct, as having a hand full of cards makes it possible to sit on one or two cards, and never pass them until much later in the game.

And if you doggedly pursued hanging onto two cards, you would be forced to visit Cubulas to maintain your hand size.

Moo
Frank