[Card Game]: Saboteur, reviewed by Tom Vasel (3/5)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/11/11431.phtml

Tom Vasel's Summary:

It's the successor to Bang! - feels similar in a lot of respects. Not as thematic, but perhaps a better game. Either way, it can handle up to ten people!

Go to the full review for more information.

[cfarrell]

While Saboteur does theoretically support something like 4-10 players, I don't recommend it at either the very high or very low end. I think you need 6 for the game to really work, but once you get up to 9 or 10 it's more of an activity than a game since you spend comparatively little time actually doing anything, especially if you get whacked with a hoser card.

The other minor problem is that the Saboteur players seem at a disadvantage with rational "loyal" dwarf players - plus the payoff (in terms of gold) is lower even if you manage to win! So if after three hands you've been dealt the Saboteur twice, it'll be extraordinarily difficult to win, which is a bit of a bummer. It's not as bad as Bang!'s Renegade, but still.

Still, this is a clever little game and at $15 it's hard to go too far wrong.

[ShannonA]

Conversely, I've been perfectly happy with the game at 5, 4, and even 3. As I wrote in my own review, I'm not convinced that the gold/scoring method works, but the game's still a lot of fun when you manage to foil the other players.

Shannon

[cfarrell]

Originally Posted by ShannonA

Conversely, I've been perfectly happy with the game at 5, 4, and even 3. As I wrote in my own review, I'm not convinced that the gold/scoring method works, but the game's still a lot of fun when you manage to foil the other players.

Hmmm .... 3 might be cool (2:1), but I found that with only 1 saboteur 40% of the time when you play with 5 players, there usually wasn't much doubt that the good guys were going to win.

With larger numbers of players, and more saboteurs, there seemed to be greater uncertainty and more options ... until you hit about 9, at which point the game started bogging down.

But all this said I do rather like the game. I felt that Saboteur actually delivered on the interesting traitor dynamics that Shadows of Camelot was trying for. I agree the balance is off, but it's not so badly off that it ruins the game.