The Imposter Kings, Card Games of Strategy & Intrigue for 2-4 Players Age 8 & up, with a Well-Illustrated Deck of Cards, Exciting Alternative to Adult Board Games or Kids Games

* The takeaway: Imposter Kings is a fantastic indie game that I would encourage anyone with interest in a short, strategic card game to check out. The game revolves around an elegantly simple mechanic—play higher-valued cards on lower-valued cards with the aim of leaving your opponent unable to play—but has an amazing level of depth. The gameplay is tense and satisfying, so much so that it even makes for a great spectator sport. Topping it all off is truly gorgeous art and a wonderful community. *---Some background for reference: I’ve been playing Imposter Kings now for almost a year and a half, primarily two-player standard with my partner and some occasional three- and four-player games as well. We were both casual Magic the Gathering players before picking up Imposter Kings but otherwise were not major card game hobbyists. With busy work schedules, we don’t often have a lot of time to play, so we enjoy games that are relatively short.---We loved the game from day one. Before jumping into Imposter Kings, the first thing you’ll notice is the art, by award-winning illustrator Michael Hirshon. Each card represents a person in the King’s Court, where false kings and other usurpers are vying for the Nersetti Throne. The profiles of these characters are gorgeous, with vibrant colors and expressions that bring the characters to life. The materials are high quality and durable.The art, characters, and the world of the game matter not only for their own sake, but because they connect with the mechanics and cleverly make the game easier to play. The colors of the cards become a way to quickly gauge the value of your hand. Cards like the Inquisitor naturally allow you to inquire about a card your opponent may have, matching flavor and ability.The basic rules are not at all difficult to pick up. You take turns placing cards to the top of the Court (i.e., each card overlapping the previous card in a single row). A card can only be placed on a card of equal or lesser value, where values range from 1 to 9, unless a card’s ability trumps this in some way. For instance, Elders only have a value of 3. Yet they can always play on Royalty cards (value 9), making them valuable defensive cards in the late game. The last player to be able to play a card wins.The manual is fantastic. Most manuals teach you the game. This manual also shows you how to learn the game. It encourages the player to set up a simplified game first, leaving out a few of the most nuanced cards. With the basic mechanics in hand, you are then ready to move to a full game of two-player standard, adding in an alternative win condition (assassinate the opponent’s King) and corresponding cards.As I said, I’ve been playing for nearly one and a half years now, and the game does not get old even when playing with the same person frequently. Basic strategies in two-player standard start to emerge after a few games and are satisfying to carry out correctly: Should I use my Inquisitor to dispatch a problematic Assassin now? Or do I bide my time to avoid a punishing response by the King’s Hand? At the same time, more nuanced strategies that involve reading your opponent’s intentions and laying unpredictable traps take much longer to master.The game steers clear of pre-determined outcomes in part because of a few well-designed unknowns: You will always have a good idea of your opponent’s hand, but not a certain one. That small degree of uncertainty has big consequences. After each round, we enjoy discussing what happened, what we thought was true while playing, and how we each perhaps should have played our hand out differently.The two other modes—three player and 2v2 four player—are also a blast while almost feeling like completely different games. New cards are added in these modes and are fun to learn after mastering the base two-player set. Existing mechanics that were easy to gloss over in two player gain additional nuance when adding additional players. The 2v2 mode opens up a new world of cooperative gameplay with communication constraints. Every mode has something fun to offer.Lastly, the Discord community around this game is exceptional. The community has held tournaments, posts puzzles to be solved solo, and offers new players a warm welcome. The game’s YouTube channel is also worth visiting to watch videos of past tournaments complete with commentary.---I’ve introduced many people to this game since I started playing, and it has been universally enjoyed. I would encourage both long-time card game hobbyists and casual players to pick up a copy. You won’t regret trying out this hidden gem!

I bought this game after reading board game geek reviews, and I have been pleasantly surprised. I've had two nights where I've been playing the game. As the game recommends, we started with the 2 player version (with our third roommate watching), and it was initially hard to figure out what each of the cards do and what each keyword means. However, the cheat sheets and the visuals in the manual were extremely helpful, and it was nice that they have cheat sheet cards for each player with all the keywords and card counts. After the second game, it felt like we understood all the different cards and their interactions. The mechanics of the game are extremely unique and interesting, while being similar to games like Love Letter and other card games.Everyone was having a good time, even the person watching. There are so many crazy combos that we kept discovering, even though the two player game seems to only use 18 cards. We were initially confused by all the additional cards, but realized that it's actually really cool that you could use any of the cards to make our own two player deck in the future.Tonight, we tried the 3 player version of the game. The game was similar, but different. In the two player, other than a couple of cards, you knew what the other player had. With 3 players, there are more cards and there's a mechanic to reveal and exchange a card with your opponents. We presumed this was to cut down on the unknown cards, and it works fantastically. The games felt really close and intense!I haven't tried the four player version yet, but reading the rules, it seems like a really interesting twist as a team game. I'm actually really excited to try it out, because it seems like a lot of the cards combo off of each other, and could potentially harm/heal your teammate. Can't wait to see how it plays!Overall, I highly recommend this game. I'm planning on picking up additional copies for the holidays to bring to my friends back home, as it's been an absolute blast to play. Not to mention that the cards are beautiful (the artwork is great, and the fact that some duplicate cards have subtle differences is cool). The box was a bit tight, and the instructions manual is a bit thick, but the cardstock itself is of high quality. As I mentioned before, it's similar to Love Letter (another great game), but it has a lot more interesting decisions and combos because you get your cards upfront. It means there are a lot more decisions to make, but all the decisions are what make the game super exciting and replayable. This is definitely going to be a staple game to bring to my board game nights.

The packaging...well, there was no packaging: the game was in its factory seal, so a shipping label was simply taped to the lid, but it arrived undamaged. The game itself is very good, exhausting to play because of the intellect involved to outwit one's opponent.

I bought this game based on a whim after seeing it advertised. Initially I was drawn by its artwork, I still decided to buy it even after I realized it's a small indie card game. I'm not much of a gamer, but I wanted to give this a try.First, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the cards and artwork. Seeing it digitally is one thing, but in person, the cards pop with color. The rulebook was initially overwhelming, but then I realized that most of it is a combination of story, FAQs, and other game modes other than 2 player. I started with a friend of mine to just play the 2 player version, and although it took a couple of hands to get used to all the cards, it was a ton of fun! It was confusing that I'm only using half the cards in order to play 2 players, but honestly, that's still a lot of things to remember. I love that the game starts you off playing with only some of the cards, then you add more as you and your opponents learn more and more about the game.As mentioned before, you can play the game with more than 2 people, but I only played the 2 player version, which seemed the least complicated. I can tell there was a lot of passion and love for this product, and was surprised to find that it's just one designer and one artist who made the whole thing. I'm interested to see if they'll come out with more things (especially the art, which I'm still enamored with) in this universe.