It’s Mechanism Sunday! And we’re talking about “social deduction” games: games where there’s an element of lying about who you are or what you know, and trying to determine who is lying or who is the traitor from precious few clues. The clues might be actual game elements, as in Deception: Murder in Hong Kong or they might be primarily in the ways your friends react to questions, as in Spyfall.

The classic of the genre is Werewolf, sometimes known as Mafia. Here, players are randomly given roles, typically human or werewolf, with some additional specialties like Sheriff or Doctor. In a series of rounds, players close their eyes, the game master asks the werewolves to open their eyes and quietly point to someone to kill, then close their eyes again; likewise the Doctor is invited to point to someone to save and the Sheriff to someone to learn if they’re a werewolf. Everyone opens their eyes and discusses what has transpired and who to send to jail as being a werewolf. If all the townspeople die, the werewolves win; if the townspeople imprison the werewolves, they win.

There are lots of variations of this mechanism of hidden identity and deduction, likely because humans lie all the time, for fun and profit, as well as self-protection. The crime genre of TV shows and books is massively popular, I imagine at least in part because we like to try to figure out the puzzle. It’s not always easy to tell when someone’s lying, and out in the real world, believing a lie can have dangerous consequences. No wonder we gamify it, both to practice our discernment skills and to lighten the mood!

Friends, keep warm, keep heart, and keep playing.

Alice C., board game librarian

A new celebration…

We can always use something to celebrate, particularly when things are hard, so we’re inaugurating a new festival: Free Parking Celebrates! The last Thursday of each month, we’ll have a silly, easy celebration of something. This month, it’s LetterBirdChili Day, a beloved rare convergence of Bird Health Awareness Week, Letter to an Elder Day, and National Chili day, of course.

Come in for a limited-time bowl of house-made chili, write a letter to an older person in your life (supplies available for free), and learn about bird health! You’ll get a party hat and everything! (Event image below.)

Play Snakesss!

It’s trivia with a twist: at least one player is a snake, leading you astray from the right answer. It’s like Trivial Pursuit plus Werewolf!

Each player is assigned a role (human, snake, or the Mongoose of Truth), then a trivia question is revealed, such as, “Who was the oldest when they died? A Marilyn Monroe, B Fredie Mercury, C John Lennon.” Before discussing it, everyone closes their eyes, the card is flipped over to reveal the answer, and the players with the snake role open their eyes to see it. Then the answer is hidden again, and the players have 2 minutes to discuss the answer. Players who get it right at the end of the time get points, but so do the snakes, for every player that got it wrong.

Bring a group of friends (up to 8) for drinksss and appsss and Snakesss!

Try the Original Sin cider!

Original Sin cider is made from freshly pressed New York apples plus blackberries and fermented with champagne yeast, giving it a dry, tart, and bright flavor. It goes perfectly with a rich hamburger or quesadilla, and a game of Snakesss!