1567: Hunting Mr. X

We’ve played through a whole bunch of board games this weekend, and it’s quite difficult to pick a specific highlight. This morning’s Battlestar Galactica game was very enjoyable — it was the first time I’d been a Cylon player — but I think that it was our Scotland Yard game that made for some of my favourite moments.

We haven’t played Scotland Yard for quite a long time. It’s a fairly simple, straightforward game and thus it’s the sort of thing that often gets overlooked in favour of more complicated and/or flashy-looking titles, but it’s a hugely enjoyable game. Its simplicity really works in its favour, because it means you’re not constantly looking up rules or checking you’re “doing it right” — all you’re basically doing is moving around the board.

For the unfamiliar, Scotland Yard is an asymmetrical game in which a team of up to four detective players attempt to track down the criminal mastermind and all-round bastard Mr. X by chasing him across London and apprehending him. The twist is that Mr. X moves around the board in secret, only revealing himself after making specified numbers of moves. At all other times, the detective players can see which forms of transport he has taken — each space on the board is connected to at least one other by any combination of taxi, bus and underground routes, and making use of a route requires discarding a ticket of the appropriate type — but not exactly where he has gone. Thus, the challenge is determining where Mr. X is, where he is going and how you can possibly stop him when you’re all moving by the same rules.

Scotland Yard is a masterful game for the amount of tension it creates on both sides. Early in the game, it’s easy for the detectives to stumble around blindly, not having a clue where their quarry might be; at the same time, though, Mr. X is trying to quietly slip away without being notices so he is, preferably, on the other side of the board by the time he has to reveal himself for the first time.

The real tension comes from the fact that no-one ever feels like they’re “winning” until very late in the game, which is the only point at which it becomes clear that either Mr. X is probably going to escape, or the detectives are almost certainly going to catch him. Up until you reach that point — which doesn’t come along until the last couple of turns in many cases — both sides are constantly on edge, thinking “shiiiit…” while trying to outwit the others. It’s a particularly nerve-wracking experience for Mr. X, who has to make some tough decisions about whether or not he’s going to risk moving within capture distance of the detectives — who might not know where he is at this point — or try and get as far away as possible. The game creates a good feeling of “closing the net” on the Mr. X player, even with the very limited number of pieces on the board. It’s hugely atmospheric and a lot of fun.

Our game today went pretty well. I was Mr. X, which I was quite pleased about. For a lot of the game, I had the opportunity to sit back and chuckle to myself about how my opponents were making completely incorrect assumptions about which way I’d gone, but things gradually ramped up towards the end. I was within a couple of turns of winning — my opponents were down to their last few tickets, at which point it becomes more difficult for them to move around, particularly if they’d exhausted a particular type of transportation at that point — and I thought I’d outwitted them. Unfortunately, they managed to squeeze me into an unwinnable situation and I was eventually caught.

Scotland Yard is one of those experiences that is distinctive to board games. There are video games that involve hiding from one another and trying not to give your position away, but the implementation of the mechanics in Scotland Yard makes it a huge amount of fun to get together around a table for. I believe there’s an iOS version available out there, but I frankly can’t see it being quite as much fun. Part of the enjoyment is in listening in on your opponents’ discussions and thinking “I hope they don’t figure out what I’ve done”, and that’s something that’s best enjoyed in the live company of one another.

Anyhow. This has been a pleasant weekend away from it all, and I should have a nice relaxing day off tomorrow for the Bank Holiday. Then it’s back to shitting myself over whether or not I can find a new job. Yay.

But I’m not going to think about that right now. For now, bed.