Incognito (game)

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incognito
Game data
author Alex Randolph ,
Leo Colovini
publishing company MB Games (1988),
Winning Moves (2001),
Venice Connection (2001),
Rio Grande Games (2006),
etc. a.
Publishing year 1988, 2001, 2006
Art Deduction game
Teammates 4 (special rule also with 3)
Duration 60-90 minutes
Age from 12 years

Awards

Game of the Year 1988: Special Prize "Nice Game"
Grand Prix du Jouet 1989

Inkognito is a board game by Alex Randolph and Leo Colovini from 1988, which in the same year received the special prize “Beautiful Game” from the jury of the game of the year . In France, it received the Grand Prix du Jouet in 1989.

The game first appeared on MB Games in 1988 . In 2001 it was reissued and distributed by Winning Moves . Venice Connection licensed the game to Winning Moves in 2001. In 2006 a German / Italian / English edition was published by Rio Grande Games / Venice Connection / Winning Moves.

It is designed for four players. There is a three-player variant, but it plays very slowly and unbalanced. Incognito is designed for participants aged 12 and over and takes about an hour.

Furnishing

In addition to the large game board (approx. 90 × 50 cm), the set of instructions and a prefabricated notepad with the names of the fictional participants, the box also contains 16 playing figures, an ambassador, the menetekel , 4 passports, 4 envelopes and 45 cards. The game board represents a simplified city map of Venice , the playing figures wear Venetian carnival costumes.

Game flow

Incognito is a deduction game with elements of luck and strategy . The 4 participants are each given a randomly drawn identity and cards of one color. The different characters who play in this agent race that takes place in Venice during Carnival time are:

  • Colonel Bubble
  • Lord Fiddlebottom
  • Agent x
  • Madame Zsa Zsa

Two of these characters ( Colonel Bubble and Lord Fiddlebottom or Agent X and Madame Zsa Zsa ) work together and try to complete a secret assignment that was previously drawn. This can be about the capture of a specific person or the achievement of specific positions on the board.

Locomotion

By means of skillful questioning and secret gestures and hand signals, you first try to find your partner among the players and then solve the joint secret mission. For this purpose the agents 4 each participant move on the game board, the movements by the warning sign , a kind of cube figure, is shaken and which indicates the legal move through ten colored balls, are controlled.

  • Red ball (available twice) means that one of your own pieces may be moved one space on land.
  • Blue ball (available twice) means that one of your own figures can be moved one space on the waterway.
  • Yellow ball (once present) is a joker that can be used either as a red or as a blue ball.
  • If you have a black ball (two available) you can move the ambassador one space on any path.
  • White ball (present three times) means that the player is not allowed to make a move with it.

You can only move your own agents with the blue, red and yellow balls. To question a fellow player, you move your own figure onto a space that is occupied by one of his figures or the ambassador, or the ambassador onto a space that is occupied by your own figure. Then the questioned figure is relegated to another space, so that at the end of a turn only one figure can stand on a space.

The waterways allow much more movement than the land routes; but fewer fields are accessible over water.

survey

If you meet another agent or the ambassador, you can ask him about his identity or his aspect (each player is either small, thin, fat or large, analogous to the pieces ). The other player must then either show 2 identity cards and 1 aspect card or vice versa. In both cases, one card must be true, the other two not. You should make notes about the cards shown, as you can only show the same combination of cards once in the game. After the questioning, the questioning player places the other player's figure on any free and unnumbered field. With the information gradually obtained one tries to deduce the identity and aspects of the other players.

Playing

If a team believes it has fulfilled its mission, its members shake hands and shout “Mission accomplished!”. Then check whether this was actually the case or whether you may have been wrong. Then the other team immediately won.

Venice Connection

The Italian publisher Venice Connection , founded by Alex Randolph , Leo Colovini and Dario De Toffoli in the mid-1990s, uses the characters from Inkognito as a label for the newly founded publisher.

Card game

In 1996 a card game variant appeared as Mini Incognito at Venice Connection and in 1997 at Abacus with 66 cards and an investigation pad . This game, which takes about 20 minutes to play, is designed for 3 to 5 players and can be rated as a pure deduction game with a teamwork character.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ludographie by Venice Connection at hall9000.de
  2. ↑ Bottom of the box of Inkognito 2006 in the board game database BoardGameGeek (English)
  3. ↑ Interview with Leo Colovini at hall9000.de
  4. ↑ Mini Inkognito (Venice Connection) in the Luding games database
  5. ↑ Mini Inkognito (Abacus) in the Luding games database