Indie Boards & Cards The Resistance: Avalon

This is a great game that really makes you think. It’s perfect for groups and creates lots of fun interaction. The box is a convenient size, making it easy to transport, and the rules are simple to understand. Games are quick, engaging, and very fun.

Bought this for my brother-in-law after watching him use a regular deck of playing cards as a makeshift version of Avalon. Needless to say, he was pretty excited to finally have the real game. The cards and artwork are great, the rules are easy to learn, and every game gets people arguing, bluffing, and trying to figure out who’s lying. It’s become one of our favorite games to bring out when we have a group over. If you like social deduction games, this one is a blast.

It isn't often that you find a simple game that can be played over and over again and still feel as new and exciting as the first time you sat down to play it. The Resistance Avalon is less of a card game and board game and more of a social experience. I'm sure most of you are familiar with the game Werewolf or Mafia, right? This game is quite similar but without player elimination and with more opportunities to deceive and be deceived. Avalon is a rethemed version of the original Resistance. Both play very similar, the reason I bought Avalon is for the player specific roles that it allows. Before the game begins players will be randomly dealt a card assigning them to either the good team or bad team without anyone else knowing. After that everyone will close their eyes and the bad team members will open their eyes to see who they are working with. The game plays out over a series of "quests". Each quest will have a quest leader who will assign a certain number of players to "participate" in the quest. The rest of the players will then vote whether or not to allow the quest to continue as assigned. When it is settled that these players are allowed to go on the quest they will be given two cards, a Success card and a Fail card. Each player will then submit secretly their decision and then they will be randomly reviled resulting in either a successful or failed quest. First team to reach 3 failed or successful quests wins. The opportunities for a bad player to deceive others is much more numerous than you might imagine. And any players from the good team will need to constantly be on their toes to catch them in the act of treachery. The game is full of lying, accusations, counter accusations and desperate pleas that others blindly put their trust in you trust you. Out of all the games I have this one has been the biggest hit with my group of friends. It was a little difficult to convince them of how much fun the game is, but after playing once everyone always wants to play a second and third time. I honestly have to leave this game at home or else whenever I bring it then it's the one that we play. The only downside to the game might also be the biggest positive, that being that you need at least 5 people to play. But if you have a large group of friends like me then maybe it will make it easier to bring to the table more often. I think I only paid $14 for this game on Amazon and have probably played it more than 50 times. If you have a large group of friends that aren't afraid to twist the truth a little then this game will definitely entertain for hours and hours on end. And besides when else do you get to point to your wife and at the top of your lungs accuse her of lying to your face all in the name of fun.

When our friends gather, this is inevitably one of the most asked for and played games. It scales well to large groups (we've played with everything from 5 to 9 people, so almost the full range of the game) and every player is active the entire game -- it's not one where somebody can be eliminated or left out. Game play is very straight forward and simple enough that even first time players can dive in with just a basic run down of rules, yet play changes enough each game that it is kept fresh and interesting. The games are divided into 5 different "missions" and an entire game tends to last only around 20 minutes, which is fantastic since most games that support a group our size end up being incredibly complicated or drag on forever. It helps, of course, to have a bunch of back-stabbing liars as friends but we all can't be so lucky. Each player is dealt a role card -- in the most simple of versions, you're either a good guy (Loyal Servant of Arthur, including Merlin) or evil (Minion of Mordred, including Assassin). Certain characters reveal themselves to each other before the game so alliances can be formed -- in general the bad guys usually know who each other are and Merlin knows who the evil players are. The basic object of the game is to complete a set number of missions through a voting system; good must always vote for success and evil is free to cause as much chaos in voting as they like. For each mission, there is a group leader who choose a team to go on the mission with him; all of the players then vote to approve/deny the questing team. After a team is chosen, just then team then vote to succeed/fail the mission...then on to the next group leader. Rinse and repeat. Once either team completes 3 missions (evil completes a mission by causing it to fail), the game is over. If evil wins, they usually celebrate like the true jerks they are. If good wins, the Assassin and other minions get a chance to guess who was playing Merlin; if a correct guess is made, evil wins. Evil wins a lot in this game, which is probably part of why it can be so fun. Every game also changes depending on which character cards are used and who ends up playing which role. Once everyone is familiar with play, there are a few other role cards that can be added in to spice things up -- Oberon, Mordred, Morgana, and Percival -- each will change the game play, with an additional note on how to play each of the named characters written on the card. There is a fair amount of strategy that can be incorporated, especially as the more complicated characters and eventually Lady of the Lake (a card used to view other player's roles) are brought into play. If you notice that either good or evil is tending to sweep the missions, the named characters can help balance play in either direction, depending on which ones you add to the role deck. All in all, I'd definitely recommend this game. We're asked to bring it to every gathering and it hasn't grown stale yet.

My social deduction game of all time! The quality is excellent. The design of the game is excellent. It's always a ton of fun to play. The learning curve is a little bit to get over, but everyone that I've taught the game to has come to beg to play again!

As an owner of the original resistance and having bought Avalon for a friend, I've had a chance to compare the original resistance to this newer one. I won't speak about the details of the game here, instead i'll make a few comparisons below to the old resistance: 1 Do you like medieval or sci fi? Theme plays little role though honestly in the actual gameplay mechanics, but flavor is up to your preference. 2. New character cards: Honestly, if you own the old resistance (sci fi), you can actually just designate certain cards to have the new roles, ie. merlin = "morpheus" (one of the good guys looks like morpheus in the original resistance). This is another reason why i feel like buying the original vs avalon depends on your theme preference. 3. True difference: Lady of the lake is different. This card is similar to to the 7+ character plot cards from the original resistance. It's an interesting mechanic and I like it, although I feel like it's not really a gamebreaker to buy Avalon instead. 4. The "weapons" the leader passes out to decide who are the people to go on the mission are all only shields now. In original resistance (sci fi), these tokens have distinct guns on them, which could potentially be used to send messages or to provoke more interesting chat. I think this is a slight (but not significant) deduction of a point for Avalon. In the end, i think you should pick what flavor you like better. Original resistance can be played like Avalon; the only con of this is if you have to designate a new role for everyone's character cards, it can be confusing. If you don't want to have to deal with this minor problem, Avalon is good. I will say though, that playing with a Merlin character (and the other roles of course) are a GREAT improvement on the original game. So fun!!! Great job Indie Games!

As a self-proclaimed Slytherin, I enjoy playing games that require a fair amount of cunning: social deduction, persuasion, and secrecy. I bought Avalon to play with cousins (ranging in ages 13-29) at Christmas, and it was a hit! I would recommend this game to anyone who is a fan of lively conversation and sneaky deception :) A brief reviews of the pros and cons: 1) Easy to explain the game and pick up on easily 2) Aesthetics: the look and feel of the tokens was very nice-- even though they were cardboard, they had a matte, weighted feeling that was pleasant to the touch. 3) The game has many variations, and changes depending on what kind of people you are playing with-- it does not get boring quickly 4) The theme of the game-- who doesn't want to be a questing, or thwarting a quest as the "minion of Mordred" 5) 20-30 minute games, a perfect length of time to play multiple rounds, or slip in a quick game between other activities 5) Pairable with other Resistance games Cons 1) There were too many cards and pieces for a relatively simple game-- I think it could be streamlined and simplified, without losing any of the game's story or function. I found the number of cards and tokens overwhelming and unruly. 2) Materials will most likely wear down over time. Overall, a great game to play with many ages, for a very decent price. It is now frequently re-QUEST-ed at all our family gatherings.

Everything came as advertised Pros: Very fun Easy to learn Cons: Requires 5 players minimum

Juego interesante y divertido, original. Venía en perfecto estado.

An excellent social deduction classic, still fun even after being around for over a decade! Cards are printed on sturdy material and the box is compact but still provides more than enough room for all the tokens needed for the game. Make sure you buy from legitimate sources, watch out for counterfeits!

Played this with eight friends after giving it to one of them as a gift. Had a blast playing it, scheming, deducing, and trying to figure out who was with me and who was not. We played four games in a row, and only stopped because the night drew long. A great social game, as 90% of the game is talking amongst yourselves to try to figure out who is who, and what people's actions are giving away. In terms of the physical quality, the product is well made, with different tokens and cards that feel sturdy and not cheap in the slightest. The only thing I would've wanted is a specialized card that outlined the speech to read at the beginning of each game, as normally this is tucked away in the instruction manual. Would highly recommend this game to those who enjoy a more social kind of board game.

le jeu est vraiment très simple pour les règles et la mise en place, et très pratique niveau nombre de joueurs (5 à 10), et il est très amusant :) je trouve juste que les personnages spéciaux auraient pu être un peu plus amusants pour ce qui est de leurs pouvoirs spéciaux mais déjà avec les règles de base, et uniquement le personnage spécial de Merlin, c'est très bien ! le gros avantage par rapport à un loup-garou est que tout le monde joue jusqu'à la fin de la partie; d'autre part c'est plus rythmé, et avec une plus grande part à la déduction

ボードゲームの会で教えていただいて、面白かったので。ボードゲーム初心者の私には他の人に説明するのは少し難しいので、今少しづつ勉強しています。間違えて、日本語版じゃないほうを買ってしまいましたが、あまり関係なさそうなので良かったです。箱は思ったより小さかったですが、持ち歩くのには少し大きいかと思います。