Waldschattenspiel

Jan 02, 2018

Waldschattenspiel is one of the best board games I've ever played.

The gist of the game is you place wooden trees on the board, then one player hunts the other players (dwarves) using a tea candle. The candle cast light that creates deep shadows behind the trees, which is where the other players hide. It's surprisingly effective, spooky and even (actually) scary.

The game is a little unbalanced in favor of the dwarves (the hiders), but I don't think that distracts at all. Originally it was designed as a kids game, with the parent playing the hunter with the candle, so that makes a little sense.

If you play it, make sure the room is very dark. While playing one of the dwarves, I could feel my heart rate rise as the candle moves around threatening to reveal my position. If the room is pitch black, the player playing the hunter can't see the dwarves at all, so becomes much more than a game where you're arguing the technicality of if the dwarf was in shadow or not.