Snake Charmers Board Game Review
Snake Charmers is a hidden role game I can get behind. I absolutely suck at bluffing, so games like Coup are not good for me when I’m stuck with a specific role. In Snake Charmers, though, your role can change and I absolutely love how that works.
There are always two groups of people: snakes and others. In the middle of the table are numbered cards from 1-6 and they are all on their “night” side. The deck that players use will have all six numbers plus a couple 0s and a couple snakes. These are dealt out to all players, and whoever has the extra card is the active player.
On their turn, a player must offer a card from their hand to another player with an open door. Whether you are honest about the card you hand over is up to you. I might say, “Rose, would you like this 3?” and Rose can either accept or reject that card. At some point, though, Rose will need to accept a card. A couple things happen after a card is passed.
If the card passed matches a card in the middle, that card is flipped from night to day. If the card is already on its day side, it’s discarded to the box. If the card passed is a snake or a 0, then the player simply says, “Nothing has happened.” As the game progressed and cards get put into the box, the requirements to say “Nothing has happened” will expand. If there isn’t a five, for example, getting a 5 will trigger nothing.
The snakes win if at least one card in the middle is still dark at the end of the game. The other players win if all cards in the table are on their day side.
There is a lot of strategy here, most of all knowing when to shed a snake card. When things are going south, perhaps being the snake is no longer advantageous. Shedding it allows you to swap teams and perhaps increase your odds of winning. There is also a lot of deduction happening as well, as you try to decide whether someone is sabotaging the game or not.
I found this incredibly engaging, fun and easy to play, and is over pretty quickly which means you can play a few games over a short period of time. If you love hidden role games, or even if you don’t like me, Snake Charmers is something to look into!
Article By Adam
