Elevenses: The Guilty Party Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Elevenses The Guilty Party, a social deduction game published by Grail Games. Elevenses The Guilty Party is a new take on the Elevenses card game that adds in deduction.

We’ve all been there. You receive your invite to the monthly high-profile tea party, get all decked out in your glorious attire, arrive ready to socialize with the other elite members of society, only to sit down to face a wonderous spread of pastry and finger sandwiches and find a blob of dark red jelly on the front of your shirt. A body hits the floor. Then all goes quiet. Eyes shift to you. Questions arise. You’re detained. Police arrive. The inspector is bold and tastes a bit of the red blob on your shirt. His eyebrows furrow as he uncuffs you. And then he detains the entire room. Someone here is a murderer. And you’re still a suspect even after all of that.

Elevenses: The Guilty Party provides a spin on its original tea party themed release from 2013 by adding a little murder to the mix. Designed by David Harding and published by Grail Games, this new release casts suspicion on all. Now, which one of you has been holding a grudge?

The inciting event has occurred. The host has died, and players are beginning to point fingers. Each player begins with an identical set of cards numbered one to eleven. They shuffle these and place eight of them face down in two rows of four. They also receive a guest card which becomes their role at the party and a random guilt card.

In the center table: the host’s plate, their own guilt card, as well as the sugar bowl card filled with sugar cubes which are used to signify suspicion. As guilt cards are randomly distributed and only viewable at the start of the game by their owners, no one knows who is truly guilty. By end game, if the murderer is not determined, they win. Otherwise, the innocent player with the least amount of suspicion wins.

The Guilty Party is all about efficiency of action via hand management. On a player’s turn they take one of two