VISITOR in Blackwood Grove is coming…

We’re thrilled to announce that Resonym’s next game, VISITOR™ in Blackwood Grove, will be coming to Kickstarter by the end of July! The game will be available to demo at Gen Con in August, and will hit shelves in Q1 2018.  VISITOR is designed by Mary Flanagan and Max Seidman, illustrated with evocative drawings by Maggie Chiang and featuring graphic design by information master Jack Hagley.  We have a zingy international team and a serious investment in fun. Welcome to our game!

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The Story

A spacecraft crashes in Blackwood Grove, and the only person to see it is a local Kid who races to the scene on her bike. Soon, dark-suited federal agents show up, but neither the Kid nor the Agents can get through the forcefield surrounding the crash site. Why do some objects pass through the forcefield, but others are repelled? Hiding in the craft, the Visitor controls the forcefield and hopes the sympathetic Kid can figure out how it works before the unpleasant Agents.

Experiment with what can pass through the forcefield, and figure out the rule to either save the Alien, or seize the ship for weaponization and the Visitor for research.

 

The Gameplay

Overview
VISITOR in Blackwood Grove is a puzzle game where one player (the Visitor) creates the puzzle and all the other players are racing to solve it! But be careful: if the Visitor makes the puzzle too easy, their opponents (the Agents) will solve it and the Visitor will lose. If it’s too hard, nobody will solve it and the Visitor will lose. If the Visitor makes it just right, their teammate (the Kid) will be able to figure out the puzzle and they will both win!
Details

  • 3-5 players
  • 15 minutes
  • Ages 12+
  • 3 Asymmetric roles: Visitor, Kid, Agent
  • Unique induction mechanic

The Secret Rule
VISITOR in Blackwood Grove revolves around a secret rule made up by the Visitor, like “Things That Contain Metal” or “Things That You Sit on”–the rule can be almost anything. The Kid and the Agents take turns choosing cards from their hands and seeing, according to the Visitor, whether those cards make it through the forcefield (pass the rule) or not. When they have gathered enough information, the first player to correctly prove that they know the secret rule wins, and if the Kid wins so does the Visitor!
Player Turns
Each player plays a little differently. On her turn, an Agent shows cards to the Visitor secretly so that the Kid doesn’t know what information the Agents have collected. On the Kid’s turn, she shows the Visitor cards from her hand publicly. If she can predict whether or not those cards will pass through the forcefield, she gains trust with the Visitor, which does all sorts of good things: lets her draw more cards, lets her see what cards the Agents have played, and more! On their turn, the Visitor simply shows a card to all players, trying to steer the Kid in the right direction while misleading the Agents.

Why It Matters

VISITOR in Blackwood Grove embodies the ethos of all Resonym games.  It has a unique aesthetic (crafted by Maggie Chiang) that is unlike other tabletop games.  It represents women in board games: in Visitor, women can be the good guys, and women can be the bad guys, but they cannot be overlooked.  Finally, it strives to better its players: specifically, the game was designed to promote inductive and scientific reasoning by encouraging players to formulate and test hypotheses about the Visitor’s secret rule.

 

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