Shadow Hunters

Ladies and Gentlemen don't be fooled by the box art of this one!!! We missed out on two years of pure backstabbing goodness because we judged this book by its cover.  Please do not make the same mistake because this is our all-time favorite game!

What is it?

Shadow Hunters is a survival board/card game.  Each player receives a secret identity and must play cards and analyze players' behaviors to determine the identities of the other players.  Once you establish who is on your side and who isn't (or beforehand... Paul) you can begin damaging your opponents until they meet their maker. 

How to play?

The Shadows (the bad guy monsters), The Hunters (the good guy exorcists), and The Neutrals (the neither good nor bad humans) have been fighting in the forest of devildom to survive.  In order to ensure your victory you must distinguish friend from foe and then defeat your enemies with chainsaws, moody goblins, vampire bats, and those blasted banana peels!  Once you know your friends, attack your enemies to become the last ones standing!

Who to play with?

The more the better with an ideal game having 6 to 8 players.  With fewer players the game is much shorter and easier to deduce the identities of the other players.  I honestly don't think anyone was particularly thrilled about playing the game when we would first show it to them, but 93% of newcomers ask to bring it to the table every game night.  Oh and as we said before you do not have to like the look of the game nor the theme to have a blast with this one.

What's on the box?

What's in the box?

White, black and green cards (healing, damaging, and identifying respectively)
10 unique characters with their own special abilities
2 Dice (4 sided and standard 6 sided)
Gameboard and location cards
16 amazingly circular pawns (two per player)

The expansion adds 10 new characters and a few new cards to play to spice things up ever more! (highly recommended)

Favorite piece(s)?

Jirik's favorite piece is a white card called "First-Aid."  It is a very convenient card for when you or a teammate has a lot of damage on them and can reduce that damage to 7 OR this amazing first-aid kit can also take take a enemy from less than 7 damage to 7 damage.... fun huh?
Caitlin's favorite piece is a green card called "Hermit's Prediction."  Upon giving this card to another player that player must show you and YOU ALONE their identity card!  This is quite powerful because all of the other green cards only allow you to potentially reduce the possibilities of who they could be, while this card gives you everything including team, health points, special abilities, and complete control of that player (since you could simply tell everyone else who they are if they don't do what you want).

Similar Games?

Bang! has a similar game play with a western theme.  There aren't any cards to help determine identities of other players and you must only use behavior analysis to distinguish friends from foes.  We prefer the game play of Shadow Hunters; however, Bang! is the more popular game of this genre.