Mischief (Saturday Review)

In Tir na-Nog, ethereal Queen Titania and Lord Oberon have finally decided to not only end their age-old rivalry, but also to get married. For the big day, they have invited delegations from all the vassal faeries to come together and celebrate the grand occasion. As a faerie noble yourself, you also received one of these invitations, but which role your folk will play in this new combined kingdom is unclear. It is up to you and your delegation to be true faeries and form as many alliances as you will cause Mischief by Dan Cassar from Dream Cult Game Studio.

Taking on the role of a mischievous fairy is promising to be fun. Yet, you have to be careful and not overdo it, because you also need to ensure that the new king and queen see your folk favourably and promote them into the most important position. The setting of Mischief is certainly very enchanting. Imagine a long row of tables for each fairy delegation that has been invited to the festivities. As more and more fairies take their seats at the banquet, you have your chance to forge alliances or play tricks on the attendees to force them to leave. If you play your cards right, you will rise in the esteem of the new king and queen and the fairy folk that you have formed the closest bonds with will remain at the banquet.

Mischief and Maneuvering

As magical and mystical as this sounds, Mischief is really just a card game. It’s certainly relatively easy to learn, with very few rules, but it offers a lot of depth in the decisions you make and the tactical choices you are faced with. On your turn, you play a card that is numbered between one and five and comes in one of the six possible colours, which represent the six types of fairy creatures. You can then swap a card from your hand with one from a face-up card row to try and improve your options.

If you play a card of the same colour as that of another card already out in play, which represents a fairy guest sitting at their delegation’s table, and that is one digit higher or lower, you make friends with that delegation and gain a friendship token, which is worth a certain number of points, if you still have it at the end of the game. If you can make friends with the same delegation a second time, you flip the token over, making it worth more points and also locking down your friendship with that fairy folk. Nobody can undo that friendship any longer.

Cards not only come in one of six colours, numbered one to five, but they also come in either dark or light. If you play a card of the same colour and number, but in the opposite brightness, you play a trick on that fairy and can gain a prank token. Do that twice in a row and you flip it over to increase its value and lock it down, just like you would for a friendship token.

Deep Mischief

There are a couple more things you can do, but that’s all there is to it in principle. It might sound a bit complicated, but once you have played two or three cards, it all becomes clear. That’s when you realize that you need to keep a keen eye on the other fairies around the table. If someone gets a prank or friendship token, you need to steal it back from them before they can lock it down. Unless you think you can get your own token first. You also need to keep an eye on the cards available to swap with those in your hand. You need to plan ahead to either stop other players from scoring or to help you score yourself.

As the game proceeds, there are fewer and fewer opportunities for you to get a point token yourself. Cards that seemed to be really valuable at the beginning of the game suddenly become worthless. The game keeps shifting with every card that is played. You can just imagine fairies flitting to and fro, trying to create new friendships or pranking to influence the delegations that they think will give them the most points. The theme really does come to life and you start to imagine yourself with pointy ears and shimmering wings.

At the end of the game, there is one more opportunity to score. Everyone will have a few cards left in their hand that allow them to show their allegiance. If you are able to shift which fairy folk are kept in high regard, you can score another good amount of points and potentially clinch victory. The game isn’t over until the final cards have been revealed and the new king and queen have chosen their favourite fairies.

Review Copy Concerns

Now while we really enjoyed playing Mischief and it’s clear that there is a lot of depth to this game that you will discover the more you play it, the review copy I received had a few issues, which made playing the game quite hard. The artwork and layout of the cards made it hard to see what colour they were and some of the numbers weren’t clear either. However, the designer of the game has assured me that these issues will be addressed for the production version. So you won’t have to strain your eyes and triple-check if you’re playing a red card or a brown one.

Other than that, the rules can seem a bit confusing, but once you have set it up and played a few cards, you quickly know what the game wants you to do. See your first game as a pure learning game. Try different things and see what happens. You will soon realize that there is a lot to Mischief beyond the basic rules.

I recommend you play the game a few times with the same people and explore its depth together. There certainly is a lot to try. Every game will be different and hugely depend on what cards everyone is playing. As you change your approach, others have to adapt theirs. While you can have an overall strategy, you always have to respond to what everyone else is doing. Tactics are much more important.

I think Mischief is a really interesting game. While the setting is enchanting, it could easily be a more abstract game and be just as enjoyable. I can see myself playing this game many times and always discovering something new. So, long live Queen Titania and Lord Oberon. May they cause a lot of Mischief.

Useful Links

• Mischief: https://www.dancassar.com/
• Rulebook: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QoraSbsDTMGiL_EMi3rCOGjG0PtJE9dSFav13RThnZU/edit?usp=sharing
• Kickstarter page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dancassar/184207081?ref=bc1enj
• Dream Cult Game Studio: https://www.dancassar.com/
• BGG listing: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/396648/mischief

Videos

Transparency Facts

I feel that this review reflects my own, independent and honest opinion, but the facts below allow you to decide whether you think that I was influenced in any way.

• I was sent a free review copy of this game by the publisher.
• At the time of writing, neither the designers, nor the publisher, nor anyone linked to the game supported me financially or by payment in kind.

Audio Version

Intro Music: Bomber (Sting) by Riot (https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/)

Sound Effects: bbc.co.uk – © copyright 2024 BBC

Woods Of Imagination by Alexander Nakarada (CreatorChords) | https://creatorchords.com
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Playlist

These are the songs I listened to while I was writing this review: