Should a party game be tested and reviewed, I usually come into the picture. What that means? I have no idea, but it must exclusively be something positive. When you talk about party games, they are always very accessible games. You get them easily on the table and they are usually mood-enhancing. As an incredibly fanatical player (every kind of game I want to win), I really shouldn’t say it but who wins with a party game isn’t that important. It’s all about the ambiance.
Phantom Ink is just such game. Although, a hard coreparty game it isn’t. In fact, winning is just a little more important than in, say, Hitster or Doodle Dash. How does Phantom Ink work? The players are divided into two teams: a sun team for the sparkling players who are eagerto go, and a moon team that doesn’t have that. In each team, there is one spirit and the remaining players on the team are mediums. The spirits pick an object card on which there are several words. Together, they choose one word. This word has to be guessed by the mediums.
It’s up to the spirits to make sure their teammates guess the right word. The sun team starts and takes seven question cards. Unsurprisingly, the cards contain questions. Two of the seven cards are given to the team’s spirit. The spirit then chooses one question to answer. The answer is written on the game board/playbook on the first line. Letter by letter. At any moment, one of the mediums can indicate that the spirit doesn’t need to write any further. This can only be done by saying ‘Silencio’ (not to be confused with the board game with the same name), otherwise the spirit can’t stop, as if possessed by some higher power.
After the sun team, it’s the moon team’s turn, and so on. Instead of answering a question, a team can also choose to guess the word. If the mediums make that choice, then one of the mediums has to work with the pencil to write down the word, again letter by letter. If the letter is right, the spirit taps the table twice. If the letter is wrong, then no ‘Silencio’, but a simple hand gesture (for free interpretation, but actually: raise one finger) which causes the medium to stop writing.
Note: on some lines, a new game rule comes into play. The all-seeing eyes on the game board mean that, before the turn starts, that team may ask one of the spirits to write down the next letter of one of the answers.
Phantom Ink is an extraordinary party game if you ask me. The theme itself is nicely conceived, but the game mechanics appeal to me even more. I love being involved with words and, of course, if I can put that into a game, that is very nice. But an extensive vocabulary isn’t that important. It’s more important to be creative and tactical. Some questions don’t match the word to be guessed at all, so you are forced to think out of the box, and some questions are just perfect for the word to be guessed, but you also don’t want to help the other team too much. After all, both teams see what answers are written down (the other team doesn’t see the question though). Well thought out and beautifully executed! Then again, the use of a pencil is debatable in Phantom Ink.
