Horror movie fans can live the in the tense world of Midsommar (2019) thanks to its spiritual love child Sacred Rites.
The plot for the tabletop Sacred Rites sees members of the Great Society come together to perform the ritual for the summer solstice. This is to honor the society’s gods and requires each person to recant a set of rites based upon their symbol and idol, the catch, not everyone can remember what they are. Sacred Rites takes some design cues from last year’s horror success story, Midsommar, and shares a plot that sees the protagonists caught up in a secret society’s Sacred Rituals.
Sacred Rites is a social deduction based card game with strong horror elements that may not appeal to everyone. It sees the players take on a member of the society and perform the summer solstice ritual based upon their following, this represented by a symbol and an idol. Each player is informed of their belief prior to play but to throw a wrench into the machine some of the players may be ’left out’ and not given a belief, instead they become an outsider and must convince the other players that they are true believers or face an uncertain end. If the outsiders can survive and work out the topic for the ritual then they win. If all outsiders are captured then the Great Society wins.
While all of this may sound a little creepy, then you are right! Outsiders must bluff and convince their way through the game to win, and society members must be confident in their belief to avoid being falsely accused. All while taking part in the ritual, that sees players chanting the clues and enacting any movements a player performs. Society members must be taken not to be too overly cryptic or timid in their answers to avoid suspicion, but not too obvious in their response to allow outsiders to guess the theme.
All in all, Sacred Rites is a simple to play bluffing party game that will be best enjoyed by players not afraid to poke fun at themselves. It is published by Story Machine Games and is available to pre-order from their website now.
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Source: Story Machine Games, Board Game Geek
