Black Plague Blind Date

Dating is hard in the 14th century, and as a matchmaker, business is slim. The plague has most folks too afraid to leave their homes, let alone go out looking for romance. Literacy is very low, so the letters you receive from clients are oftten difficult to make out. To make matters worse, you're not the only match-maker in town.

To come out on top of your rival matchmakers you will have to go with what little information you can decipher and find matches for your clients. At times it will be in your best interest you to work with your opponents, at others it will benefit you to set devious traps for them.

Love is in the air! But so is the plague...

In Black Plague Blind Date, players take turns choosing a card from their hands to play face down as a "blind date". They then must truthfully describe their card with 1-3 colored "info cubes" (blue = male, pink = female, black = infected, white = healthy, green = high class, brown = low class). Cards change hands during the exchange phase, then each player plays a second card face up next to any blind date. Blind dates are revealed and reputation points are scored based upon the best/worst dates. Matching two healthy townsfolk or two plague-ridden citizens will earn you points, but don't accidentally cross the two and spread the plague! The game is played over 4 "seasons" (rounds) with each season affecting scoring in a significant way. It's a quick-playing game of deduction and bluffing for 3-4 players.

Full rules are available under the Files section of this entry.

Black Plague Blind Date won the February 2013 Boardroomers Game Design Contest in the 3+ Players category. Entrants in the contest were limited to using no more than 20 standard playing cards and 10 cubes.