Do not be fooled by the theme - this is a highly interactive abstract

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Sjarmtrollet
Posts: 76
Joined: 02 July 2023, 00:45

Do not be fooled by the theme - this is a highly interactive abstract

Post by Sjarmtrollet »

The theme confused me, too, from reading the description I thought Babet was some kind of Dixit-game of word association and social deduction. But it seems to me that "believing in the oracle" is just mumbo-jumbo added to create a story for the game. Description such as:
Everyone is free to interpret the cards in their own way, based on their life and perspective. It is evident that everyone is free to believe in this Oracle or not. I
- doesn't tell you anything about how the game works.

No, this is an abstract reminiscent of boop in its fundamentals (with some 5 nimmt mechanics), where every move is a setup that might lead to an opportunity for your opponent. In both games you win by having a certain number of game pieces, and in both games there is a way of moving your opponent's game pieces. In babet, each turn you draw cards from two face up cards and a face-down pile; then you play cards, move stacks or skip any actions; either way you can't have more than 3 cards in hand at the end of your turn.

There is strategy in what cards to draw, what cards to keep, what cards to play and what stacks to move around. There is hate-drafting, locking down stacks and - I guess - gambits or baiting your opponent into playing the way you want.

The forced ascending order of cards upon placement and there being one of each value, each card numbered 1-30, limit the possibilities and provides some predictabillity.

The asymmetric gameplay where you're an evil spirit (red, Foutralous), or a good spirit (white, Artisous), presents different strategies. Still new to the game, with the UI giving no other indication of what faction I am playing than the name, which is indicated only by colors on the cards, I frequently have to double-check which faction I belong to or risk making a really bad move. I am not French-speaking, so I have no idea what connotations or associations might lie in the names used. I just looked it up, and babet means - as illustrated on the back of the cards - "cone".
Last edited by Sjarmtrollet on 22 November 2023, 12:16, edited 2 times in total.
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Shobu
Posts: 422
Joined: 04 January 2020, 04:14

Re: Do not be fooled by the theme - this is a highly interactive abstract

Post by Shobu »

Has this game been in alpha? Wouldn't have noticed it without your post, looks interesting
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