Nothing can prepare you for this masquerade ball when the museum artifacts come to life.
| Night of the Mummy (2021) | |||||
| Designer(s) | Peter C. Hayward | Artist(s) | Mike Dashow | Publisher |
Jellybean Games |
 |
4-8 |  |
10+ |  |
15-20m |
Brian and I had the pleasure of playtesting Night of the Mummy by Jellybean Games on Tabletop Simulator this past Wednesday with the designer Peter C. Hayward. I was intrigued by this game because it reminded me of Halloween, which anyone that knows me knows I’m obsessed with anything spooky.
Box and Components
The images used in this article come from the Print and Play file and Kickstarter by Jellybean Games; opinions are purely based on the digital assets currently available and are subject to change prior to release.
The box design called out to me before I even read the description of the game. The initial box art stated “At this party, everyone's identity is under wraps;” this plays off of the artwork of a mummy enjoying a piece of cake. Before reading the description, you know it has something to do with a mummy, secret identity, and a party.
Mechanics
Night of the mummy is a hidden identity and deduction game. Each player will be randomly given an identity card that only they are privy to. Players will also receive two cards (yes and no) and a player reference with the monster abilities and the player actions.
Each character has different abilities on them. For example, the Mummy has “hide your face when you dance. Whisper No to all inquiries. You cannot be a Mystery Guest.” We will get to what dance and inquiries are later on. The Mystery Guest(s) is the character card that no one was dealt at the beginning of the game that no one knows what it is and is face down in the center of the table.
The Cat Burglar’s ability states: “After dancing with someone who is hiding their face, you may reveal to accuse only that player. You win if you are correct.” Depending on how the “dance” goes with a player, you could easily win the game; this happened during our first playtest of the game on round two.
Player Turn
During your turn you can do one of three actions.
Option One: Inquire
Option one is inquire, when you inquire, you ask a particular player/opponent if they are a specific character. The player that is asked will then pass one of their yes/no cards to the questioner face down so no one sees their answer (this is referred to as "whispering"). The questioner will look at their answer and pass the card back to the player that answered the question.
Option Two: Dance
Option two is dance; when you dance, you can ask a particular player to dance. They will verbalize their yes or no answer. If they say yes, all other players will close their eyes while these two characters share their identity. However, some abilities on the cards may allow you to still keep your identity secret. In this case, you will keep your identity card face down while the other player flips their identity so you can see it. After each has either revealed or not revealed their identity, you place your cards back to face down and all other players may open their eyes.
Option Three: Accuse
Option three is accuse; when you have asked enough questions and you believe you have narrowed down who each player is, you may say you’d like to accuse. In this instance, the accuser will flip their card to show who they are, then they will take cards of each of the played characters and distribute them in front of each player that they believe is that character. The accused characters will then pick the yes or no card if that is them or not. Yes if it is; no if it is not. They will go in a face down pile once everyone is ready, and the cards will be shuffled and revealed. If all answers are yes, the accuser wins. However, if even one answer is no, the game continues, and everyone now knows what the accuser character is. The game will continue in this fashion until someone successfully identifies all player identities or other winning abilities on the character cards cause the end game, as previously discussed on the Cat Burglar ability.
Related Games
This game is a standalone game that is the world of Dracula’s Feast: New Blood, which is the first in the Masquerade series of games by Jellybean Games. However, you can also add this game into Dracula’s Feast to add more roles as well as the new abilities into the replayability aspect of the game. I personally haven’t played Dracula’s Feast, but I will have to look into giving it a shot.
Final Thoughts
We had a lot of fun trying this game out and felt like it was a solid deception game. I’d like to thank Jellybean Games for giving us this opportunity to try out this amazing game, and I can’t wait for it to release so we can add it to our collection and do a full review of the physical game.
Links/Media
Night of the Mummy Board Game Geek Page