Hysteria preview

Hysteria Preview

It’s the Dia de los Muertos and a little girl named Luna has gone missing while looking for her dog Kiko. Luna has slipped through a portal and is now among the skeleton villagers of this realm. Hysteria is a deduction game where players will either be on team skeleton or team human. Watch closely because the teams are always changing.

Hysteria cards

Hysteria is a game for 6 to 9 players that will keep you guessing until the final moments. Players are given 3 cards which are placed facedown in front of them. Any players that have a human card in front of them are trying to hid any humans in their possession. Players who have a line up of skeletons are working to find the humans hiding among the skeletons.

Hysteria human card

Peek-A-Boo!

Each of the 3 rounds of Hysteria start with players peeking at a single card to the players on their right and their left. Gaining information will help you narrow down the search for the human cards at the table. Players then pass a single card to their left.

With the knowledge each player has and the new card they received, you now start the capture phase. Each player is armed with a single double-sided token. One side allows the user to peek at anyone’s card at the table. The other side allows the player to accuse a player of having a human in their possession.

Hysteria tokens

Making an accusation will start the finger pointing and the hearsay. Players will share what they know at the table. You never really know who’s telling the truth. Everyone votes with a thumbs up or thumbs down as to whether the accused card is a human. A positive vote will lock in that card for the rest of the game with a capture token.

A new card is added to each players line up each round until the end of the 3rd round. At the end of the game, all captured cards are flipped over and if 3 or more human cards were found, the skeletons won.

Hysteria Luna and Kiko cards

Spooky Scary Skeletons

Hysteria is unique because players allegiance can change from round to round. Being a human is a lot of pressure especially when someone peeks at the human card in your line up. Do you pass the card to your neighbor or do you go on the attack during the capture phase?

Hysteria cards

Once players get the first game of Hysteria under their belt, the strategies become more clear. Players on the human team that are good at bluffing will work hard to use the 5 capture tokens in the game using random accusations. The skeletons have to be more focused in finding the human cards at the table, no matter which round they show up in.

Hysteria is a really solid deduction game for anyone that games with 6 or more players. The game twists and turns and keeps everyone guessing as cards make their way around the table.

Brouhaha Games is launching the Hysteria Kickstarter on October 12, 2021.

A prototype of the game was provided for this coverage. Components and rules covered in this preview are not finalized. Read more about our preview policies at One Board Family.

Ryan Gutowski

I'm a huge fan of strategy games and pretty much anything that involves "city building". My love of board games goes back to my childhood and passion for building relationships with others.

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