While all of this goes on, there will be a lot of table talk. Players will accuse each other of being the fake artist. They will point out how another player's line doesn't make any sense and that, clearly, they must be the fake. So if the real fake artist can sow enough suspicion, chances are that other players will believe them and start to mistrust the real artists on their team. Once everyone has drawn two lines, it's time to choose who they think the fake artist is. The player who chose the word will do a countdown after which everyone needs to point at another player. Now the fake artist reveals themselves. If they had the most fingers pointed at them, they risk losing the round. However, they can redeem themselves if they successfully name the word that everyone was trying to draw. If they get it right, they win. Alternatively, if most fingers were pointed at a player who wasn't the fake artist, the fake wins. So there are plenty of chances for the fake artist to win, but playing against a group deserves a little advantage. Pre-pub link is up, and the game is getting great numbers to start. https://www.gmtgames.com/p-1083-wings-for-the-baron-deluxe-gmt-edition.aspx This leads into the biggest problem I have with the game: it’s a little too easy to play as the fake artist. Even if a player is outed as the artist, the artist gets a guess at the picture, and often the artist can win on blending in or especially the guessing. Just as Spyfall feels weighted toward the “insiders,” A Fake Artist seems weighted toward the fake artist/gallerist pair, since the clue is intentionally easy and it doesn’t take much to completely give a clue away if one of the real artists isn’t careful. This easiness can sometimes make A Fake Artist feel more like an activity rather than a game. But this is also what makes a real artists win so special. Since it doesn’t happen often, each one feels earned. And each game is memorable enough that just by looking at past drawings, I’m able to recall what that round was like. Many party games might have a few memorable moments like these, but A Fake Artist Goes to New York–especially with its “souvenir” paper–is a fun memory factory. Everything for the game fits in a compact box. Wonderful.

The real artists want to draw just enough to show their team that they know what the word is. However, they don’t want to draw too much, because otherwise, the fake artist would be able to guess the word that everyone already knows. The fake artist will do their best to appear as if they know exactly what it is that everyone is drawing. Yet, they will most likely be rather non-commital, maybe drawing a very short line or copying something someone else drew. Of course, they will claim they know exactly what they’re doing. Accusations and Finger Pointing Sounds simple right? Well it’s tougher than it seems. When drawing, players must find a balance between showing that they know what the secret prompt is without making it so obvious that the fake artist can guess it later. This gives the fake artist cover, because why would they draw something specific. They wouldn’t want to give it away.

5

Now the art making can begin! One line at a time, the artists take turns adding to the group’s masterpiece. These lines can be as intricate or as simple as the player wants, but one line only: once the pen leaves the pad, their turn is over. Now you can award points and go again, choosing a different player as the person who chooses the topic and word. Or you can just ignore the points. A Fake Artist Goes to New York is the sort of game where points aren’t important. In fact, it’s better without scores. It allows you to have different people play every round. While someone makes cups of tea, someone else joins in. If you play with younger children, they can play one round, then leave and join in again later. What really makes the game fun is the table talk, the accusations and the desperate justifications for why someone drew a line the way they did. As you can see, each player’s marks are color coded, so it’s easy to tell at the end of the round who drew what. There are lots of trees, a subtle monkey-looking child looking over the balcony at the monkey area, and a bed (which I later learned was for “No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed”). For my two marks, I drew a tree and a guitar. At one point in the round, the fake artist said, “A guitar? What, for like, ‘Hey, hey, we’re the Monkees’?” There was nervous laughter all around the table. One at a time, each player has to draw one line or squiggle on a piece of paper in their own colour pen. They’ll aim to contribute towards drawing the Question Master’s clue. Of course, the Fake Artist doesn’t know what they’re supposed to be drawing! You’ll want your scrawls to be vague enough to thwart the Fake Artist. But, it needs to be subtle enough for everyone else to recognise it…

It’s moments like these that make the game excellent, and the game is well-enough designed that these moments are plentiful. The category here was “music.” Can you guess the clue? After the big reveal of the voting and the fake artist tries to guess the secret theme, there is a big round of noisy, “What was that bit supposed to be?” or “Why did you draw this?” or “Oh! I thought that was its tale” and the next round begins with a new GM and new topic. After the 20 minutes, you’ll have gone round the whole group and you can choose to stop. Closing Thoughts on A Fake Artist Goes to New YorkYou can spot an Oink game easily from the other side of the games shop. In a world of big boxes with high art and armies of miniatures, Oink produce games with in business-card sized boxes using clear, simple modern retro styling. Distinctive. Stylish. Efficient. In addition, most advertising networks offer you a way to opt out of targeted advertising. If you would like to find out more information, please visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/or http://www.youronlinechoices.com. Now you can award points and go again, choosing a different player as the person who chooses the topic and word. Or you can just ignore the points. A Fake Artist Goes to New York is the sort of game where points aren't important. In fact, it's better without scores. It allows you to have different people play every round. While someone makes cups of tea, someone else joins in. If you play with younger children, they can play one round, then leave and join in again later. What really makes the game fun is the table talk, the accusations and the desperate justifications for why someone drew a line the way they did.

Once all the players had made their marks, we voted on the Monkees guy as the fake artist–his marks are the brown ones, and we realized those could be anywhere at the zoo–and we all had a big laugh when he had no idea what we had drawn, despite his earlier insight and mild promptings from the gallerist. Being an artist isn’t as hard as it looks. At least, you’re convinced it’s a shortcut to the good life. Fancy parties, wine and cheese, fame and fortune in New York. You just need to find a gallery owner who’s willing to take your counterfeit paintings at a discounted price.

Object of the Game

And the result is a game that stills allows a lot of laughs. Similar to Dixit, players have to avoid the twin ditches of revealing too much and revealing too little. If the mark seems to be simple symmetry, just copying what another player is doing, that is a dead giveaway for the fake artist–or is it? Even though other games have honed this tightrope before, A Fake Artist Goes to New York feels like a fresh concept because of the drawing. We’ve seen social deduction before, but never quite like this. And because the task is difficult and novel and because there is the shared goal of teams, the game remains consistently fun, no matter what role you’re playing. A Fake Artist Goes to New York uses a similar hook to Spyfall–one player doesn’t know what everyone else knows and has to fake it–but it attaches it to a drawing game. The result is a game that, while not quite as good as Spyfall, delivers much of the same fun with only a fraction of the angst. Each player receives a different color pen so it’s easy to tell who drew what at the end of the round.