Mind MGMT is an asymmetrical board game where one player is pitted against the rest of the table in a psychic espionage battle! At least, that is my understanding of the game’s premise based on how it was explained to me. Being introduced to a game by someone who is already familiar with its contents and mechanics is a deeply familiar and consistent experience I have had throughout my life. While we have spent an ample amount of time in this course discussing rulebooks and their wordings, in my past experience, I rarely ever turn to a game’s provided rulebook to learn how to play a game–instead, I’m usually turning to another person.
To me, a central appeal and aspect of gameplay is the social culture of teaching and learning. As a teacher, I try to be conscious of the best way to present a game in a manner that is clear and compelling to new players. From the order in which I introduce the pieces, to the limitations I place on myself during gameplay, the social act of conveying how a game is played and trying to cultivate an experience that is fun to newcomers emerges as a kind of metagame itself. When I assume the role of a new player, I am primarily concentrating on following the teacher’s explanations, and at times, trying to find fun and lean into the feeling of being confused or bad at the game. Often, I feel there is often a soft, social/play contract between the new players and the teacher, in which the teacher is anticipated or even expected to win the first round of the game–in exchange, the new players are somewhat relieved from the competitive burden of actively playing to win, and can instead focus on gaining familiarity with the game’s mechanics and strategies.
My experience learning how to play Mind MGMT was no different. Me, alongside three other players who were unfamiliar with the game, were taught how to play by Bruno. Bruno dually assumed the role of the teacher and the game’s antagonist, acting as the recruitment agent that the rest of the table, who played as rogue agents, were trying to track down on the board. Mind MGMT’s game system which partially conceals the movements of the recruitment agent, but fully displays the movements of the rogue agents, created a very interesting dynamic for learning the game. While I will not be going in-depth into all of the game’s mechanics for this post, it is important to note that Bruno conducted his movements behind a divider panel, while the rogue agents moved their pieces on a communally visible central board. During the game, the rogue agents could use their turn actions to partially reveal the paths Bruno had taken to visit certain locations on the board to gather new recruits. The objective of the game from the new players’ perspective was to figure out Bruno’s hidden location and move one of our player characters to the corresponding tile that Bruno’s character was occupying. Then, we could use an action to “catch him” before the end of the game.
As the game progressed, we often asked Bruno questions about mechanics and different strategies of how to play the game. However, since a central aspect of Mind MGMT’s gameplay is social deception, there was a tension between Bruno providing us with helpful guidance, and him not revealing too much information which might lead to us catch him. There was a moment in the middle of the game where Isaac and I were discussing whether to gamble on using a character’s turn action to try and catch Bruno on a particular tile, even though we were not completely certain that he was there. Bruno chimed in trying to dissuade us from doing so, explaining that we would be wasting a crucial turn that may end up causing us to lose later down the line. Despite this, I goaded Isaac on and we ended up agreeing that Bruno was feeding us advice-like commentary so that he would not get caught. We confidently chose to spend an action attempting to catch his character, only to fail spectacularly. For a moment, I regretted that I had not trusted Bruno’s sincere advice, only for him to reveal that he thought we were trying to catch him with a different character–one who had actually been on the same tile as him all along. In spite of Bruno trying to cover for himself, the advice he used to dissuade us did hold up in the long run and we end up losing because we squandered that turn.
To me, this exchange reveals something critical about how asymmetrical and social deception games intersect with the culture of learning games from other players. A careful balance must be struck between teaching new players soft strategy skills, such as how to throw out realistic red herrings, while also not making the new players feel like their ignorance of the game is being taken advantage of. I felt that through this interaction Bruno skillfully managed to show us how to be both a good rogue agent and a good recruitment agent. By combining potentially misleading, but generally solid game advice, he was able to service both roles simultaneously. While we were certainly duped, I cannot wait to play again now that I’ve learned a thing or two about all the right ways to lie through my teeth in a thrilling game of Mind MGMT.
A special thank you to Bruno, Noor, Daisy, and Isaac for being such fun fellow psychics!
