Fiesta De Los Muertos is a cooperative party game, a lot like a game of broken telephone. It feels similar to Telestrations but there isn’t any drawing. Basically you will start with a character, write down a clue, pass to the next player to write a clue that reminds them of your clue and that continues four times. Then at the end you are trying to line up the last clues with the original characters. It’s a good option is you are looking for something with a creative feel that won’t make people feel overwhelmed.
This game can be surprisingly hard. Everyone has their own interpretation of clues and it’s quite the surprise when you are trying to guess which clue goes with which word at the end. We’ve had a lot of laughs trying to figure out how we got to those final words.
As for the game itself, the Skull Boards are adorable, the cards are a bit small but it comes with a good amount. People will answer so differently each time that you’ll get a lot of play out of it even if the same cards pop up. I’d say it is slightly more of a game than Telestrations but the scoring still seems a bit weak. This is great for larger parties with it playing up to eight. It’s perfect for your friends who don’t like games.
Fiesta De Los Muertos is published by Old Chap Games and designed by Antonin Boccara. It is a 4 to 8 player game for ages 12 and up and plays in about 15-30 minutes.
Contents
- 8 Skull Boards
- 8 Answer Boards
- 8 Erasable Marker
- 120 Character Cards
- 8 Number Cards
- 16 Memory Bone Tokens
Set Up
Each player gets a Skull Board, an Answer board and a Marker.
Shuffle the Character Cards and stack them face-down.
Take the number cards for the number of players and place to the side.(1 to 5 players, take the 1 to 5 cards)
Take Bone Tokens:
- 4 players – no bone
- 5 Players – 1 bone
- 6 Players – 2 bones
- 7 Players – 3 bones
- 8 Players – 4 bones
How to Play
Skull Board Phase:
Each player draws a Character card. They will secretly read it and place it face down in front of them.
In their skull boards they will write the name of the character inside and close the skull.
Then Players will write one word that reminds them of their character and colour in a tooth.
Once everyone is ready the Skull Boards to the left. Players will read the word clue, erase it and write a new clue that is associated to the clue that was there before. Then they will colour in a tooth and pass to the left.
This continues until all teeth are coloured in. Once all the teeth are coloured in place the boards face down in the middle of the table.
Deduction Phase:
Place the number cards in a line on the table. Place skulls face up below each number. Collect the Character cards from the players face down and add cards until you have a total of eight. Place the 8 cards face up on the table.
Players will then guess which card goes with which skull and write their answers on their Answer Board.
Check for Answers:
Open the skulls and compare the answers. For every correct answer check a box in the strip inside the skull. Start from the box that matches the number of players. If you check off all of the boxes, close the skull because you have appeased the Character. If you also manage to tick the yellow box, you will get an additional bone token.
If you did not check all the boxes, you can use a bone token to check off a box.
The number of closed skulls determines your success. I don’t know if it’s just the parties I’ve been to but we’ve never managed to close all the skulls. Really it doesn’t matter anyways. This game isn’t competitive in anyways.
However if you think your group needs more of a challenge, they do offer a few a couple levels to up the difficulty. I’m just not there yet.
This is another one that really isn’t about a score, more just the overall experience and talking about how you got from point a to point b. A solid choice for a larger group of people, try it at your next party, it will definitely get people talking.
If you like Fiesta De Los Muertos, try:
Telestrations
Stella
The Skillful Meeple 
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