Mistborn: House War

With five players, Mistborn: House War finally had the right amount of noise around it: enough people making promises, enough people doubting them, and enough Mistborn flavour to make the bargaining feel like more than a dry exchange. The production is handsome and carefully put together, which matters when every deal needs a little performance.

Negotiation is the engine here. You look at what you need, hear what everyone else claims to need, and try to steer them towards an agreement that happens to suit you slightly better. Players do not merely share a table; they bargain, apply pressure, and decide who deserves help right now.

The trouble is timing: when each thing is meant to be played within that process. The flow can become a muddle, and the tension of negotiation does not always resolve into a clean, sharp decision; first you have to work out what comes next, then you can decide whom to squeeze. The rulebook earns a middling mark here, because it does not make that job as clear as it ought to.

I prefer it to New Angeles, though that is entirely a matter of taste and tolerance for disorder. It is not for everyone: if negotiation games do not appeal, or Mistborn means nothing to you, there are easier ways to spend an evening. For the right five people and the right friends, though, there is plenty of poison on the table.