Review: ESPC: ExtraSensory Perception Combat

What would you do if you had ExtraSensory Perception? Since this is a blog about games the answer is clear... battle your friends in combat. That is just what you get to do in E.S.P.C by Stone Phoenix Games. My Wife Mary and I got to play a few rounds of E.S.P.C. designed for 2-6 humans 10 and up. And without any further delay here is the full scoop on E.S.P.C

E.S.P.C. is a fast paced bluffing game played until one player reached the VP goal. If you have 2 players its 5 and 3-5 players it will be 4 and if you have a lot of friends it will be only 3 VP to win. This game fits into typical card game box. The deck comes with several different card types first you have the VP cards to track your scores and the reference cards to help you on your way to mental superiority. Then you have the red cards, these are the reference cards that get laid down in the common area so that everyone is aware of the powers of all the cards that are in the current game. Lastly there are the blue cards these will make up the deck that will be used to play the game.

There are 17 different cards that can be used to play E.S.P.C. And there are 3 of each card except the Enlightenment card there is only one of those. You can randomly choose the cards or in the rule book there are suggested combos to use. Depending on how many players there are you will use between 4 and 6 different cards to make up the deck. There is a subset of the cards that are attack cards and these are used against the other players you'll need to have at least one of those in every game.

By issuing the challenge the player risks being knocked out of the round if they are wrong.

Now that you have the deck set and you are ready to play you will shuffle that new deck you made, set one card aside (face down) and deal one to each player. Now the fun begins, the first player draws a card then announces to the rest of the player(s) the power she is using. The player then puts the card they are playing face down on the table. The other player(s) have a chance now to challenge the player. In this game of ExtraSensory bluffing the player is allowed to declare that they are playing any of the available powers in this round even if it is not the card the player has set on the table with the exception of Enlightenment this card can never be the card declared it also has no special ability itself. By issuing the challenge the player risks being knocked out of the round if they are wrong. If the active player was bluffing and the declared card was not what they said then they are knocked out of the round. After challenges have been resolved (if there are any) then the active player discards any card from their hand face up on the discard pile.The game continues on until there is only one player left not knocked out of the round. This player then gets the VP for the round and you reshuffle and start a new round.

This is a fun game to play as a warm up to your game night or of you just have some spare time on a lovely afternoon.

The game play in E.S.P.C is fast and fun there is a lot of variation in game play due to only using a subset of the cards every time so this adds to the repeatability of the game. There are also 4 different variants on game play in the rule book. This is a fun game to play as a warm up to your game night or of you just have some spare time on a lovely afternoon. I would recommend this for someone looking for a lightweight game or someone new to games.

Designed by: Stone Phoenix Games

Players: 2-6

Year Published: 2021

Recommended Ages: 10+

Time to Play: 15 minutes per player