Fugitive

TL;DR

What: 2 player game of fugitive vs. detective – a simple challenge of trying to stay one step ahead.

Players: 2

Time: 10 minutes (or less if the detective is on form)

People: Great for couples or friends who want to go head to head

Available: Support independent designers and buy it from the creator himself

here⁠

The Gist

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Why we recommend it

Have you ever been chased? Maybe in a real-life, terrifying situation, maybe as a child by your dad pretending to be a monster or maybe just in your dreams?

It’s not fun, is it? But with that tension and adrenaline comes a great high when you finally get away. Fugitive is a game all about that feeling.

It’s sort of the spiritual cousin of a game we love,

Burgle Bros⁠

, and made by the same creator. It covers that moment after the great heist: the escape.

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This is a 2 player game in which you are either the hunter or the hunted. It’s all about reading the bluffs and double bluffs and knowing exactly what your opponent will do next.

The rules are quite simple: As the ‘hunted’ fugitive you’re trying to get from your hideout to your great getaway plane, but to do that you must go via a number of other hideouts without getting caught. You do this by playing those cards face down, as long as the number is within 3 of the previous. If you need to run further, you can throw away another card to let you sprint a couple more steps.

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As the detective, you’re trying to guess everywhere your opponent has been and then find them. If you succeed before they reach their getaway, you win.

You will try and find them by drawing from the fugitive’s location deck and crossing off each location you draw, as you know they can’t be there too. Gradually, you narrow down the options and eventual make a guess about where the fugitive has run to next, reducing their options.

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As the fugitive, this makes it a short, intense affair of trying to figure out how much you should bluff. Implying you sprinted far away, when really you only stepped virtually next door. How far can you get ahead to give yourself some breathing space?

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As the detective, you can go slowly but surely by guessing each location one-by-one. Or, make a bold prediction by guessing multiple in one go – but if even one of them is wrong, you uncover nothing. You have to constant weigh up whether to push your luck or to take it slow and steady.

This keeps the tension at its peak at all times, never giving you a moment to rest and then before you know it, it’s all over. The fugitive escaped and takes the victory – or was caught and the detective has the last laugh. You’ll curse your brilliance, your stupidity, those moments that were so close, Then you’ll laugh and shuffle it all back up, ready to go again.

If you like the sound of that, then support independent designers and buy it from the creator himself

here⁠

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