Backstab: A Political and Strategic Live-action Card GamePlayers
5 - 12
Play Time
30 minutes
Mechanics
  • Acting
  • Betting and Bluffing
  • Player Elimination
  • Role Playing
  • Simultaneous Action Selection
  • Team-Based Game
  • Trading
  • Variable Player Powers
  • Voting

Backstab: A Political and Strategic Live-action Card Game

Backstab, A hybrid between a card game and a live action role-playing game, set in a medieval royal court torn apart by conspiracies. Backstab is a unique type of game meant to be played not seated around a table, but in a room in your house, or even a public place like a bar for instance.

Backstab is a game of politics without mercy, made of secret plots and double dealings. You are assuming within it the role of a Character who will have to interact and negotiate with other influential actors of this universe with the purpose of furthering your interests and ultimately, winning enough Victory Points to declare yourself victorious

Each player will choose a character to play, read his victory objectives and unique abilities. He will then start speaking in a corner of the room with other players, in order to trade cards or to propose helping with one of their objectives in return for a card, an information or the use of their abilities for their own benefits.

Each character has unique abilities, and you can use resources cards that allows you to create situations in your favor. You can, for example, force another player to answer a single question honestly, spy on the cards and objectives of a rival, or even send an opponent to prison under false motives.

The game is played with 5 to 12 players and each game lasts from 20 to 60 minutes.

Each game will be quite unique, even if each character keeps the same victory objectives, the opportunity cards will give you other ways to achieve victory. This can lead to quite surprising alliances and plots.