Skull, a game designed by the ever clever Hervé Marly, is published by Space Cowboys, the team behind some of your favourite games like Splendor and Unlock. Skull is a game that has only thirty components and even fewer rules. It is, unfortunately, a little more abstract than most games, but nonetheless, an expert at social deduction and trickery. Skull is a game of wit, prediction, and trickery which emanates from its brutally simplistic rules.
Each player takes four flower tokens, a skull token, and a player mat of matching colours, and all of a sudden, they are ready to play. In a circle, players take turns to make one of two choices. Put down a token, which all looks the same from behind or yell out a number. Once a number is said, placing tokens ceases, and all players bid on how many tokens they think they can flip over without getting a skull token. The player must start by flipping over all of their own tokens before going to other players, which they may flip in any order. If you draw a skull, you lose one random disk from your hand; if you don’t, you flip over your player mat to signify you are halfway to winning. Don’t flip a skull a second time, and you’ve won your first game of Skull.
The Good
Like the remanence of the tribal warriors that adorn some of the tokens, Skull is almost always able to generate a terrifying sense of isolation and cohesion for its players. The electrifying sense of camaraderie that is generated instantaneously when your friend is one good guess away from cinching the game is omnipresent. In contrast, when you are the one who has to pick a tile to flip, you can feel everybody watching you, hoping that you make the wrong choice so they can still have a chance to win. This sense of terror emanates from the fact that only one person flips over tiles per round, meaning that this will be the final decision that they make. In addition, the fact that you only need to win two rounds to end the game increases the tension exponentially.
Rose Kipik and Thomas Vuarchex are the artists behind Skull, and they could not have done a better job. Their beautiful and simplistic artwork is plastered on a stark black background, amplifying the simplicity of the game. The bold colours and prickly flowers give the game an ethereal and deathly feel, much like the Dia de los Muertos or the Day of the Dead.
Actually, playing this game feels like an actor under a spotlight, watching the spinning wheel of the turn order as tokens get put down and numbers get bid up. Everything about this game is built with the idea of suspense and trickery in mind. The way that you can bluff by adding yourself into a bid, knowing that you have a skull in your pile, is always a terrifying deception that is available to you. The fact that every trick you attempt risks you getting placed under the microscope of being forced to flip tokens is exhilarating. Even watching somebody at your table reach their hand over towards your tokens, knowing whether that means success or not for them, but doing your best to hide it, is exciting. Every time you interact with other players, wether through bidding, placing tokens, or flipping them, you put everything at risk and also attempt to grab it all at the same time.
The stand-out parts of Skull come from its ruleset, box, and pieces. The limited ruleset allows for almost instantaneous comprehension, which means that play can start immediately. The rules of this game encourage this speed as games fly by in the blink of an eye and rounds go even faster. This is beautifully paired with the tactility of the thick and large pieces. Slamming down your tokens, building up suspense, and watching the careful bidding process will always be terrifying and important. The way that the pace of this game combines with the emotions that it evokes is absolutely incredible. Don’t forget, this insane box is small enough to bring anywhere, meaning that these eclectic emotions are ‘on the go.’
Without a shadow of a doubt, the moment when you will feel the glory of Skull the most is when you are under the spotlight when it’s your turn. When everything rides on your bid, your token, whichever one you choose to flip, everything is electrified. You are the center of the table, and all eyes are on you. I cannot understate how powerful this process is; you are literally subjected to the ultimate amount of suspense on the highest pedestal available. It is terrifying when it’s happening, exhilarating when it works, and utterly defeating when it doesn't.
The Bad
It is losing Skull that I believe to be one of its greatest downfalls. When you're placed on such a high pedestal, being ripped off of it because of a bad decision feels absolutely gut-wrenching. Watching the rest of the table react with jubilation as you regret making a bid is honestly painful. Skull does attempt to mitigate your loss by randomly discarding one of your tokens, but punishment is punishment all the same. The simplistic nature of the game means that being stripped of one of five tokens every time you make a mistake is devastating and seriously damages your ability to play the game. At any time, you could lose your skull token, meaning you can no longer get people out. Equally, you could lose all but your skull token, meaning you could never win another round that you start. While the existence of a potential peril is pertinent to a powerful game, this is over the top.
The glaring critique of this game has most likely been ringing in the back of your mind since the very beginning. While the constant take that trickery makes up the majority of the tactics, you will quickly find yourself in an endless loop. The game simplifies itself to “play the skull token early or late,” making you feel limited in any kind of tactical decision that is available to you. Even when you are bidding, all you're doing is guessing how many people chose to play their skull token late. This simplification dramatically limits the amount of tactical play that exists and abstracts the game into something even simpler than rock paper scissors.
Abstraction is another issue that this game faces. The lack of a cohesive story is infectious to the gameplay. Not knowing the purpose behind your actions severely hurts the imaginative world that most people are used to building around their games. Nothing stops an abstract game from having a strong narrative, for example chess always has a sense of push and pull, but Skull is lacking in this area.
Finally, the lack of strategic replayability is a glaring issue. As I mentioned before, the game (at a high level), boils down to the one-up-manship of rock paper scissors. Once you have understood the game to a great depth, there is no farther you can go. This typically wouldn't be a problem but because Skull is so simple, the understanding comes frighteningly quickly, thus limiting replayability.
The Other Stuff
The pieces of this game are built as coasters, an illusion to the perfect setting for a game of Skull. The portability, tacticility, and usefulness of the pieces are perfect factors of a game designed the way that it is. The simple rules, transportable box, and coasters all suggest that this is a light game perfect for a trip to the pub/bar/restaurant and one worth keeping in your back pocket.
This game is perfect for anyone looking for nice simple fun however it is absolutely not for the tacticians of the world. If you are looking for something that you could pull of your shelf no matter who comes around or bring to a location you might not want to take your more delicate games, this is the one for you. If you're thinking about getting this game for your family, why not look at some bonus content we have on it in "Fun For the Family"
Skull by Hervé Marly and Space Cowboys gets a Bronze rating as it simply does not afford enough content to the tactically inclined. You can learn more about this rating in the "What We Do For You" Section
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Reuben Levine
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