You take on the roles of wizards who have been trapped by an evil sorcerer, with you all being his prisoners now. The players must work together and find the right path and escape before they are forever bound to these darknesses.

The only way out is through the help of a mystical Grimoire, which provides vague clues to help them to escape. The grimoire player can not speak; he only uses the butterfly markers to point out a specific part of the image.

However, there is one player who was ensnared by the sorcerer’s spell; this one is working against you. This Traitor will always try to trick wizards and keep them trapped forever.

In the board game Obscurio, the players are tasked with finding the correct exit card in each round. The Wizard and his Grimoire win if they can do this six times without running out of cohesion tokens. However, If they have no more tokens left, then the Traitor wins.

Game Components

2 Butterfly Markers

1 foldable Card Holder

2 semi-transparent red round plastic Sheets

2 printed transparent round plastic Sheets

30 Cohesion Tokens

84 Illusion Cards

1 Game Board

1 Progress Marker

1 Hourglass

1 Bag

1 Desk

7 Loyalty Cards

7 Character Chips

7 Character Cards

14 Trap Tokens

1 Evanescent Room Tile

   rulebook for Instructions

Speaking about the Obscurio Board Game material, it involves a lot of cards with a great design. Xavier Collette and M81 Studio are responsible for those illustrations. They have experience with similar games.

 M81 Studio has contributed illustrations for Detective Club and Shadows Amsterdam. while Xavier Collette has worked on Dixit: Journey and Mysterium

Obscurio card illustrations are correspondingly well done. The game comes with a variety of pictures that are not too gloomy. There are a lot of different settings, moods, and color schemes in this game. The scenery is nicely detailed with nice little touches that make it feel like a real place in the world you’re exploring.

Also, The sides of the Grimoire with the desk are manufactured from multi-layered thick cardboard, making it stiff enough to hold up. It comes with recesses for the 2 cards; they will not slip when passed around with the desk.

The markers are very heavy, like the desk itself, and they can stick to the desk magnetically. Those markers are placed on the cards. The idea that was certainly thought of here is passing them around so the gamer can have a better look at the cards.

Game Characters

Grimoire

This is the only public character from the start of the game. The Grimoire plays an important role in the game because they know how to get out of the sorcerer’s library. And also, they know the identity of the Traitor.

When the wizard team needs guidance, they turn to their Grimoire for answers. This role can’t speak, and it only communicates through pictures or visual clues so that the other members will know how to find the right door.

The Grimoire wins with the loyal wizards If they escape from their library in time. Although Grimoire knows who the Traitor is, he can not tell the wizard any information about it.

Wizards

The loyal Wizards will hide their character from others for most of the game. This group will try to figure out the clues that are given by their Grimoire and find a way out of the library.

If the loyal Wizards find a way to escape from the library in time, they will win the game.

Traitor

From the beginning of the game, The Traitor is hidden as one of the Wizards. The Traitor will try to confuse the Wizards as long as possible and make them choose the wrong exit. But he must be aware not to be exposed.

The Traitor will play against the Wizards and the Grimoire, so if they lose, he will win. If the Wizards lose all the Cohesion points, The Traitor will be the winner.

Game Setup

1-Put the board game on the tabletop

 2-Put the Progress marker on the upper part of the board in the first spot of the Progress track.

3-Pick which gamer will play as the Grimoire, this player will receive the 2 Butterfly markers, the Desk, the hourglass, and the Card Holder.

4-Start shuffling the Illusion cards, then put their deck face down beside the Grimoire.

5-Then, the Grimoire will draw eight Illusion cards and place them in the Card Holder facing up, and then close the cardholder. He has to make sure the other gamers do not see them.

6- The remaining gamers will select their character card and take the matching chip. Everyone will keep his card in front of him and place his chip at the center of the board. Those are the Wizards players.

Then draw one Traitor card and add some Loyalty cards until the number of cards matches the number of Wizards. For example, if you have four Wizards, you need one Traitor card and three Loyal cards.

Then start shuffling those cards and give one card to every Wizard. Each Wizard will look at his Loyalty card secretly and hide it from the other players. As one will have the Traitor card.

7-Put the Trap tokens in the bag.

You have to choose the game’s difficulty level. If this is your first game, It is better to start with the Beginner Grimoire level.

Take the number of Cohesion tokens indicated in the table. The Cohesion tokens number will depend on your chosen level of difficulty and the number of players, which includes the Grimoire.

8- Firstly, put the needed Cohesion tokens number with the monster on the gauge dark area; after that, you will put the other tokens on the other part of the gauge.

Keep the remaining game elements in the box for now. The players are ready to start the Obscurio board game.

Obscurio Board Game How To Play

The board game Obscurio involves a number of rounds until the Wizards and Grimoire make it to the end, escaping from the library and winning.

But when the wizard loses the last Cohesion Token, then it’s game over, and the Traitor will be the winner. With the help of Grimoire, The Wizard must find the correct door card that will lead them to safety each round.

The group needs to follow some simple steps to find the correct door in order to move the progress token forward on the room track. This is a cooperative game, so If only one wizard finds the correct door, then the whole team wins.

1-Round Setup

In each round, a player will draw one trap token, plus anyone that is accrued from the previous round. In each room, there is a trap token that tries to stop the wizards from getting away.

2-Prepare the Riddle

The Grimoire takes an illusion card from the deck and looks at it, not revealing its contents to anyone. This card is an exit for the wizards; they have to identify it to move on to another room.

After that, the Grimoire will draw two more illusion cards and place them face up into the magnetic book slots.

The Grimoire will use the two Butterfly markers to point at anything on the two cards that will help the wizards to know which one is the way out, following any trap token restrictions as necessary.

When the Grimoire is done, the other players will get the book so they can all take a look and discuss it.

3-Traitor Cards

The Grimoire asks everyone to close their eyes; after that, he tells the Traitor to open his.

Then the Traitor will see the Card Holder, which includes eight illusion cards. With the hope of confusing the Wizards, they select one or two cards that look like an Exit card based on what was revealed by their Grimoire.

Every chosen card is substituted right away. Those cards will be placed on the top of the Exit Card face down. Then all the players will open their eyes.

4-Choosing the Door

Besides the Exit card and the other cards that are selected by the Traitor, the Grimoire continues to draw more illusion cards until it becomes six in total, then shuffle them and gives them to the wizards.

The wizards will turn over the cards by sequence and then place them on the board around the slots. Once they turn over the first card, The Grimoire turns the sand timer over and begins tracking time. The wizards are now trying to figure out which card will get them to their exit.

When a player thinks they know which door might be an exit, they put the wizard character token in front of that particular portal. Wizards don’t have to go through the same door and can split up in order for them all to get higher chances to win.

But, each wizard who chooses the wrong door will lose one cohesion token. Once the wizards are satisfied with their chosen door or doors, they ask the Grimoire to stop timing.

But if the wizards run out of time on the last space on the time track, the Grimoire tells everyone to stop, and they lose cohesion tokens. The round ends without advancing any further. The longer it takes for the wizard to choose the door, the more trap tokens they will get the next turn.

Then the correct exit door is exposed. If only one player selects this exit, the wizards advance one space on the progress track. However, those who pick the wrong door will take one cohesion token and then put it on their character card.

5-End of Round

If there is no winner when the game ends, then reset the board and start playing again.

The Search For The Traitor

When the wizards take the last Cohesion token from the first area of the gauge, they start searching for the Traitor in the game, and the Accusation Phase starts. The Grimoire is not a part of this phase.

The Wizards will now discuss with each other and try to figure out who is the real Traitor; they only have one minute.

When they think they have found the Traitor, the accused gamer will then reveal his Loyalty card. Every wrong guess will make the wizards lose two Cohesion tokens.

If you accuse the wrong players and you still have other cohesion makers, another accusation phase can be performed.

However, If the wizards expose the correct Traitor and they still have Cohesion tokens, the next turn will be completed, but the Traitor can only take part in phase 3 until the game ends. he will no longer actively look for the door, but he will only continue to select extra door cards to cause wizards confusion

Obscurio 2-3 Player Gameplay

However, you can use the above rules only when you play with 4 players and more. But for 2-3 players, the game dynamics have a lot of differences.

In the 2-3 player mode, the game will be totally cooperative; the competitive factor will disappear. There will be no traitor to mislead the team; there will be just wizards.

 In the 2-player game, the wizard will often play solo, which means that there isn’t enough communication to share ideas with other players. This will lead to an environment with serious tones.

Also, your decisions felt more challenging (although also delightfully enlightening as the correct answer became clear because of the Traitor’s absence).

In the 3-player game, the players were able to interact with each other making it easy to identify the correct exit.

Our Opinion About The Obscurio Board Game

This card game is really fun and is for both people who like cooperative or competitive games. Obscurio is a cooperative game with a little touch of competition as one player will compete against a whole team of wizards.

This party game can be played with up to 8 players; it is the perfect choice for friend gatherings. And it also needs a time of around 45 minutes which is the perfect duration for the family game night.

Libellud Obscurio Board Game is so exciting and unpredictable that it makes your heart race and palms sweat. In this game, you’re trying to guess the correct exit card while being under time pressure and with any player around you who wants you to make a wrong choice or vice versa. The game is designed to make you think and act fast and have your full focus throughout the game.

Prepare to be amazed by the many different ways your friends can win this social game. There are 84 illusion cards, 14 trap tokens, and an asymmetric design, which will make every session fresh. this game has a high replayability

The game offers a high number of scenarios, with enough cards and tokens for players to have many combination options. You may assume that after numerous replays, they will learn how some cards connect better than others, but there are still plenty of cards available to make it a minimal issue. This game will provide hours of fun and laughs with your beloved ones.