Peaky Blinders Faster Than Truth: A Card Game of Bluffs and Gambles

Struggle for money, power, and prestige in this card game set in a gangster setting in 1920, where lying gets you more than the truth — but if you get caught in a bluff, you’ll lose valuable resources.

Published by Steamforged Games, Peaky Blinders Faster Than Truth is a 30-minute card game designed for 3-6 players. Themed around the TV show Peaky Blinders, the big question has to be: is it fun if you’re not already a fan of the show?

Gameplay

The intrigue card deck is shuffled and four intrigue cards are dealt to each player. There are also three decks of resources: muscle, prestige, and money. You take one card of each resource type per player, shuffle them together, and deal three to each person. You look at your resource cards, and then place them in front of yourself to form your stash, choosing two to keep face-down and one to be face-up. The rest of the resource cards are left in the center of the table to form the supply. The goal of the game is to collect five of the same resource and still have them at the start of your next turn to win the game.

On your turn, you start by drawing intrigue cards until you have four in hand. If you already had four, you skip this step. You then play two intrigue cards, resolving them one at a time. Each resource card has two abilities. One is the 'play it safe' ability and is listed at the top of the card. The card lists the name of this ability as well as how many copies of it are in the deck. The other ability is the gamble ability, which is listed at the bottom of the card. It also says the name of that ability and how many copies of that ability appear in the deck as a safe ability.

When you play an intrigue card you play it face-down and announce the name of either the safe ability or the gamble ability. The other players then decide if any of them wish to challenge you, if they believe you are using the card’s gamble ability. If no one challenges you, you reveal your card and perform the ability you named. If you are challenged, the card is revealed. If you did indeed name the card’s safe ability, you perform the effect and then can take one resource from the stash of the player who challenged you and add it to your own stash face-up. However, if you named the card’s gamble ability then you discard the intrigue card without getting to perform its action, and the player who challenged you gets to take one of your resource cards and add it to his stash.

When intrigue cards are discarded after being resolved, they are always discarded face-up. However, players may not look through the discard pile unless a card allows them to do so. This means players have to try to remember what cards were played, in order to make informed decisions about when to challenge. If the intrigue deck runs out, you reshuffle the discard pile.

Most actions will allow you to gain resources either from the supply or by stealing from an opponent, force players to discard resources or cards, allow you to draw more intrigue cards, and so forth. Once you have gained five resources of the same type, you must announce that you have enough resources to win the game. If you still have five or more resources of a single type at the start of your next turn, you win the game.

Review

Peaky Blinders Faster Than Truth is a clever bluffing game that is pretty simple to play but has a lot of enjoyable player interaction. There’s a nice buildup of suspense as players gain more and more resources, and since there are some face-down cards in your stash, you’re also always trying to figure out which sets players are trying to collect.

The core bluffing mechanism is nicely balanced, with a nice incentive to make you want to gamble, while also having to weigh that incentive against the ever-present risk of being challenged. Cards in your stash can also be turned over, face-up or face-down, from different abilities, so there can also end up being a memory component to the game as you try to recall what cards are face-down in an opponent’s stash.

There is somewhat of a learning curve and experienced players will have a pretty significant advantage over newcomers. It is a nice touch that for each card it lists both for the truth and for the gamble, how many of that card type is in the deck. But it’s a lot easier to track cards once you start to recognize the names and connect them with specific abilities, and knowing what an ability is can also affect whether you feel it’s important to challenge or not. You can’t simply choose to have players read out abilities as well as names, because the gamble versions are more powerful than the regular, play it safe, versions of those abilities.

The game’s theme of gangsters works pretty well with the gambling elements and trying to gather these resources. However, the artwork consists mostly of images from the TV show, which doesn’t really suck you in if you’re not already familiar with the show.

Peaky Blinders Faster Than Truth has plenty of take-that, and the end game is suspenseful and tight. There’s more incentive to challenge as you near your goal of five matching resources, since you can swipe a resource for a successful challenge, and set yourself up for a win at the start of your turn — rather than merely announcing the win during your turn, and hope to avoid being the target of everyone’s intrigue cards before your next turn rolls around. Player aid cards listing all the intrigue abilities might have helped with the learning curve, but Peaky Blinders Faster Than Truth is still a solidly enjoyable card game that can stand on its own with or without the license.

Pros: The mechanics and theme blend well together, lots of player interaction, fun escalation throughout the game

Cons: There’s a learning curve for the card abilities that gives experienced players an advantage, some of the artwork is a bit dull if you’re not a fan of the show

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.