Watergate

One of you is the Washington Post. The other is the Nixon administration. Only one of you is trying to finish quickly.

Matthias Cramer's two-player card game about the 1972 break-in and everything that followed. The Editor is trying to connect Nixon to the scandal by linking informants on a board of real names - Liddy, Hunt, Dean, Haldeman. The Nixon player is trying to run down the clock and destroy the evidence. It is history as a tug-of-war, and it is very tense.

Every card can be played for its event or its value, and almost every event helps your opponent in some way, so the whole game is about which harm you are prepared to do yourself. The asymmetry is the design: the two sides want completely different things, on different timescales, from the same deck. Thirty to sixty minutes and it plays best repeatedly, swapping sides.

Perfect for: Two people who enjoy a proper argument and have somewhere to be in an hour.

2 players | 30-60 minutes | Age 12+