Playtime: 30 min
Complexity: low-med
A solo game of deduction and hidden movement, with quite the original theme: you’re roaming 17th century London, trying to ascertain the identity of the “Dark Lady” Shakespeare refers to in several of his sonnets.
Track down the Dark Lady, try to get a glimpse at her to obtain clues about her identity, then state your conclusions out loud (even though it’s just you in the room) and check whether you’re right.
Black Sonata stands as one of most devilishly clever games I’ve ever encountered. The game runs on a deck of movement cards you assemble according to a simple formula, and that deck provides clues as to the Dark Lady’s comings and goings. So let’s say the back of the first movement card shows a beer mug—ah! the Dark Lady starts the game on one of the “inn” spots on the map; if the next card shows a cross, the Dark Lady moved to one of the four “church” spots, but since she was coming from an inn, you can eliminate two of the possibilities; and so on.
Each time the Dark Lady moves, you also move your pawn, and in so doing try to land on her path. If she moves to a location where you stand, you can take that location’s card (which has a hole in a unique area, different on all location cards), place the movement card on top of the location card, and flip both over: if the silhouette of the Dark Lady is showing through the (key) hole, you’ve caught a glimpse of her! The game rewards you with a clue card, and accumulating enough clues in that manner will eventually allow you to deduce the three characteristics that identify the elusive woman. But take too long to accomplish this, and the Lady will vanish into the London fog.
All told, each game lasts between 15 and 30 minutes and is a very pleasant, logical endeavor. It’s not a deep game by any means, but the sheer fact that designer John Kean was able to create a solo engine to rival the classic Scotland Yard completely blows me away. You can also adjust the difficulty level in multiple ways, which ensures everyone will feel comfortable ambling through dark alleys and slinking into one inn after another.
Most easily forgotten rule: In order to try to peek at the Dark Lady, you have to be at a location ALREADY when she shows up there—on your turn you have to move or peek, but not both. (Although Easy Mode allows you to move and peek in the same turn.)
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