The Brady Bunch Party Game: Are You The Troublemaker?

Here's the story of a brand new board game... Did you sing that line? (I sure hope so!)  So if you haven't already seen it at a Target near you, you might be interested in checking out The Brady Bunch Party Game! An interesting twist on the well-known social deduction mechanic, this one brings a classic TV show back into the limelight and is great for families. Let's take a closer look.

What Is It?

A social deduction game for 3-8 players where 1 Alice works to figure out who the Troublemaker is among all the kids. Roles for the children are not dealt at the beginning, as is typical with social deduction games, but instead, players have to decide based on the cards they are dealt, which role is best suited for them so that they can either help Alice (as the Tattletale) or get away with their mischief (as the Troublemaker or Sidekick).

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Who Is It For?

I think this is a great game for families. It's light enough where kids can play and really get into a secret role, but it definitely presents enough challenge where adults will still have plenty of fun with it. I think it would be great to pull out at a family reunion or holiday get-together.

Quality of Components

The quality is pretty middle of the road, nothing super extravagant involved, but also not going to fall apart after only a few plays. The cards are thin and could probably benefit from being sleeved. The board itself and the  character  standees are a nice, thick cardboard, but the stands for the pieces are a bit tight which can wear on the cardboard if you don't put them in carefully. The cards are all very clear and have nice colors which is definitely nice as well.

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PROS

• The different take on the social deduction mechanic of choosing your own role, while difficult, is pretty cool. I found it very nifty and liked it especially because you didn't necessarily get stuck in a role you disliked.
• Making noise while snooping happened (humming the theme song) was a great addition because it can be really obvious where people are picking cards up from if it's just silent, so I also enjoyed that rule.
  
• I think the theme works in the sense that there are a lot of characters, which this game needs, so it fits with hat you are trying to do.
  

CONS

Mostly, I think the cons are just looking at the pros from a different angle so a lot of these may be flipped depending on how you and your group feel about the game.

• The theme could have been any generic family, didn't have to be the Brady Bunch, because the game is pretty abstract in general. The theme will have the most effect depending on how people feel about this particular show.
  
• If you're not already familiar with social deduction games, I think this will be a hard one to start with because of that abstract nature. It can be difficult to decide which role to take, especially because you won't know which cards you'll get later, &, as Alice, it can be hard to make deductions depending on how willing players are to divulge info. Since there are no defined roles, it could be a silent start if no one thinks they have  good chance choosing the Tattletale role.
  
• It feels less like a party game and more like a numbers game. You have to try and take the information you gather from snooping paired with what's in your hand and what others are claiming to figure out who might be lying and what your chances are at having the lowest or highest score; so there's some math involved. When I personally think of "party game" I think of lighter card games or games that don't take a lot of thought, so for me, I would define this a little differently. 
  

Difficulty

For me this sits right around a 3/5 for difficulty. The game itself is very simple. You play a card, and if your snoop card was drawn you then look at a card while everyone else hums. Easy peasy! But, coming up with a strategy, regardless if you're a kid or you're Alice, can be pretty challenging, so that definitely brings it up a bit in difficulty.

Final Thoughts

Like I said, I think that this is actually a pretty cool game for families because it's all about making trouble and trying not to get caught, or tattling on your siblings. Kids could really get into it and parents could have a lot of fun too teaching their kids a new social deduction game.
I would say it's a little more of an abstract strategy game than a straight up, typical party game, but that doesn't mean it isn't still good! I think it plays quick enough that you could try it a few times, switching up the Alice role and seeing if you can try the different sibling roles too.
Overall, for the price point, it is worth picking up if you often have larger groups to play with!


Additional Information:
Designer - Prospero Hall
Publisher - Big G Creative
BGG - boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/256540/brady-bunch-party-game

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review. *