WBG Score: 8
Player Count: 3-6
You’ll like this if you like: Dixit, Codenames, Decrypto
Published by: Hobby World
Designed by: Dave Neale
This is a free review copy. See our review policy here
Dubious first came out in 2021. It received favorable reviews from fans of social deduction, leading to calls for more content. This standalone expansion can be added to the main game to add more variety or played alone. It comes with everything you need to play the game. But how does it play? Let's get it to the table and find out.
How To Set Up Dubious
There are three new settings with this version of Dubious: Science Fiction, Cthulhu, and Antiquity. Make your choice of which arena you want your game to be set in and take one reference sheet from this choice for each player. Give this along with a pencil, clip, record sheet, and screen to each player. Players will now affix the setting card to the middle of their screen with the clips. Place this around the record sheet so the screen shields your sheet from all other players' gaze.
Next, take the occupation and secret cards from your chosen setting, shuffle each deck separately, and deal out two of each card to all players. Players will choose one occupation and one secret card to play as from their choice of two. They will mark their choice on their player sheet, along with the other card they saw but did not choose. This helps them eliminate one option from their guesses for the other players.
Finally, set up the questions for the game. You will need to have two appearance questions and three assorted questions. Take the three thematic questions linked to your chosen scenario and add these to the general question deck. Shuffle the two decks separately, then draw one appearance card, one general card, a second appearance card, then two more general cards and stack them in this order with the first appearance deck on top. You are now ready to play.
How To Play Dubious
One person will now read out the first question aloud. All players will write their answer to this question on their record sheet. You will want to answer the question in a way that hints at your occupation and secret. To score points, you need for at least one other player to guess your occupation and secret correctly. But if everyone guesses correctly because your answers were too obvious, you will score nothing, and the other players will score instead. Equally, if no one guesses as your answers were too vague, again you score nothing, and the other players score instead.
Think about your roles and how they link to their choices in the game, and try to write answers that give some clues, based on the other players playing and how well you think they know you, so you can find the balance between blatant and obscure!
The remaining four questions are then read out, and again all players write their answers. When this is done, players take turns reading out their answers to all five questions. As this happens, players take notes on their record sheet, trying to figure out what each other player's occupation and secret is. For each answer they give you can take notes and make a guess, then there is a space on the record sheet for you to note down your final guess for each player.
Players then read their answers aloud one final time, and each player now has 30 seconds to make their final guess. There are then two final minutes to sort your guesses out, before all players reveal their answers aloud. Each player will score a point for each correct guess they make for other players' occupation and secret, as well as a point for each time someone else guesses their own occupation and secret correctly. Unless of course, everyone guesses correctly, in which case they score nothing. The player with the most points wins.
Is It Fun? Dubious Party Game Review
Dubious is incredibly simple to play and teach, and you will get through a round in no time at all. This is all the vital ingredients for a good party game. But is it any fun? Well, yes. It is a lot of fun. Working out your own answers to find the balance between being too obvious, but knowing you are giving just enough information away so that some of the other players guess correctly is a very enjoyable experience. If you like that sort of thing. There will be some players who find this too difficult. And some combinations of secret and occupation are just too similar to allow you the freedom to do this well. Being a Gladiator or Pirate who was raised by Barbarians for example can be a hard combination.
However, if you enjoy this sort of thought process, and the deduction required to then figure out what the other players are talking about, you will have a lot of fun with this game. Guessing correctly based on a few obscure clues feels incredibly satisfying, especially if not every other player managed to do this. There is then a shared moment of celebration between you as the guesser and the player who gave that answer as you both score from it.
Conversely, when players are not on your wavelength and do not understand what you were hinting at by only wearing one boot because the other was stolen at the local baths, it can be frustrating. This is just an example though of course. This absolutely did not happen to me, leading to a rant about how obvious this was, questioning loudly why my fellow players did not figure this out!
There is enough variation in this box to play the game over and over, but by the very nature that this is an expansion with three new settings, I suppose after time, you will grow tired of these three arenas and the occupations and secrets they offer. But great news! The original game is still being printed and offers three more. If you already own that, well, now you have six, and I suppose that will take longer for you to outplay all the scenarios. We have played it eight times in just one weekend and loved every minute! I think it would take 50-100 plays before I was wanting more due to repetition.
I would recommend this to anyone who enjoyed the original game and wants more variety. For anyone who doesn't own the base game yet, pick either one based on the settings and which three appeal to you the most. And if you are not a fan of social deduction, then well, this may not be for you. But there is no acting, no lying, no being put on the spot. This removes many of the things people don't like about this sort of party game, so I would encourage you to give it a try. The questions are written for you, and lead your answers in quite a specific way. This could be the social deduction game for people who don't like social deduction.