The ability to bluff is often put on a pedestal. It shows shrewdness of mind that is alluring, captivating and makes you want to be like the person who pulls off a successful bluff. But is bluffing really for you?
There is no need to enter a high-stakes poker game to find out, as there are many fantastic games out there where you can find out as much about bluffing as you can about yourself. Are you a good liar? Do you have a tell? Will your opponents figure out your subterfuge?
These are all questions that will be answered if you try some of the best bluffing games there are. Let’s get started.
Avalon: Big Box
Avalon is perhaps one of the best bluffing games you will ever find out. It’s a much more streamlined version of Mafia where one of the players will always get killed in the first turn and just have to sit out hours of debates and reverse psychology.
Well, in Avalon, two teams set out – one of the betrayers and traitors who want to foil the other team’s attempt to retrieve the Holy Grail. The Arthurian Knights will set out with a leader to try and complete quests.
Each turn, the number of players in the party will increase, with the team varying. For example. A five-player game will have three good knights and two minions of Mordred who will try to act as if they are the good guys, but then prevent you from completing a quest.
A quest is the company’s collective decision to go together and complete one of five missions. Fail three, and Mordred has won. Everyone and their mother will argue that they are not playing the Mordred side in this one, with the game really making for a good testing ground for your bluffing abilities.
Can you look your friends in the eye and convince them that you really aren’t Mordred’s minion and when they found you actually were this whole time, would they question everything you tell them afterwards? Avalon is hands down the best bluffing game you can play for fun.
Saboteur
There is treachery right in the name. In a game of Saboteur, players will be split into two teams of dwarves, with one trying to reach the end of the mine and retrieve the precious metal from the bowels of the earth and the other – pretending to be the good guys, while gently steering the tunnel in the wrong direction until all cards have run out.
Each player takes a team playing a card, which contains a piece of the tunnel and tries to reach the end. There are a few drawbacks, however, as the tunnel could end in three possible locations, and nobody knows where the gold actually is.
Players can have a look at the secret locations playing a special card, and then tell the rest if that’s the correct location. Here’s the thing, however – how can you trust them? How do you know they are not the Saboteur? After all, the ethics of business do not apply to this mining venture!
The game will of course soon show who the treacherous dwarfs amongst you are, and who are the diligent hard workers trying to tide the party over. Don’t worry, because once you spot the betrayers, you can use many fun cards and break their tools, leaving them without lanterns, carts, and pickaxes in the middle of the mine and unable to subvert your team efforts!
Texas Hold’em
Bluffing is a huge part of poker. It has led to game terminology such as “tell” and “poker face,” both of which are connected with the ability to bluff and conceal a barefaced lie well enough to win a hand.
The game of poker and Texas Hold’em, though, is definitely about your ability to bluff well, and it makes a big part of the game when you play in person. There are the emotions, the nervous jokes, the shaky voices that can all be betraying a weakness, or they could be just a clever ploy.
If you are wondering which is which, you can do some testing yourself with these real money poker sites that welcome new players daily where everyone is trying to bluff you into making a mistake. Poker allows you to see if you are any good at bluffing but remember – the game requires you to also have a sound knowledge of cards, odds, and actual success chances.
Bang!
Bang is another party-style game of hidden roles, random decisiveness, and the ability to tell your friends that you are on the Sheriff’s side, even when you are clearly a Bandido. The game can host up to 8 players which will be split into teams – the Sheriff & his deputies, the bandits, and the renegades who are kind of swinging for both teams.
Since nobody knows who is who bar the Sheriff, the dynamic of the game is fun. You roll dice and shoot at other players or can even anger the locals who then shoot at you with bows and arrows. Get too many of those, and a huge chunk of your health is gone!
The game is perfect when it comes to bluffing because if you play smartly, there really is little way that someone can tell what your role is until the very end. Deputies and renegades will swear on their lives that they are playing for the right team – until the renegades are not. It’s often a surprise for the sheriff as well to discover who the good guy is!