Today, Restoration Games announced they are releasing Conspiracy: The Solomon Gambit at the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio on June 12, 2019. The new version features a robust rules update by the Restoration crew and stunning new art from the award-winning Matt Griffin. The announcement was made in front of a packed audience at the Dice Tower Live Show on the Dice Tower Cruise somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
“It’s thinkier than most of our other games, You are playing cat-and-mouse the whole time. The core conceit – you aren’t sure who you are in control of – is magical.” Rob Daviau, Chief Restoration Officer for Restoration Games
The original Conspiracy, designed by Dr. Eric Solomon, featured a truly unique mechanic. Players move secret agents around the board, trying to bring the mysterious briefcase to their HQ and win the game. But here’s the twist: The agents don’t belong to any of the players. Instead, players secretly pay the agents. If another player wanted to challenge a move, they would then reveal how much they had paid off to decide the outcome. This combination of blind bidding and shared pieces found its way into later games such as Kremlin and Nothing Personal.
As with all of their restoration projects, the design team of Rob Daviau, J.R. Honeycutt, and Justin D. Jacobson kept this core concept intact. They did make a few subtle changes. They cut the number of agents down from 8 to 6 to increase player interaction. They added train stations for easier movement, creating a virtual symmetry that accommodates any player count. Each agent now also has a special power that activates when they are moved. So players will need to account for this effect when deciding who to bid on and when to challenge a move. But the biggest change came in the endgame.
The subtitle to this restoration of Conspiracy signals the appearance of Dr. Solomon in honor of the game’s original designer. Now, if no one has won after a certain number of rounds, Dr. Solomon himself enters the scene. At the end of each round after that, a die is rolled, which could immediately trigger the end of the game, and the player who has paid off the most to Dr. Solomon wins. This creates an interesting choice for the players throughout the game: Do they pay off the agents that can help them get the briefcase to their HQ, or do they pay off Dr. Solomon and play defense.
“When we started looking at games to bring back, Conspiracy was an obvious choice, I immediately tried to track down Dr. Solomon and was crestfallen to learn that he was in poor health. We worked quickly to get this restored and released so he can see his game brought back for a new generation to appreciate. I would also be remiss if I didn’t thank David Parlett for his unflagging assistance in making this a reality. This game is a tribute to Dr. Solomon’s ingenuity.” Restoration Games President, Justin D. Jacobson
Solomon: The Conspiracy Gambit is scheduled for release at the Origins Game Fair and will retail for $49.95.
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