Pinched!
- Board's Eye View
- 6 minutes ago
- 2 min read
In Pinched! from Mighty Boards, the 2-5 players are burglars trying to enrich themselves by stealing cards from the various rooms of a house, with each of the cards representing a particular form of loot. It's a set collection game tho' where players can only store three types of loot (colours of card) in their stash, so - 'hate drafting' aside - you can expect that players will want to focus on no more than three varieties of loot cards.
The house you are robbing has several rooms, each of which has slightly different rules governing how cards are taken, but crucially you can all see what cards are in each room. Players take turns at being the Criminal Mastermind and each round each player chooses the room they want to rob. Tho' the Mastermind will want to be the only burglar choosing a particular room because they'll be able to nab all the loot there, it's usually in other players' interests to second-guess where the Mastermind is choosing to go because that will usually give them a better card than if they end up having to just pick up one from the basement. However, at higher player counts you generally don't want to find everyone has chosen to rob the same room.
Tho' you can keep your loot cards concealed in your hand in most rounds, you must place them in your stash in the round when you are the Mastermind. You'll need a good memory to keep track of the cards players have collected into their hands but once they are placed out in a stash they are on the table and in view for all to see; so you'll have a good idea of what sets other players are trying to collect. When it's your turn as the Mastermind you may try to make use of that to misdirect players so that they don't horn in on your choice of room.
Pinched! is designed by Jonathan Gilmour-Long and David Gordon, with art by Max Kosek and Kate 'Vesner' Redesiuk. It's attractively presented, down to its dual-layer box lid, so it's a game with immediate table appeal. There's an advanced mode of play with slightly more complicated rules for individual rooms but even in that mode Pinched! is easy to pick up and play. The core mechanics are set collection and guessing other players' choices, so this is a game that even non-gamers can quickly grasp.
