Totally Human

Totally Human is a light filler-length deduction and pitching game from Bitewing Games. It takes 3–8 players but, as a party game, it's at its best at higher player counts. The game is designed by Kasper Lapp with art by Dominique Ferland.

Players have a hand of number cards and are dealt three ID cards. The ID cards will either show a human or a shapeshifting alien. If all your ID cards are human, you're human. If any of your ID cards show an alien, you're an alien - but you are trying to pass yourself off as a human...

In each of three turns, players are given a card with a subject matter; for example, 'Best name for a café' and two cards pairing a noun and adjective. The humans can choose any of the noun-adjective pairs as their answer but the alien can only choose an option that matches the number on one of their ID cards. Once they've used a number on an ID card, they have to use the number on a different ID card in subsequent rounds; so in the last round they'll have a wholly forced choice.

Most of the noun-adjective combos are at least slightly whacky, and that's where the pitching comes in. Players will all insist theirs is a perfectly rationale answer and point the finger at other players whose answers they allege are suspect...

After the three turns, players need to place their standee on a rocket ship. Humans want only to be on a rocket with other humans but only the ship with the most humans wins. Aliens want to be on a ship with at least one human; it's the human that they will snack on during the course of their journey, so aliens win if they are on a ship with a human. There's an initial free-for-all placement but then players can move their standees to another ship; if that ship is already occupied they can only board it with the permission of all those already on board.

This all makes for a funny pitching game that informs players' deductions about each other's hidden roles. If you're human you obviously don't want to be sharing your ship with someone you suspect to be an alien but you don't want to be a lone human on a ship because it's only those on the ship carrying the most humans that will win. Totally Human has a lively party game vibe and, with its simultaneous phrase selection, it plays in just 15 minutes. And unlike the many party games that tend towards risqué NSFW content, this is is a game that's Totally Safe For Work.

#TotallyHuman #partygame #deduction #hiddenrole #pitching #bluffing #traitor #aliens #sciencefiction #filler