Dicebreaker Recommends is a series of monthly board game, RPG and other tabletop recommendations from our friends at our sibling site, Dicebreaker. Don’t forget to also check-out their list of the best couple’s board games.
If you’re of a certain age, you might remember filling out online compatibility tests as a lovestruck teen. You know, the sorts of viral “tag three friends” Myspace posts and Buzzfeed quizzes that would tell you whether you and your beloved were made to be based on your favourite film, which side of the bed you sleep and whether you put cream then jam or vice-versa. (The only correct answer is jam then cream, of course, but that’s an argument for another time.)
Fog of Love is a board game that wraps the central “Are we meant to be?” question of those compatibility tests’ in an affecting experience that’s part roleplaying game, part Werewolf-esque hidden role game and part min-maxing resource-management puzzle. But while individual parts can be compared to other games, Fog of Love is an experience quite unlike anything else on the tabletop.
The debut release from designer Jacob Jaskov, Fog of Love describes itself as a “romantic comedy” – a cinematic parallel that’s most apparent in its explicit use of chapters and scenes to play out the highs and lows of the players’ fictional partners over the course of their relationship.
In a short RPG-lite character creation phase at the beginning of each session, each player creates their avatar from a pick of both broad and specific physical features, careers and personality traits represented by cards. (Aspects such as your name, gender and race are left entirely in your control, with revisions of the base game improving its existing depiction of LGBTQ+ relationships.) With minimal effort, the handful of cards efficiently create characters that feel wonderfully human, with enough room to span from relatable to amusing. You could be an airline pilot with a facial scar and a seducing scent, a clumsy wedding planner with a habit of giggling or even a royal heir with a piercing who otherwise dresses in old-fashioned clothes.