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You Fool, the first Button Shy Select is also the first published boardgame by Dr. Wictz.
Odds are you better know Dr. Wictz for their COIN inspired game Robotech: Reconstruction since a Button Shy Select game only has a print run of 250 copies. That said, hardcore Button Shy collectors know about You Fool due to the difficulty of getting their hands on a original print run copy, which are sometimes priced for over $100. (A pretty hefty markup for an 18 card game).
_The_Inquiry_ will tell you that You Fool is a "highly social" game that specializes in being a social game without deduction. In You Fool you are 4 clowns trying to build a human pyramid, but one clown will not be part of the pyramid. They are the Fool, do not be that Fool.:strip_icc()/pic5727065.png)
The heart of You Fool is that players are moved around using a series of movement cards, but the lead clown selecting which player is going to play a particular card never gets to look at them. Instead, all the other clowns get to look at a card and try to persuade the lead clown to give a card to a particular player.
_The_Inquiry emphasizes that in You Fool "all players insist that the person choosing the movement cards will both trust their intuitions and want to align with their motives. It's the heart of social deduction distilled down to the social element alone".:strip_icc()/pic5994794.jpg)
So how does Dr. Wictz go from designing a silly 10 minute social game about clowns to making Robotech: Reconstruction, a COIN inspired game that plays 1 to 2 hours?
If you are not familiar with a COIN style game, they are based off a system pioneered by former CIA analyst Volko Ruhnke in GMT'S Andean Abyss. COIN games have asymmetrical factions who not only have different abilities, but also different win conditions.
Dr. Wictz's Robotech: Reconstruction has 4 factions (players) seeking to reshape Earth's future after the First Robotech War. A human military faction, trying to prevent Zentraedi Civilians from revolting. An alien military faction trying to rally the plant around the human military in preparation for future intergalactic wars. An alien rebel faction working to lead a Zentraedi uprising to take control of Earth. And a human civilian faction looking to wrestle control of the government away from the military and reestablish civilian control.:strip_icc()/pic5993676.jpg)
None of that looks like clowns, so no connection between the design of either game, right?
Wrong. Social is the key word.
From The Board Game Hot Takes Podcast
Honestly, if you listened to us playing Robotech: Reconstruction you would of thought it was a co-op with the amount of talking going on.
A lot of games, even when tabletalk is allowed, there are not specific triggers that force the players to talk to each other about their strategy, and this card trading action in Robotech: Reconstruction forces you to talk about your strategy.
Just like the limited information and different roles in You Fool forces you to talk with each other about your strategy to best build a pyramid of clowns.
Dr. Wictz - Stats
Robotech: Reconstruction - 1 Owned
You Fool - 83 Owned (211 out of 461 Button Shy Games)
You Fool Available at PNP Arcade
Button Shy Rookie
The Button Shy Rookie blog pays homage to Button Shy giving new designers a chance by highlighting the Button Shy Rookies who later publish games with other publishers.
- [+] Dice rolls
