Pagan: Fate of Roanoake - Best 2 Player Social Deduction
Pagan: Fate of Roanoke is an asymmetrical two-player social deduction board game. One character becomes a Witch, a character hidden amongst nine villagers, whilst the other is the Hunter looking to narrow down the suspects to out, or kill, the malicious witch. A great selection of cards, mechanics and strategy make this one a devilish little 2 player game.
The Pagan: Fate of Roanoke board game is set in 1587 and is based on the Lost Colony of Roanoke, the tale of settlers who mysteriously disappeared. The game plays on the magic and the mystery of the event with a witch hunt style chase that would have been typical of the era.
So, a hidden identity game with 2 players? You’d think a 2-player hidden role game would be a pretty easy feat for identifying a traitor or a werewolf, as if it’s not me - it’s you! However, Pagan’s mechanics allows for an intriguing deduction battle for two that can last well over an hour. The key is that the Witch could be any one of nine characters laid out on the board, and the identity is kept secret until the conclusion of the game.
Disclaimer: whilst this isn’t going to be an explanation of the rules, (you’d be better off reading them here) but I’ll share enough detail so that you can get a real sense of the game.
How Does This 2 Player Social Deduction Game Work?
Let’s start with the Witch, who takes a single card from a 9-card villager deck. This card is kept secret. There are another 9 cards, depicting the same villagers laid out on the table in-front of both players. Each has their own abilities which can be triggered during a player visit. When ‘visiting’ players can start to leave tokens on villagers
The Witch is looking to get 3 or more Secret Tokens to the character on their card so that they can successfully perform a ritual. If the Witch performs a ritual at the location of their hidden character they win. Sounds easy right? However, to place these Secret Tokens the Witch must work up a number of Favour Tokens and repeatedly visit some visitors to build up the secrets, which may start to put targets on the back of certain characters making them possible victims for the…
Hunter! The Hunter is looking to Exonerate all other villagers or Eliminate the hidden witch character. As favours pile up and secrets grow the Hunter can start to place their Clue Tokens to build up some pretty convincing piles of Evidence Tokens. With enough (or the right combination of) Evidence & Clue Tokens the Hunter can either kill or exonerate a village. When exonerating the Hunter can draw from a deck from the remaining cards in the villager deck (identify characters that the Witch is not). If they draw this whole deck, they will know who the witch is - and, therefore, win!
The Hunter can also choose to Eliminate a villager, again when they have the correct combination of Clue or Evidence Tokens. If they successfully Eliminate the Witch, they win! This can be risky business, as 3 incorrect eliminations can also result in an instant win for the Witch.
Bluffing Board Games for Two Players & Couples
This set up makes it a great cat-and-mouse style hunting game where one character is constantly looking to get one step ahead of the other. Carefully chosen visits and the placement of tokens can be used to mislead the other player or make them think they are being tricked. This makes it the perfect social deduction game for couples as they can try and outwit and trick each other as to the real identity of the Witch’s villager card.
The game feels wonderfully balanced. At times, it can feel like the Witch is uncatchable, as they have additional Brews, Familiars & Enchantments to power themselves and have big swing turns. However, the Hunter can hit back with Allies, Locations, Events & Investigations chipping away at locating the true identity of the Witch. It’s really easy to mess with the other player’s game play, but be absolutely prepared to get it all pushed back in a single round!
Pagan can definitely feel frustrating at times, as you don’t have enough actions to feel caught up or safely pulled ahead. It’s a real tussle that can extend gameplay well over 60 minutes. I think seasoned board gamers will feel a sense of satisfaction as the game nears its end with the investigation narrowing and the real identity becoming clearer. There will definitely be an “A-ha!” moment for the Hunter, where the game changes from a guessing game to one of “how I am going to do this”. This is where the head scratching starts!
Pagan: Fate of Roanoke Verdict
For me and my partner, this is the best 2-player social deduction we’ve come across. As big fans of social deduction and werewolf games, we just had to try this one. It’s certainly different from anything else we’ve played. Whilst it’s no easy tea-time game it's one I reckon you’ll get pretty invested in once you’ve nailed down the mechanics of it all. I would definitely recommend grabbing a copy and trying this unique 2 player social deduction for yourself.
Please note, it can be a tricky one to master as, personally, I don’t recognise the mechanics to be similar to any other game(s) that I’ve played. With a respectable 3.05 weighting on BoardGameGeek it will introduce a few more complexities than your usual social deduction.