WBG Score: 7.5
Player Count: 3-8
Published by: KOSMOS
Designed by: Michael Loth
This is a free review copy. See our review policy here
Party games need to be easy to learn and teach, quick and fast to play, engaging throughout, and most importantly, fun! Belratti excels in all these aspects, delivering a high level of enjoyment along with a good amount of strategy and thought. Players will be engrossed from the very first turn, and the changing roles keep the game fresh. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays.
How To Set Up Belratti
Place the five joker cards in the middle of the table, with the Belratti card above them. Shuffle the picture cards thoroughly and deal them face down to the players. The number of cards each player receives depends on the number of players. For 3 players, deal18 cards each.
4-5 players, 9 cards each. And with 6-7 players deal 6 cards each.
Place the remaining cards face down as a draw pile. Next, distribute the character cards.
Based on the number of players, distribute the Cat cards (museum managers) and the Owl cards (painters) as follows: Two Cat and One Owl for three players. Two and Two with four. Three and two with five. Three each with six. And Four Cats and three owls with seven players.
Don't worry too much about who gets which role. After each turn all players will pass all character cards clockwise. Throughout the game, each player will assume each role multiple times. You are now ready to play.
How To Play Belratti
The game plays out over four phases. In the first phase the players playing as the Cat, the Museum Managers draw the top two cards from the draw pile and place them onto the table as the theme cards for this round. These cards represents the style of painting the museum directors are looking for when it comes to adding new work to the museum this round.
Then, based on these two pictures and their apparent ease/difficulty, the museum directors will now ask for a number of paintings to be offered from the other players, ranging between three and seven. They can discuss the number of required picture cards but they are not allowed to talk about the themes specifically.
In the next phase, the players playing as the Painters now must choose their pictures, based on the total quantity requested in the previous round. Painters are looking to select picture cards from their own hand that match the style of the two theme cards. They must agree on who places how many cards, ensuring the total meets the managers' demand. When their selections have been made, place them all face down into one pile. Then, additionally, four 'fake' picture cards are randomly added from the draw pile to the painters' selections. These are shuffled into one deck.
In phase three, the selected paintings are revealed face up to all players. The Painters need to try and remember which cards they played, and which theme they are linked to. But do not say or reveal anything yet! the Museum Managers now need to equip the Museum by selecting the right pictures. The museum managers can openly discuss their thoughts and must assign their chosen cards to the two theme cards. Their goal is to identify the painters' cards and sort out the fakes. The quantity of which of course was chosen by them in the first round.
Now, in phase four, the painters reveal which cards they played. Points are awarded for correctly assigned cards and deducted for fakes. Correct cards go to the team's point pile, while incorrect cards and fakes are placed on the discard pile.
For the next round, painters refill their hand cards to the original number from the draw pile. Character cards are passed clockwise. Two new theme cards are drawn and revealed and the next round begins.
The Joker cards can be used by both museum managers and painters for special actions.
The Museum Manager Actions allows the player to either question if a picture card belongs to a painter or not, or exchange theme cards if they don't like the options available to them.
The Painter Actions allows the players to swap any number of picture cards from their hand with new ones from the draw pile, add one less fake picture to the pile in phase two, or change the required number of picture cards by one, either up or down, based on the cards they have available to them.
The game ends if six or more cards are on the Belratti deck after a round. To determine the final score, count the picture cards in the team's deck. Achieving fifteen points or more means victory over Belratti. Your score can then be tallied to the score chart n the rule book. Over 30 is the best achievement. There are different levels from zero and up!
There are a number of variants in the rules that allow you to adjust the difficulty of the game, or simply to play the game faster.
Is It Fun? Belratti Board Game Review
This game is an absolute blast. Sometimes, you’ll have the perfect cards and feel like a mastermind—powerful, clever, and indispensable. Other times, it can be more challenging and even a bit maddening. If the thought of this kind of game makes you want to flip the table, it might not be for you. But if you relish the mental gymnastics of making one seemingly random item connect to another, you’re in for a treat with this little box of delights.
There are a few games that dabble in similar mechanics, but Belratti was among the pioneers and remains one of the best. It delivers a delightful package with simple rules, an intriguing theme, charming artwork, and joker cards that spice up the gameplay. It’s a game that’s as much about strategy as it is about outsmarting your friends, with a sprinkle of chaos for good measure.
I highly recommend this game to anyone seeking a new party game for three to seven players. It’s a breeze to learn, teach, and play in just minutes, offering lively and entertaining debates while giving players of all skill levels a chance to cooperate. It's perfect for all ages and abilities, with rotating roles ensuring everyone stays engaged. Plus, since everything is out in the open, there’s no need for bluffing or lying. The cards do all the heavy lifting, so no showmanship is required. This truly is the ideal party game for every personality type.