Night Falls on Palermo

It's difficult to decide on this week's weekend engagement post because I collect gold and silver as a means of storing value, diversifying my assets, and appreciating their beauty. However, I will choose board games as my topic.

One of my favorite board games to play is "Night Falls on Palermo." This game is best enjoyed with six or more players, and the more, the merrier. I used to play this game almost every summer night during my high school years, and I still play it on rare occasions when I gather with friends.

Why did we choose this game over Monopoly? Well, we were a big group, always hanging out with 8-10 people. So, if we wanted to play something, Football and "Night Falls on Palermo" were the best options.

Here's how the game is played: Let's say we have 8 people. Among them, there are 2 or 3 assassins, 1 policeman, and the rest are victims. The roles are assigned by drawing cards. The game starts when the narrator says, "The night falls in the city of Palermo; everybody, close your eyes and go to sleep." The assassins then open their eyes and identify each other. Afterward, the assassins close their eyes and raise their hands, while the policeman opens his eyes to observe their identities. As the night ends and a new day begins in the city of Palermo, everyone opens their eyes.

The goal of the assassins is to first identify and eliminate the policeman before he can reveal the assassins' identities. Then, during subsequent nights, the assassins attempt to kill the remaining victims. The policeman's objective is to provide clues to the victims regarding the assassins' identities without being detected, as the assassins strike during the night. The victims' goal is to stay in the game by avoiding elimination. During the day, everyone engages in discussion, sharing suspicions and theories about the assassins, and each person tries to advocate for their own agenda by suggesting who should be voted out.

As you can imagine it is an extremely fun game to play because you interact a lot with one another and it can be played for hours and hours !