The Name of the Rose – an involved deduction game

Are you good at deducing who your opponents are while at the same time throwing them off your track? If you can – or if you’d like to try – then The Name of the Rose would be a good board game for you.

The Name of the Rose is a board game that takes place in a monastery with suspicious monks. You’re one of the monks and you want to deflect suspicion from yourself while trying to figure out who the others are. And to do so, you’ll have to first traverse the many mechanics of the game.

With monks to move, non-monks moving around, player cards, a suspicion track, clue track, day/time marker, number tiles, color tiles, and event tiles to keep track of, the rules and mechanics can take a while to digest. Inevitably you’ll find yourself forgetting something: “I played my card, moved a monk, moved the piece on the suspicion track, adjusted for the day’s event, but did I move the time marker?”

So it may take a few times playing to get used to the routine enough to focus on the main goal at hand – deduction while throwing others off your track. But once you do, it can be fun.

So is The Name of the Rose a fun board game?
That depends on what type of mood you’re in.
While it’s not a rip-roarin’, laughing type of fun, it is a suspicious kind of fun. For this game, the fun is in the deduction and false signals. There are many things you’d love to do on your next turn, but with only 3 cards in your hand and what tokens are on the board, you may be limited in your opportunities. So how do you think on the fly and still achieve your purpose?

The Name of the Rose definitely keeps you thinking. So when you’re in that deduction type mood, this can be a fun game.

How long does a game take?
Our first game – with 4 players – lasted about 2 hours. Of course, there was much referring back to the rule book during that game. With a range of ages and with players unfamiliar with the game, games clock in around 90 minutes. But when playing with those that are familiar with the mechanics of the game, games should play under 90 minutes.

Is it a game for the whole family?
Not this one.
While our 6 year old did have fun the first time and wanted to play again immediately, the concept of deduction was lost on him. If at the start of the game he thought you might be the blue monk, then that’s what he would guess at the end – no matter what you did throughout the game. Younger players aren’t apt to pay attention to sly moves or bluffing, so the mystery is lost.

In addition, since it moves slower and goes over an hour, younger players tend to lose interest or get distracted by other things.

So our recommendation is for adults and teenagers (or like the box says 10+). And as you can see in the video review – our teenager says it’s definitely his type of game.

And thanks go out to Boardgame Revolution for providing The Name of the Rose to review.