Oh my Gods! (OMGs) by Tim Blank, is a mystery, deduction style game for 3-5 people set in Mythological Greece, on Kickstarter. Players investigate other players’ hands in order to deduce who has stolen Zeus’ lightning bolts. Each card is an Ancient Greek god, that has special powers when played. These can steal cards from another player, allow you to look at another players’ hand, or even cancel a card effect. Gameplay ends when a player correctly guesses the thief, or you are the last one standing.
At setup, a card from the deck is set randomly facedown aside, this determines the thief. Players are given a number of cards for their hand based on the number of players. Extra god cards are put in the center, called Olympus. On your turn, you have the opportunity to investigate players’ hands. You do this by asking if they have a card with a specific trait or even specific god. If they do, they secretly show it to you, if they don’t, then it goes to the next player around the table. This information is marked on your score card secretly. You then have the opportunity to guess the thief. This is optional, because if you are wrong, you are eliminated from the game. The third thing you can do on your turn is play a god card from your hand. While this does give other players’ information (since you play it face-up in front of you), it usually benefits you more than it does other players because of the power it yields.
OMGs does have quite a bit of “take that” mechanic, because of the Zeus card. Zeus is placed in front of the player who drew it at the beginning of the game (who then gets to draw a card from Olympus). Many god cards have powers involving the Zeus card, which typically hurts the player who has Zeus in front of them. A player might get targeted multiple times because of a Zeus card, especially in a 3 player game. However, if played right, the Zeus card can be used to slow down a player who has gained quite a bit of information.
OMGs is a good game of logic and deduction. For those that like logic games, this will be a fun game for you. We weren’t big on the theme, especially the name, since some of our game group was uncomfortable saying “oh my gods” when they were to guess the answer as it bears closely to using God’s name in vain. You can house rule this though, and not require players to use this term (we simply said, “ready to guess”). Other than the title, the game is quick, enjoyable and works well for players that like a Clue-type feel that is much more fun than the classic title.
We were given a prototype copy of the game.
