New Salem

You and several of your fellow 17th century citizens have decided to flee Salem, Massachusetts in the midst of the famous Salem Witch Trials to create an opportunity to start anew. You are all committed to eliminating any witch presence in your new town, but you also have your own selfish priorities for how development should be directed. Work to build the new town you envision while keeping New Salem free of the Despair wrought by witches.

New Salem is a hidden identity, deduction, drafting, and set collection game for 3-8 players that relies on simultaneous play to provide an extremely engaging social experience in under an hour. Each player receives a character card that determines the building types they will attempt to collect. Puritans must also pool their resources (Hope) to prevent New Salem from being overrun with Despair.

New Salem creates an experience where each player is working independently toward the highest score while also working together to prevent the witches from winning. Puritans must find a balance between selfishness and altruism to maximize their score while avoiding accusations of witchcraft.

New Salem lends itself well to the preferences and play style of each individual group. While it is important for witches to hide their identity, Puritans can choose whether to aggressively pursue a suspected witch and put them on trial or to attempt to remove Despair that the suspected witch is bringing into the town.