Game Tips for Nuns on the Run

10

Andy {Avid Gamer}

Aug 18th, 2011| Tip

23 of 24 gamers found this helpful

“Mark doors to help with line-of-sight”

The first few times playing this game, the biggest complaint in our group was the difficulty of noting where doors were on the board. Due to the paths needing to be marked, there are many spots where doors exist but barely appear in the artwork.

Players tend to inadvertently give away a little information about where they are when they are very intently studying a certain spot on the board to see if a door is there (of course, one could do this to try and confuse the guard player(s)).

In general, doors appear anywhere rooms change, but that knowledge may still not be enough.

I’ve found it helps to use something to mark where doors are. Small glass beads work, or wooden cubes from other games. Keep them off to the side (off the path).

Additionally, while playing the guards, I like to specifically point out each door that blocks my line-of-sight, to help speed up the phase and minimize player’s accidently revealing their position.

3

Quentin Bauer {Casual Gamer}

Jun 23rd, 2011| Tip

24 of 26 gamers found this helpful

“New players”

On your first run through the game, don’t play the nuns. It might color your perception of the game. Much more fun to play the runners on your first time out.

6

Finched {Casual Gamer}

Apr 9th, 2013| Rule

23 of 25 gamers found this helpful

“2 player game”

So the box says two players can play. Tried it out that way. Found that it is more fun (game actually last a few turns) if the one person who is playing the guards only uses one of them- makes it truly a cat-and-mouse game. Still, would be more fun with more people to make it both challenging and fun for the novices and the guards.

10

Andy {Avid Gamer}

Oct 21st, 2011| Tip

19 of 21 gamers found this helpful

“False Noise blessing card is helpful when playing the nuns (guards)”

Many players, when they first draw a False Noise blessing when playing the nuns will want to discard it, or hope to draw another. On the surface this card appears tailored to the novices (play a noise token next to a guard). The most obvious use is for a novice to play the noise in a different direction from where they areto throw off the guards.

As a guard, False Noise can be an excellent card!

Guards may only move off their path if they’ve spotted a novice (a vanish marker is played) or if they’ve heard something (a noise token is played). There are times when playing the guards that you have a good idea where a novice is, but you haven’t heard or seen anything, so you must move on your path. This is where the False Noise blessing works great. A guard can play it, allowing them to move off their path and grab a sneaking novice. This also works great to catch a novice that is behind you, but is unseen since you’re facing forwards.

If you’re a guard and draw the False Noise blessing, it can often be turned into a capture of a novice, which they generally don’t see coming!

3

Michael Anino {Social Gamer}

Aug 14th, 2011| Tip

24 of 27 gamers found this helpful

“Scotland Yard: The Grand-daddy of Secret Movement Games”

This is not really a tip but more of another suggestion like qbauer’s suggestion of Fury Of Dracula. Scotland Yard is the first Secret Movement game that I heard of and it’s still one of the best in my opinion. I’ve played Fury Of Dracula, and it was fun and had a good production to it but I felt it was a little too tough for the Vampire Hunters to actually kill Dracula. Drac has a lot of minions and in the night time he’s practically impossible to kill and finding him in the daytime is hard to do, and even then he was really hard to kill.

Scotland Yard has the one player as a Secret Agent that the rest of the players are trying to catch. Agent X moves around the board secretly marking his path on a pad of paper and revealing how he traveled(Bus, Taxi, Subway) but not how he traveled. It’s one of the best Secret Movement games I’ve played and one of the best Co-Op games I’ve played, and it’s one of the earliest examples of both, at least as far as I’m aware of.
If you like this game I’m sure you’ll like Scotland Yard too.

7

Dolus {Avid Gamer}

Aug 24th, 2011| Rule

23 of 26 gamers found this helpful

“Players may opt to remain "caught"”

This is a variant proposed by the game designer which can be a little more confusing to understand, but makes the game much more balanced.

Normally, if you’re caught, you MUST move 3-4 spaces back to your cell. If you move out of the line of sight while doing this, then at the end of your turn you flip your card back to “On the Run”. Now this can be very unfair because if a nun has freedom of movement due to another novice being seen or making noise, or has to turn around to move on their track and spots you again, they can immediately re-capture you. This is unfair and not fun, especially since you were being a good novice and returning to your cell.

The variant that the game designer proposed is that you may choose to stay “caught” as long as you wish. While you are caught, you MUST move 3-4 spaces back towards your cell each turn. When you are out of line of sight, you MUST remove your character token, but you may still keep your card as “caught”.

At any time when you are not visible to the guards, you may choose to flip your card over to “On the run” and continue movement in any direction you choose or play any movement card you choose. You may flip the card over to on the run at the beginning, middle, or end of your turn, though doing it at the end of your turn is not beneficial because then you risk being caught again. If you go on the run your first turn after being caught, you don’t place vanished or noise tokens, but if you do so at a later turn, you do.

7

Dolus {Avid Gamer}

Aug 17th, 2011| Strategy

24 of 30 gamers found this helpful

“Look ahead at where the nuns are going”

The nuns start along a fixed path, so you can know where they will be going. Plan your route about this knowledge to go as fast as you can when you’re away from the nuns, and more carefully when you know the nuns are closer. Sometimes it is best to wait a turn before moving in to let the nuns pass you by.

3

Quentin Bauer {Casual Gamer}

Jun 23rd, 2011| Tip

24 of 32 gamers found this helpful

“Fury of Dracula, anyone?”

If you like this game and mechanic, try Fury of Dracula, which is kind of a Nuns on the Run in reverse.

9

Granny {Avid Gamer}

Aug 15th, 2011| Tip

24 of 34 gamers found this helpful

“Play Letters from White Chapel Instead...”

Like others are saying, Fury of Dracula and Letters from White Chapel are better games. If these themes don’t work, Scotland Yard is the original Hide and Seek game. Garibaldi: La Trafila is also a great family game (uses the same mechanics as White Chapel, but with mellower theme).

I wish I had a tip for making Nuns better, but I don’t.

Nuns on the Run - Tips & Strategies

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