The Fear of Being Caught: The Resistance Session Report

Jamie Vizmanos
Sep 7, 2018 · 5 min read

Two spies, four operatives. Who will succeed?

Link to BoardGameGeek to get an overview of the game: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/41114/resistance

The start of the first game has an ease to it — I’ve played the game before, so I’m on high alert trying to find signs about who could be part of the enemy. I had drawn a resistance card, so I know I need to watch what I say carefully, or else I could get people pointing fingers at me despite my innocence. Chris is the team leader, and chooses to go on a mission with Bryant. Now, I know that first rounds don’t matter too much, because if you fail too early, it’s an easy target for a spy — the mission comes out to a success, just as I thought. I look at the two from the side, thinking Chris knew how to play the game, so he could either be really good at the game and be an ally… or a really large threat since he could be a spy. Next round goes, and Emily is the team leader. She sends Chris, Bryant, and I on the mission. We go through it, and once the cards were flipped over, there was a fail. I look at the two of them, and I get worried as to who it could be, since Chris is hard to read — but everyone had called out Bryant for being fairly bad at lying and tripping up on talking a bit, so we had ruled him as a spy.

Now, in fairness, I sat next to Bryant and he had his binder on his lap and writing the game session, and I was glancing over to see if the notes were in check to write this report later. However, I had seen he wrote “I’m a spy.” on top of the sheet of paper, and I moved my eyes away. I didn’t want to cheat or spoil the game, since it was an honest mistake, so I chose to keep the information to myself, approve all missions he was on, and not say anything in regards to him. The lucky thing was that everyone was already calling him out as a spy, so even without me saying anything, they figured it out.

Third round, Bryant sends Hannah, Austin, Emily, and I on a mission, and it surprisingly fails — making the game in favor of the spies. Once the fourth round hits where I send Hannah, Chris, Austin, and I on a mission and tensions become high as this one passes. It becomes a tie, making the last round high stakes. Chris and I, at this point, made a pact as we trusted each other, adding Hannah in the mix. However, we were skeptical about Emily, and I realized, in the end, this was our downfall. Emily believes that Austin is the second spy and tells us, however, we felt that it wasn’t him, rather, it was her, since the mission she was sent on had failed. Austin sends in the last mission himself, Hannah, Chris, and I, and we were determined that we would win… but nope. The spies had won, because Emily was right, it was Austin all along. She points out that he had been looking in Bryant’s direction constantly, but the timing was all too good that she had just been put in a mission at the wrong time.

Game two rolls around and I had taken the spot of a spy, along with Bryant. I get nervous as to what my game plan could be, but I can’t spend too much time quietly thinking it through, or else someone may get suspicious. Hannah starts off as team leader and sends herself on the mission, with me as her partner. Knowing well that we should pass the mission to gain trust from everyone, it succeeds. The round passes, and Chris is team leader next round, and he goes on a mission with Austin and I, and this time I also let it succeed. At this point, I’m certain my trust with them is strong since they need only one more win to pass the game. Emily takes the team leader spot, and sends Bryant, Chris, herself, and I on the mission, and this is where things get tricky. We need this to fail in order to be up in the running of winning, but I realize putting two fails in puts us four as a target for who the spies are. I hope that Bryant puts in a fail card and I take my luck to put in a success one, and thankfully, he fails the mission. Due to how the last game panned out, they quickly focus on Bryant being the spy, and he drew the possibility of me being the spy out the window. The pressure was on, as I needed to do this on my own now. The fourth mission comes, and Bryant sends Emily, Hannah, Austin, and I on a mission, and I let this fail. There is quick notice as to who the spy could be, and mostly everyone is certain that I’m on the good side, since the two missions I went on, regardless of who I was with, were a success. Chris and Hannah were thinking someone between each other was a spy, but they also highly suspected Emily. I tried to play along, saying I didn’t trust her, but honestly, I was really nervous at everything I was saying. I definitely can be the one who just tries to throw out long-winded and complicated reasons in these games so people think I really am onto something. Emily then starts to realize in the last round that I can be the spy, but I quickly change the attention and pull out any excuse I can think of, from having mission I go on being wins to how the ones she went on failed. Chris looks at me since I’m team leader and says, “If you want us to win, send me, Hannah, yourself, and Austin.” and I take a breath and do so. Despite Emily rejecting the mission team, it still is approved to go, and I let it fail. Bryant and I win.

I take a breath and realize, wow. This game is really anxiety-inducing.

    Jamie Vizmanos

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