Goryō

About the game

What is Goryō?

Goryō is an asymmetrical game of investigation and deduction for two players, set in the mystical feudal Japan. One player will play the role of the Samurai guarding the Imperial Palace, charged with hunting down a dreadful spirit of vengeance, the Goryō, played by the other player. The Goryō appears in the palace in the form of a cat, bound to a specific type of object. To get a revenge and win the game, the Goryō player must smash 5 objects in the palace’s rooms, without being defeated by the Samurai. To win, the Samurai must instead exorcise the spirit for good by finding out what type of object the Goryō is bound to, or by catching the spirit’s essence three times. Each round, both players alternate in asymmetrical turns: the Goryō plans the route to break a new object and mislead her opponent, placing movement cubes on a secret dry-erase board. Then the Samurai use their available actions to chase the Goryō along her path, moving the Samurai pawns on the map and using a special board to organize the catch. However exorcising a spirit isn’t a simple task at all...

How it plays

Mechanics

On the shelf

Categories

Questions players ask

Questions to bring to BoardGameBrain

• How do setup and the first turn work in Goryō?
• When does scoring happen and what ends the game?
• How should the table resolve an unusual timing or rules interaction?