The basic ideas were already there: the Scottish theme, the ghosts that infest the castles rendering them more prestigious, the possibility of lying or telling the truth regarding the ghost sightings in each castle and the deduction mechanisms. Unfortunately, the prototype also had many defects, in particular the fact that the players used chips to make offers and to buy castles and all the auction phases were too laborious and hard to manage.

During our brainstorming, we arrived at the ideas that made the game what it is now. Since the chips were difficult to manage, these were replaced with a deck of cards, which has also simplified the management of the auctions and the turns. Another development during this time was the idea of adding an element to facilitate the deductions, while still leaving some room for bluffing. Here’s how it works: On the back of the cards are symbols showing the approximate value of the card (coins for the low cards and banknotes for high ones), which helps players to make appraisals on the interest of several castles. The cards of value 1 and 10, however, have these symbols inverted, allowing you to deceive your adversaries!

In the end have come minor details such as the birth of Miss Truelight, an auction for discarded cards, the double turn with Manor and Castle, and (on suggestion from the publisher) the chips for the variant. The rest is history, the game will be published this Essen, and we hope gamers will like it as much as it appeals to us.