Summary
- Focus on deception and probability in Liar's Bar
- Watch opponents for tells while mastering probability
- Avoid being passive with challenges and overbidding
Social deduction games are a great way to foster and/or test friendships. These games thrive off everything that a good, casual multiplayer experience needs: simple rules, a sense of humor, customization, and mechanics that slowly improve with skill rather than specific perks to keep the game's power structure as horizontal as possible.
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Fans of deck builders or gritty, thriller-oriented games will feel right at home with Liar's Bar, a bluffing-focused social deduction title that has players using cards or dice to fake out their opponents while playing as gruff, anthropomorphic creatures. As mentioned above, games like Liar's Bar keep the rules and mechanics light for maximum ease of use, but there are still a few mistakes that new players should avoid when coming to the table.
5 Forgetting About Tells
Friends And Strangers Alike Need To Be Very Perceptive In This Game
As the title likely gives away, Liar's Bar is a game focused on deception. This doesn't just mean acting like a liar, but thinking like one, too. This is similar to titles like Among Us where, when the player is not the impostor, they need to constantly be putting themselves in the impostor's shoes and imagining what course of action they would take. The rules are a little more fluid in Liar's Bar; players could be bluffing, or they could be making an educated bid. It can be very hard to tell.
Players should always keep an ear out for the voices of the other players. Changes in pace, tone, or pitch of voice can all be unconscious signs of deceit from a competitor. It's not just about how well players can bluff, but how well they're tracking their opponents, as well.
4 Dismissing Probability
Probability Is A Massive Factor In Liar's Bar
Like a lot of social deduction games, there's more than one way to play Liar's Bar. While four total game modes are planned for the full release, there are currently two different formats to play against either friends or strangers, and both rely heavily on the player's understanding of probability. In Liar's Deck, there are a set number of Kings, Queens, Aces, and Jokers in a deck that is then shuffled. Players toss in the number of one suit they have, with Jokers acting as wild cards. Sometimes this can be a simple deduction. A game has six queens in the deck, if the player's hand has three and an opponent claims to toss in four, they're either lying, or they have a joker to fill in that fourth slot. Even then, that's assuming that with the deck divided up, every queen was split between just two players. This would be safe to call a bluff on
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Liar's Dice has players roll five dice and then make a bid on what they think the total number of dice with a certain face value is between every player. If someone makes a bid for the face value of 4 to appear on five dice across the table, and the player has no fours, there's a good chance it's a bid worth challenging.
3 Being Passive With Challenges
The Odds Of Great Luck Are Lower Than The Odds Of A Great Lie
The new Liar's Dice game mode provides an interesting level of nuance to the statistics at play. In Liar's Deck, players are told how many of each card is in play, but all that is known with Liar's Dice is the quantity of the dice — five per player. While very uncommon, it's not a stretch to think that a player may have gotten lucky and rolled all sixes, or only fives and sixes. This can make it difficult to factor in how many of one face value is on the table.
However, a player who's passive with their challenges will be letting other players get away with bluffing far more often than they will be letting a high but honest bid through. It's better not to worry about statistical anomalies that could be skewing the number of a face value on the table, and instead go with gut instinct, challenging what sounds improbable without having too much concern for the rare exceptions that might crop up.
2 Overbidding
Truthful Bids Are Always Safer Than Risky Bluffs
Similarly to being too cautious with challenges, bidding too high, too often can also be a mistake in Liar's Bar. While bluffing is an integral part of the game, especially in Liar's Deck, there are times to play it safe and make a more modest bid. Overbidding always presents risks, of course, as it's simple enough for players to challenge any bid, but the threat of death on a wrong challenge is usually enough to keep people from wildly challenging.
Players should make reasonable, preferably truthful bids in Liar's Deck, or confident bids that factor in their own dice in Liar's Dice, while only turning to those classic high-risk, out-and-out false bids when they feel the moment is right. Many games that emulate the style and esthetic of poker have kept this fine balance of risk and reward.
1 Trying To Cut Deals
In Liar's Bar, No One Is Your Friend
Other social deduction games have an avenue for players to stick together against a common threat, such as the impostor in Among Us. Liar's Bar is no such game. There's only one winner and they only win once everyone else is dead.
Trying to cut deals with other players like not calling their bluffs or focusing scrutiny on someone else, besides going against the spirit of the game, also won't put players in any better of a position. There's still going to be another shrewd competitor at the table willing to lie to get what they want.
Liar's Bar
- Released
- October 2, 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Curve Animation
- Publisher(s)
- Curve Animation
- Platform(s)
- PC
- Genre(s)
- Digital Card Game
