AFFLICTION: Salem 1692

About this board game

AFFLICTION: Salem 1692 is a 2017 board game for 2–4 players, played in about 60 minutes. Set during Salem’s 1692 witch-hunt hysteria, it challenges players to use influence, fear, accusations, and protection to advance their own interests.

The game features characters based on actual residents of the Salem region. Beneath the accusations lie motivations including power, greed, revenge, and righteousness. Players whisper through the authorities of Salem, including the magistrate, judge, governor, and minister, while deciding which colonists to protect and which to have arrested.

On each turn, players place a messenger worker to select actions. Once all workers have been placed, those actions resolve in the order shown on the main board. Influence can be generated and spent to arrest colonists or bring them into a player’s Circle, while accusation tokens reduce a colonist’s Reputation and make them easier to arrest.

• Exonerate: Remove two accusation tokens from any colonist.
• Protection: Use a letter from the Governor to prevent an arrest and take the First Player token for the next turn.
• Fear: Gain Fear tokens or remove one from another player to weaken colonists.
• Spectral Evidence: Prevent a colonist from generating Influence and using their ability.

The game ends immediately when Increase Mather or Mary Spencer Hill appears in the play area. These cards are shuffled with the bottom six cards of the Colonist deck, creating a concealed end point.

In AFFLICTION: Salem 1692, victory points come from the Reputation of arrested colonists and those brought into your Circle, the property of colonists you had arrested, your remaining Influence tokens, and family-based objectives on your player tile.