For more than four centuries scholars have argued over the identity of the mysterious Dark Lady of William Shakespeare’s sonnets. In Black Sonata, you will find yourself in Shakespeare’s London, circa 1600, in pursuit of the shadowy Lady. Can you finally solve English literature’s greatest mystery? Or will the Dark Lady elude you too?
Black Sonata: Strange Shadows includes several expansions that may be added to the base game. These should work separately or in various combinations, including with the earlier Fair Youth expansions. The new content includes:
- The Darkest Ladies – Unlike those in the base game or Fair Youth expansion, this alternative set of Dark Lady cards has no suits, and you must deduce the Dark Lady’s symbols in their correct order. Features more card-flipping hole-peeking antics.
- Indirections – This expansion adds two different types of stealth cards to be mixed into your deck. Cards with compass symbols show what compass direction the Dark Lady traveled from her last location, while others show the potential colour of her current location.
- Blazonry – The Dark Lady is hiding behind the shield of her heraldic blazon. To access her you must first deduce the symbols of her blazon using special fog cards.
- The Ferryman – The ferry is the quickest way to get around London, allowing you to travel from any riverside location (marked with the boat icon) to any other riverside location in one turn, possibly heading off the Dark Lady as she flees. But this comes at a cost – the ferryman protects the Dark Lady, preventing you from searching for her at any riverside location. In addition, you must collect the location cards in a specific order.
- Cat and Mouse – This is an asymmetric two-player game of cat and mouse, where one player is the Dark Lady and the other is the Historian trying to track and unmask her.
- Tarry cards – This small expansion allows you to temporarily pause the Dark Lady’s flight, potentially letting you catch up to her, but you must pay a later cost…
- Extra fog cards – Four additional fog cards are provided, each with a beneficial effect. You may use these to: (a) Increase the size of the fog deck to allow more searches in a game – especially if including the harder Dark Ladies from either expansion, as these may require more clues to solve; (b) Replace detrimental fog cards in the base deck to make it more appealing (but still risky) to use fog cards that arise; or (c) Randomly replace fog cards from the base deck to increase the variety of fog card actions.
