2021Tony Fanchi, Corey Konieczka
- Videos
- 69
- Creators
- 54
Mainly reviews
3 - 6 players120 - 240 minHeavy weight
The Presence
2025Sam Gullman
- Videos
- 23
- Creators
- 21
Mainly reviews. The Presence is covered on BoardGameVideo.com by 12 reviews, 4 how-to-play guides, 3 recorded sessions, 1 unboxings, and 3 other videos.
2 - 5 players
60 - 90 min
Heavy weight: Expect a long teach
From BoardGameGeek
The Presence is a strategic horror-game that puts you in a Victorian-era ghost story. Each game is either fully cooperative or one-versus-all, only you have no way of knowing which one. One player plays as a spirit with unknown intentions. The others play as the visitors, who need to work together to determine whether the spirit is on their side, while also trying to find out what it wants. The visitors will try to work together while struggling with darkness, isolation, and the constant haunting of the spirit, who in turn either tries to earn their trust or secretly plan their demise. Regardless of the intentions of the spirit-player, the trust of the visitors is valuable to its goals. A benevolent spirit needs their trust to play its more powerful actions. If it does not believe that they will manage in time, it can instead turn on them and win by other means. A vengeful spirit can bide its time, sabotaging their efforts in hidden ways and use their trust to make the visitors expose themselves. Then, when they are vulnerable it can reveal its true nature. The visitors are represented on the board while the spirit moves through the house ethereally and can be in multiple locations at once. While visitors are limited by doors and passageways, the spirit can move freely, surrounding them. While the spirit-player may have very limited means to communicate, the visitors have an even tougher choice to make. If they separate and go different ways, they will not be able to speak at all. Then, they can only watch on in horror as their friend must make a perilous choice with no support. The actions of the spirit leave clues as to its true intentions and, when the secrets of the house are gradually revealed, the visitors may realize what they think they know is fatally wrong.
Watch first
Which video should I watch for The Presence?
The Presence has 23 videos from 21 creators: 12 reviews, 4 how-to-play guides, 3 playthroughs, 1 unboxing and 3 other videos. They date from 2024 to October 2026.
To learn the rules, start with "How to play The Presence - a rule explanation that gets you started" by Purple Lantern Games, which runs 56 min. For a quicker teach, "The Presence Preview! | A game of trust, tragedy and the unknown.." by The Board Game Garden runs 29 min.
For an opinion before you buy, start with "The Presence Preview | Pumped Up Kickstarter" by Foster the Meeple. 12 creators have reviewed it. To see it played, watch "Preview of The PRESENCE by Purple Lantern Games" by Legendary Tactics, one of 3 playthroughs.
If you like it, try Unfathomable, BANG!, Detective: City of Angels or Unmatched: Battle of Legends, Volume One, which share several of its mechanics. It appears in convention videos from Spiel Essen 2025.
All videos
8 of 21
Creators who cover this
Purple Lantern Games
2 videos of this game
slickerdrips
2 videos of this game
Always Board Never Boring
1 video of this game
BoardGameCo
1 video of this game
Board Game Empire
1 video of this game
Bower's Game Corner
1 video of this game
Brettspiel - Snob
1 video of this game
BrettspielSuchties
1 video of this game
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About The Presence
From BoardGameGeek:
The Presence is a strategic horror-game that puts you in a Victorian-era ghost story. Each game is either fully cooperative or one-versus-all, only you have no way of knowing which one. One player plays as a spirit with unknown intentions. The others play as the visitors, who need to work together to determine whether the spirit is on their side, while also trying to find out what it wants. The visitors will try to work together while struggling with darkness, isolation, and the constant haunting of the spirit, who in turn either tries to earn their trust or secretly plan their demise. Regardless of the intentions of the spirit-player, the trust of the visitors is valuable to its goals. A benevolent spirit needs their trust to play its more powerful actions. If it does not believe that they will manage in time, it can instead turn on them and win by other means. A vengeful spirit can bide its time, sabotaging their efforts in hidden ways and use their trust to make the visitors expose themselves. Then, when they are vulnerable it can reveal its true nature. The visitors are represented on the board while the spirit moves through the house ethereally and can be in multiple locations at once. While visitors are limited by doors and passageways, the spirit can move freely, surrounding them. While the spirit-player may have very limited means to communicate, the visitors have an even tougher choice to make. If they separate and go different ways, they will not be able to speak at all. Then, they can only watch on in horror as their friend must make a perilous choice with no support. The actions of the spirit leave clues as to its true intentions and, when the secrets of the house are gradually revealed, the visitors may realize what they think they know is fatally wrong.
Designer
Sam Gullman
Artists
Leonie Magnusson, Sergey Shirobokov
Publisher
Purple Lantern Games
Categories
HorrorMature / AdultMurder / Mystery
Mechanics