- BGG rating
- 10.0
NewSpeak: Dissonance
- 1–2 players
- 20–45 min
- 2018
- BGG rank
- BGG #24,697
- BGG rating
- 5.8
NewSpeak
2021
Rules assistance for NewSpeak
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.
- 3–6 players
- 30–60 min
- 14+
- Complexity 1.7/5
For 3 players
Rules assistant for NewSpeak
What would you like to know?
Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
NewSpeak is a board game released in 2021 for 3–6 players, 30–60 minutes per game, and ages 14 and up. It was designed by Mark Stockton-Pitt and Fiona Jackson and its main mechanics are Push Your Luck, Area Majority / Influence, and Simultaneous Action Selection.
Expansions
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About the game
Newspeak is a tense game of dystopian subversion in which you take the role of either the 'dissidents' or the 'moderators' in a mind-bending battle of wits to determine the reality around you. Will you challenge the status quo and shatter your fragile reality or seek to protect the safety of what you know? Dissidents utilise matching underground codes to coordinate meetings at one of the disturbingly illustrated locations on your map. They then each secretly use their location dials to declare their intended meeting point. The Mods, in a short amount of time, then have to determine where they expect the Dissidents to meet by inferring their intent from a book of every possible code set the subversives could use, and agree upon a location to direct a state raiding party. Once they've agreed on a location, the Dissidents each reveal their location dials. Depending on whether the majority of Dissidents have successfully coordinated at a single location, or the Mods have caught them in an attempt at subversion will determine whether that location becomes 'hacked' or 'moderated'. As the game progresses, moderated locations produce potential accomplices for the Dissidents to recruit, as undesirables are driven from now sanitized districts. However, as the Dissidents progress their mission to 'hack' as many locations as possible, the Moderators strike back with increasing numbers of surveillance outposts, installed to limit the Dissident's ability to move around the city undetected.
Mechanics
Designers
Publishers
- Inside the Box Board Games LLP (ITB)
Questions and answers
NewSpeak supports 3–6 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The listed playing time for NewSpeak is 30–60 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists NewSpeak for ages 14 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
NewSpeak has a complexity rating of 1.7 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a light game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
NewSpeak belongs to these categories: Word Game, Deduction, and Bluffing. Its main mechanics are Push Your Luck, Area Majority / Influence, and Simultaneous Action Selection. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of NewSpeak are: Mark Stockton-Pitt and Fiona Jackson. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists NewSpeak as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.