At Dragonmeet 2025 in London, I had the pleasure of meeting Josh Wakerley, founder of Hive Mind Games.

Intro

Step into the shoes of a monk or nun in the Middle Ages, cut off from the outside world and condemned to illustrate manuscripts in the library.

Rating

Overall	9
Story	9
Game system	9
Design & art	9
Replayability	9

Brother Why? is a social and utterly mad party game for 3 or more players aged 18 and over. Laughter is guaranteed. Brother Why? has a playing time of 20–90 minutes.

The story

Deeply hidden away in an old abbey, you and the other monks/nuns have been tasked with illustrating very serious manuscripts. It is very important… yet also very tedious work. You cannot help but let your mind wander from time to time, and you start daydreaming. During these moments, you start doodling and drawing the craziest things as illustrations. … What now?

After the long day, you and your fellow monks/nuns face a hefty punishment from the abbot/abbess. But hang on a moment? Why should you all have to take the blame for this? Wouldn’t it be a good idea to send just one of you to the abbot/abbess so that only one manuscript is censored and the rest of the work isn’t lost?

Discuss and vote together which of the monks/nuns should be called to account so that the others get off scot-free.

The aim is to have as few censored works to your name as possible. When a player has been condemned three times, they are expelled from the order and the game ends.

Game rules

The game is played in several rounds.

Start of a round

At the start of the round, each monk draws one Silly Lil Guy card and one Very Serious Quote card. You draw these from the face-down piles.

Note: Brother Why wouldn’t be Brother Why if you were only allowed to take these from the top of the face-down draw piles. If you’d rather take the bottom card or a card from the middle: feel free.

The combination of the two cards drawn reveals the “very serious manuscript” you were meant to illustrate and the “silly doodle” drawn underneath it.

Once every player has had a good look at their two cards, you decide amongst yourselves who will be the first to reveal their card.

Revealing cards

The player who gets to reveal first places their Very Serious Quote face-up on the table and reads it aloud, so that every player can hear the text clearly. They then place their illustration on the table and read the text beneath the illustration.

The question

After this, the other players at the table ask the revealing player one specific question: “Brother, why did you draw this?”.

The argument

Try to convince your fellow players, using sound arguments, why this doodle does indeed reflect the content of the text. Believe me, this isn’t always that easy :-).

Can you think of another, better argument? As long as you can justify the drawing, any suitable argument is welcome.

However, the other players don’t have to sit idly by whilst one player sets out their arguments. They are free to put forward counter-arguments, criticism or rebuttals.

Other players may reveal their own Very Serious Quote and Silly Lil Guy cards whenever they wish.

It is important, however, that ALL players do this during each round.

The vote

Once all players have presented their arguments, the group votes on which explanation was the least appropriate. This monk/nun will be sent to the abbot/abbess to take responsibility.

Note: You may not vote for yourself.

The player with the most votes is convicted and keeps their Silly Lil Guy card as a mark of shame and to keep score! If you collect 3 cards, you are expelled from the order.

The other players discard their cards. A new round then begins.

If there are not enough cards for a new round, all discarded cards are shuffled into the correct piles. This creates two new draw piles.

End of the game

When one of your fellow players has received 3 convictions and thus has 3 Silly Lil Guy cards in front of them, the game ends immediately. The monk with the fewest convictions wins the game.

Content and design

The game system was devised by Corey Davies and designed by Josh Wakerley.

The game is beautifully presented, and the box and graphics are of a very high quality.

Alle kunstwerken in dit spel zijn afkomstig uit authentieke manuscripten uit de 12e tot 14e eeuw, onder andere het ‘Boek der Uren van Charles de Edele’.

All the artwork in this game is taken from authentic manuscripts dating from the 12th to the 14th century, including the ‘Book of Hours of Charles the Noble’.
The creators also point out that these drawings were certainly not the product of absent-minded scribbling. They were an opportunity for the illustrators to showcase their creative talent.
In all likelihood, we have simply lost the cultural or religious references needed to fully understand them. Nevertheless, it is great fun to interpret them through a modern lens.

Hive Mind Games would also like to thank: the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Getty and the Walters Art Museum, which make their collections available online. Each museum has hundreds of high-quality manuscripts available online.

Box content

• 1x rulebook (ENG)
• 50x Silly Lil Guy cards
• 50x Very Serious cards

Conclusion

Brother Why is a hilarious card game that falls squarely into the party games category.

It is so nonsensical that it is difficult to keep a straight face. It is surprisingly difficult to come up with a coherent argument when you yourself cannot see the connection at all

The game system is well-designed, and the use of medieval drawings found in old manuscripts gives this game a deeper underlying meaning.

I’m a fan of the game, not only because it’s made with passion and love but also because it’s a nod to today’s ‘meme culture’. Josh Waverley really manages to capture this essence in the game. It also highlights the bizarre passages found in existing ancient manuscripts. The game encourages you to think about these in a playful way.

The box is of good, sturdy quality and beautifully designed. Small and easy to take along as a surprise to a get-together with friends.

At Dragonmeet 2025, there was no time for an interview. Hopefully I can still arrange one, so I can tell you more about the creator’s exact vision behind this fantastic game!

Text and photography: Esmeralda Wolf