Grupo Martes: 1 November

We started the evening with a card game, The City, while waiting for Michael to arrive. I like this card game. It is typical of a number of card games these days, like Race for the Galaxy, where you pay for new cards by spending cards out of your hand. Everyone starts with six cards in their hand and discards down to four. Players then all select a card to play and all reveal at the same time. Players then pay for the card they played by discarding from their hand. You then draw based on the number of $ in your tableau. In the picture below, I drew two cards. One for the business district and one for the car in the business district. You also collect any victory points your tableau gives you. Usually, eight turns is all it takes to pass the victory points needed to win. I forget what the threshold is.

This is definitely a game I would consider buying. The topic is accessible enough to appeal to most audiences and the mechanic is easy enough to consume. Thumbs up for me.

Every city needs an interchange.

Next we got out Dungeon Fighter. Michael came back from Essen singing praises for Dungeon Fighter. This is a tongue in cheek look at the dungeon crawler. You move a token through a small dungeon map fighting monsters you encounter. You take turns fighting the monster by rolling the die onto the target. The target indicates how much damage you do. Basic rolling requires you to bounce the die off the table before it hits the target. Some monsters or special weapons require more finesse. You might have to roll it off your nose or head the die onto the table, or toss the die from beneath the table edge. You might think that the antics required to perform these feats might set you giggling. I am sure that in many circumstances it would, but on that night, it just did not hit me. It was amusing, but nothing I laughed out loud at.

You get a set number of dice. Once you go through your dice, the monster damages everyone. You can buy extra dice and weapons at the dungeon store, which you'll come across every few rooms. Unfortunately, there is no option for healing. Once you take a hit, you lose a third of your hit points permanently and one of your three special abilities. After three hits, you are out of the game.

Stefan dropping the die off his nose.

No hit for Stefan. Instead the monster damages him.

Michael take aim.

Next we played Get Bit. Everyone has cards numbered one to six. Each turn you play one of your cards face down. All reveal at the same time. First you check the ones. If you played a one alone, your swimmer moves to the front of the line. If someone else played your card, you stay where you are. Next you check the twos and so on until the sixes have been played. Now you see who is the last in line. Devil takes the hindmost. The shark takes a bite out of the last player. The last player loses a limb and moves to the front of the line. All the other players set aside the card they played. Only the last player gets to keep his or her card in their hand. Once you have played all your cards, you can pick them all up again. This game goes until there is only one swimmer left.

Shark! Yellow is already missing a leg.

Green is out of the game.

White was too slow.

The game is cute and the components are amusing, but it is not engaging enough for me to want to play again. If you are going to have such a macabre theme, then lets see some blood or something. As it is, it is too dry and PC to make a lasting impression.