The dark lord Rigor Mort-is has sent his minions out into the world to do his bidding. The only problem, they forgot to do it, and now the minions are in for an ass kicking. Who will get the blame? Who can think fast and pass the buck? Who will get their masters withering stares? Who will end up in the Dungeon for torture practice?
This game had been sitting at the back of my gaming cupboard for quite a while and I was able to get it to the table last week. What I found was that this little tiny box of cards contain a massive amount of laughter and fun for everybody in my gaming group. So much fun in fact that I shouted myself to a sore throat in just 1 hour.
The Aye Dark Overlord box contains two set of cards, one for actions and a second for hints. Each player is given the chance to come up with an excuse using the hint cards in his hand and then pass the buck with an action card. Action cards can also be used to interrupt another player to adjust the lie being told with a added hint card just to make things interesting for the active player.
In the great tradition of the radio show “just a minuet” if you stumble in your story or take too long to answer you get a withering stare from the Dark Overlord player, get three of these and you are toast. Of coarse you could throw yourself at the Dark Lords mercy and you might get a reprieve.
This is a fantastic little game that is going to get a lot more plays in the future. I think I might pack it for the group camping trip we have planned in the summer. Alcohol and thinking fast…..I feel a lot of withered looks coming on!
Filler games are just perfect for that little lull when the DM has killed your entire party or hasn’t spent any time prepping the adventure AND THEN killed the party.
Gloom is a card game for 2 to 4 players aged 13 up and can last approx 30minuits to an hour.
The Aim of the Game
The goal of the game is to make the members of your family as unhappy as possible and then kill them off, while all the time making the other players families as happy as they can be …then killing their members off too …fantastic! The player with the lowest score once everybody’s family members have been killed off wins the game.
Production Values
The cards are made from thick transparent plastic and will last for ages. The graphics fit very well with the theme and give everything a dark and brooding feel. The only minor problem that I had with the cards is that they are very slippery and have a tendency to slip all over the place. Also if you don’t hold on they will be all over the floor before you can say “oh bugger!”
Excellent quality.
4.5 dead family members out of 5
Contents
There are over 100 cards inside the box separated into two stacks. When the clear cellophane wrappers are removed from the cards they move about and have a tendency to slip out under the edges of the box. I quickly gave up on the box and transferred the cards to a better case which protects the cards while they are bouncing around in the bottom of my bag.
There are a total of 20 family member cards in the pack with 5 for each player. These cards are double sided and have a portrait of each family member plus some character fluff on one side and a skull image on the other for when the character is dead. Each family portrait has its own background colour and each family are themed differently from the upper class toffs to the circus freaks.
The rest of the cards have different events which will affect the character it is played on. The cards can contain icons in three possible locations which are used to score the character, these can be black circles to mark a negative effect (a minus score) or red circles for a positive effect (a plus score). The effect cards can also contain text which effects elements in the game like hand size.
Good contents shame about that box.
3 dead family members out of 5
Rules
The rules come on one square piece (about A4) of paper printed on both sides and are very easy to grasp.
All players start the game with 5 family members face up on the table and 5 cards in their hand. Each player takes a turn playing 2 cards from their hand onto any characters still alive. You only have the opportunity to kill a family member with the first card but not in the second. This stops you from playing a massively negative score on one of you family members and then killing it off. When a character is killed the portrait is flipped to the skull side and no further cards can be played on that family member.
When you play a card on top of a character you can still see the portrait through the transparent card plus any scoring that has been played. When the card is placed on top some of the scoring icons may be covered up nulling their effect or affecting the score of the family member.
The game ends when all characters on the table have been killed. The players then add together all the scores still showing through the cards and the player with the most negative score wins.
Dead easy – 5 dead family members out of 5
Conclusion
Well, Gloom has been added to my bag of gaming goodness. With a fun and entertaining theme, it’s just right for those sadistic gamers in my group.
The dark lord Rigor Mort-is has sent his minions out into the world to do his bidding. The only problem, they forgot to do it, and now the minions are in for an ass kicking. Who will get the blame? Who can think fast and pass the buck? Who will get their masters withering stares? Who will end up in the Dungeon for torture practice?