Cards Against Humanity Review

Cards Against Humanity is an immensely popular game. It is referred to as a party game for horrible people. Let me tell you that is pretty much the best description anyone can give the game. In fact I feel more than a little horrible for enjoying the game. Here let me explain.

First of Cards Against Humanity is a word association game. Think Mad Libs. The rules are pretty basic: a card czar pulls a card from the black deck of cards and reads it to the players. This black card is either a question or fill in the blank type statement. Players then select a white card from the ten in their hand and give it to the card czar face down. The card czar shuffles the white cards then reads them in context with the black card. Finally the card czar selects their choice of best card and the player who played it gets an awesome point. Play proceeds clockwise with the next player being the new card czar.

It is a fairly simple game in that there really is no game. Players are just participating in an exercise of humour with an arbitrary point system. By the end people tend not to care who won, they just care about the laughs.

Now the fact that the game is said to be for horrible people really is true. Many of the card combinations can be racist (numerous white cards reference races such as "the Jews" or "White people"), homophobic (the white card "praying the gay away") or just downright depraved (I can't find an all ages example for this catagory.) This game can easily offend pretty much anyone. Of course the context of the black card played and the game group can really change the horrible level of these cards.

What really surprised me is the number of cards that require knowledge of complicated topics to understand. “The Patriarchy,” “Serfdom” or “Eugenics” are a few cards that some players just don’t understand if they haven’t been educated about these ideas. I was expecting mostly poop jokes or sexual jokes. Meanwhile there are other cards from pop culture that will not make sense unless the player has been exposed to the concept. “You must construct additional pylons” really isn’t funny unless you have both played Starcraft and found the meme funny. Unfortunately this may make it difficult to keep players in the game if they just don't understand the cards in their hand. If this becomes a big issue I recommend removing some of the cards that people don't understand or find funny in order to keep players in the game and keep the game moving.

There is a Canadian version out there which is the version we bought. I was expecting a little more Canadiana in there but the differences aren't all that big. Although being from Edmonton there is one particular card that is pretty funny for my friends and I. I do have to say that removing a few of the more obscure American politics cards is a must if you don't follow American Politics. After all how are Aaron Burr or Dick Cheney funny?

Of course Cards Against Humanity really changes depending on the player group. A card czar one game might decide a certain card combination to be hilarious and the next game another card czar just won’t get the joke. This makes Cards Against Humanity a fantastic game for learning how to play to an audience. After all comedy isn’t about making you laugh it’s about making everyone else laugh.

This game does have the built in potential to get old. Once the same cards are seen over and over it will get stale. Fortunately there are expansions to help keep the humour fresh… or rotten in this case. What really makes these expansions special are the blank cards. These cards can be used to customize the game to suit your group. The wife and I are thinking of adding the black cards: “I just bought a new game that involves ____ and ____ want to play?” and “I ran my fingers through Matt’s beard and ____ fell out.” Or we could just make “Matt’s epic beard” a white card.

I find that in order for the game to have the full effect and humorous cards to go with each play you really need a large group. This really is a party game and its simple mechanic and concept really are engineered for a large number of players.

I recommend setting a time limit on the game as players will slowly become desensitized to the constant barrage of jokes. At some point the jokes will lose their punch and the game just steadily decreases in fun. A few rounds is all that is needed with a large enough group. It will keep players wanting to play again knowing that there are cards they haven’t seen yet. Play too long or too often and players will burn out on the game.

Something that must be mentioned is that the game is cheap to get. It can be purchased directly from the company here or if you feel artsy craftsy you can print your own version directly from the Cards Against Humanity website.

To sum up Cards Against Humanity is a game I am on the fence about recommending. Players who are offended at dark humour or inappropriate themes should avoid playing. Also this is definitely not a game for children. If you have a large group of close friends who can put up with twisted humour then this is the game for you. It’s a really good game to get people started laughing. Once you hit a high point you should end the game and move onto a party atmosphere where people are now in the right mood to laugh and have a great time.

If you have any great card ideas please post them in the comments!

Wheel of Time RPG review

I’m a big fan of the Wheel of Time book series by Robert Jordan so when the role playing game came out for this series I decided to buy it. If you haven’t read the series it’s really enjoyable but heavy. There are 14 books totalling 11,916 pages or 4,410,036 words. The series gets a little bad around book 6 but then picks up from there. (I think this is when the author started to get ill.) Sadly James Oliver Rigney Jr. (Pen name Robert Jordan) passed away prior to completing the series but left extensive notes allowing Brandon Sanderson to complete the final three books.

For the game itself: the rules follow 3^rd edition D20 rules which are really clunky and difficult to follow but the book does get channelling right. For those not familiar with RPGs this means you will also need to get a set of dice to play. The D code means however many sides the dice has, D20 means a 20 sided die. Your set will have a D4, D6, D8, D10, D12 and D20. Typically the D10 is used in a pair to determine percentages with one die being the first digit the second die of another colour being another digit. example: 00 being 100. The 20 sided die is used for combat encounters to determine success of attacking, dodging or blocking attacks.

In the role playing game you select a background, such as Midlander, Borderlander, Aiel, Ogier etc. After that you select a character class such as Wilder, Initiate, Armsman, Woodsman etc. You may multiclass a character as well meaning you can have more than one class however your character doesn’t advance as quickly in ability as someone who took a single class.

There are prestige classes in the series that are available after certain prerequisites are met. Examples are Asha’man, Aes Sedai, Blademaster, Warder etc. These prestige classes can add abilities and round out your role playing experience. These classes also give players something to aspire to and objectives to work towards allowing a gamemaster to come up with more story fodder along the way.

To complete making a character there are skills and feats. Many of these are typical RPG abilities but there are a number that reflect abilities found in the books. These abilities really make a character feel like they could jump into a Wheel of Time story. There is also a small weapons and equipment section offering standard RPG wares with a Wheel of time twist.

The game is fun if you know the series and you can get friends who are fanboys or fangirls of the series to join in a campaign. This can be difficult as it is a niche series. The rule book does contain some story information that is not true to canon of the books. For hardcore fans this is disappointing but you can ignore the rule book and play according to the novels.

Another problem is that there was only one follow up adventure book and the series stopped receiving support. So if you really want to play the game you will need a hardcore gamemaster who is willing to put in the time to draft adventures from scratch. It is out of print but there are copies with booksellers as well as on Amazon.

Having mentioned all of the problems I still believe this is a fun game. I really enjoy getting to make a character along the lines of a series I've read several times over (I started over at the beginning each time a new novel came out). Now that the series is completed and I'm finally reading the last book I'm really in the mood to get a campaign going.

Something else this book has going is the beautiful artwork and maps. The cover is by Darrell K Sweet who does the covers on the books giving the game a distinctly WoT feel. Likewise the maps are done by Ellissa Mitchell who provided the maps in the books. There is a list of artists who provided the interior full colour artwork in order to spark your gaming imagination.

To sum up: even with it's shortcomings such as lack of support and deviations from the novels this is a fun gaming experience. This RPG book does have a tonne of information so you do really only need the core book in order to get into playing in the world of Wheel of time. To really get into the game it helps to be a fan of the series. If you like fantasy series such as Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings you really should give Wheel of Time a try. The author is certainly more verbose and his style does differ substantially from the other series but I really love the story and think you should too. Now that the series has been completed I am hoping someone else will pick up the RPG line for Wheel of Time for a new age of role-playing with the Dragon reborn.

Gaming, Expos and festivals in Edmonton

This week I thought I would talk about some great events in Edmonton for board gamers and geeks.

First off is GameALot. I went last year and had a great time meeting new people and trying out board games I had always wanted to try. GameALot runs September 5^th through 7^th in 2014. This is a weekend of board game geekery that is fantastic. Entry cost is a minimum donation to the food bank. Several tables were set up around the Mission Fun & Games store and if weather permits some will be outside. Gaming in the sunshine is odd especially since it kills the pasty nerd tan look I have going on but it’s actually quite enjoyable. I love this weekend as you get to try it before you buy it, or you can break out some games you haven’t played in a while and have random people join you.

Register to play.

The other gaming related event also runs in September from the 26^th to the 28^th. This is Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo. Several hobby stores will have booths for selling board games as well as other geeky merchandise. Artists, writers, actors and other guests will be there for singings, photo ops, and panels. Tickets are on sale at ticket master. The wife and I have been going ever since this became a true expo (born from the old toy and comic show.) I reviewed the show last year and I highly recommend going again this year as they added an extra day and expanded the show yet again. The show really is a fantastic of our city as people of all types were geeking out. Last year it was great to see some pretty hard core bikers geeking out over Son’s of Anarchy actors and then checking out everything else. There will be cosplay costumes (no you don't need to dress up to attend) and all kinds of crazy fun.

I’m having trouble finding any other board game related events, but Edmonton is known as festival city. My personal favorites are:

K-Days July 18 to 27 fair grounds with rides, games and more

Heritage Festival August 2^nd to 4^th a weekend showcasing the multicultural heritage of Edmonton with food, educational tents and stage shows

Fringe Festival August 12^th to 24^th Hang out in the Old Strathcona area to take in some very off Broadway plays, some street performers and street artisans.

You can find out about more festivals here!

Red Dragon Inn 4 review

Okay I know I’ve posted quite a bit about Red Dragon Inn, but there is one more expansion I need to talk about: Red Dragon Inn 4. This is an expansion that was Kickstarted a while ago. I missed out on the campaign but picked up the expansion in store. As with the previous editions this follows the same rules as the first edition so no need to rehash that part of the review.

Red Dragon Inn 4 departs a little from the main series in that it takes place on a ship. I felt like it missed the boat on a better title (pun intended.) Red Dragon Boat would have been a better title. It would have been just a touch more creativity… which this expansion really lacked. I love the high seas idea which made my disappointment in this expansion just a little greater.

One of the biggest additions to this game is the sea event deck. Random events happen periodically. At the end of each players turn a counter is removed from the deck, if there are no counters left flip the event card and it takes effect immediately. It can be used with any of the previous edition characters and you do not need characters from this set to use the sea event deck. This deck is actually hit and miss with players. I found that it really didn’t bring much more to the game. Even the extreme events like Kraken Attack really didn’t have as much punch as I had imagined they would. And remembering to advance the sea deck seems to get forgotten a lot. This could just be personal taste but this deck just doesn’t feel like it adds all that much to the fun.

As for the characters most fell flat for me. Let me explain with each.

Captain Whitehawk: She is the stalwart Captain of the ship. Her play style seems geared to denying attacks or negating card effects. It can get rather boring for the other players to play great cards only to see them negated time and again. Eventually other players just gang up on the captain in a huge mutiny in the hopes that one of their cards gets through. Playing as the Captain you get too few cards that directly affect other players, ultimately you feel like you didn’t do much in the game. Although she does have interesting cards that work in gambling that aren’t cheat cards so they cannot be negated. She's an okay character on most factors. I could play as the Captain on occasion but she is far from my first choice.

First Mate Remy: This guy is a dark elf swashbuckler. His main mechanic is to “mark” players. Certain cards allow Remy to play “mark” tokens on players. If a player is marked certain cards from Remy’s hand have a stronger effect. In theory this is interesting but in practice the marks aren’t really used effectively. Cards that lay marks and cards that are affected by marks are too few and far between. His mechanic is very underutilized. I also find the “dark elf” archetype dull so I may be biased here.

Bryn the Boatswain: Big, tough and deals a lot of damage. If that seems familiar just look at Gog the Half Ogre. She plays pretty much the same only without the fun role play. A lot of wasted potential for this mediocre rehash of a better character. She just needs something.... more... something to define her character a little more. I had high hopes for Bryn to break the mold but she barely fills it. Although I must admit the artwork is great and there is *some* decent humour on her cards. But that really doesn't make up for the lack of creativity in character design.

Tara the Navigator: For me she is the only truly interesting character in the box. Tara actually has the feel of the Red Dragon Inn character style I’m used to. This character makes so much fun of the “Blind Seer” trope with jokes about her playing darts and other nonsense. She is packed full of humour and is a blast to play. I like her flair for gambling, especially her “How about another round” card. Once a round of gambling is over she restarts a new round but with the first round pot left in. A great card to play when you know other players have exhausted their gambling cards. If this character type interests you then she makes purchasing this expansion worth while.

To sum up while I love the Red Dragon Inn series of games Red Dragon Inn 4 just doesn’t live up to my expectations of the series. The Sea Event deck is rather hit and miss with players. It doesn’t add a lot to the game but could be fun if you want to change things up a little. Of the four characters the only one I liked was Tara. I didn’t feel like the rest measured up to the humour or quality of the rest of the series. As for my recommendations I don’t really feel like this is a necessary addition to the game. I would only recommend getting this expansion if you really want to complete your collection or if your group plays often enough to want more character variety. I would grab other editions or allies first. In the future I think I would like the company to move back to focusing on more humorous characters of the RPG game tropes and less on the gimics.