2 to 4* players (*6 with expansions)Card Games
Gloom Minions Decks of cards Poker Cribbage Guillotine
2 to 4* players (*6 with expansions)
The world of Gloom is a sad and benighted place. The sky is gray, the tea is cold, and a new tragedy lies around every corner. Debt, disease, heartache, and packs of rabid flesh-eating mice—just when it seems like things can't get any worse, they do. But some say that one's reward in the afterlife is based on the misery endured in life. If so, there may yet be hope—if not in this world, then in the peace that lies beyond.
In the Gloom card game, you assume control of the fate of an eccentric family of misfits and misanthropes. The goal of the game is sad, but simple: you want your characters to suffer the greatest tragedies possible before passing on to the well-deserved respite of death. You'll play horrible mishaps like Pursued by Poodles or Mocked by Midgets on your own characters to lower their Self-Worth scores, while trying to cheer your opponents' characters with marriages and other happy occasions that pile on positive points. The player with the lowest total Family Value wins.
Printed on transparent plastic cards, Gloom features an innovative design by noted RPG author Keith Baker. Multiple modifier cards can be played on top of the same character card; since the cards are transparent, elements from previously played modifier cards either show through or are obscured by those played above them. You'll immediately and easily know the worth of every character, no matter how many modifiers they have. You've got to see (through) this game to believe it!
$25.00 + s/h
Gloom Expansion - Unhappy Homes
Adds 1 player and 55 cards to gloom
In the Gloom card game, you make your eccentric family of misfits suffer the greatest tragedies possible before helping them pass on to the well-deserved respite of death. Just mix the 55 transparent cards included in this set together with your copy of Gloom to add morbid new Modifiers, Events, and Untimely Deaths, and a new family -- the artistes of Le Canard Noir, whose creative endeavors always end in disaster.
When art lets you down, the Black Duck is there for you. This dingy cafe is home to a motley assortment of washed-up bohemians. Here the tormented painter Rosseau buys drinks for neurotic models and destitute poets, while a troubled actress and sickly courtesan compare notes across the way.
Also included are five Residences with a light blue background behind their central illustration. These are each placed next to their related family at the start of the game. New cards called Mysteries, which have a dark blue effects bar at the bottom, are also shuffled into the deck before play. A Mystery is the only card that can be placed on a Residence (and only a Residence), and can be placed on any Residence as either of your two plays. It gives that Residence's player a special effect and Pathos points that count toward his final Family Value. A Mystery remains even if the requirements for playing it are lost. You may discard a Mystery from your hand as a free play.
$14.00 + s/h
Gloom Expansion - Unwelcome Guests
Adds 1 player and 55 cards to gloom
In the Gloom card game, you make your eccentric family of misfits suffer the greatest tragedies possible before helping them pass on to the well-deserved respite of death. Just mix the 55 transparent cards in this new set together with your copy of Gloom to add morbid new Modifiers, Events, and Untimely Deaths, and a new family - the malodorous Malone mob - including The Broken Arms Hotel as a Residence card to use with the Unhappy Homes expansion. When Boils Malone brought his family overseas to “get away from the heat,” he wasn’t expecting quite so much rain!
Adding an extra level of strategy, new persistent effect icons on cards allow their special effects to continue to be active even if covered by another card. A persistent effect ends only when the attached character is killed.
Also inside are five Unwelcome Guest cards. Deal one or more face up to the table’s center at the start of the game. Guests “follow” the card types noted on them; no matter where it currently is, a living Guest immediately moves to join the family of the character on which one of its “trigger” cards is played. All its Modifiers are moved with it, and it’s considered a member of that family until it moves again. This may delay the game’s end if a final play draws a Guest to the near-winner’s family!
$14.00 + s/h
2-4 players
How does a Minor Deity get more glory than the Minor Deity living next door? By sending Minions into battle of course!
The object of the game is to get the most Glory. The trouble is that, ever since that “Atlantis Incident,” deities are no longer allowed to directly affect the material world. The only way to get the glory is to send your adoring Minions out to do battle in your stead.
Each player controls eight amusing minions who are sent out to strive against the minions of your opponents. The battleground is defined and, based on your minions’ attributes, you choose the best “ahem” man for the job. You can then grant your minion a Boon to help him succeed. At this point a combination of daring and luck may bring you the glory. Dice are rolled. Points are tallied. Only one Minion will emerge to shower glory on their master. Will it be you?
$
There will soon be decks of cards here. Till then more filler text!!
Chaos Poker
2 to 10 players
The Dead Hand Chaos Poker deck adds a twist on traditional poker. Play virtually any poker game you can think of (7-card stud, 5-card draw, etc). At the end of a hand, if there are still two or more players left for the showdown, the top card from the draw pile is turned face-up. 60% of the cards have a hidden message on the face of the card. By tipping the card back and forth in the light, a particular card or hand will be revealed in the varnish of the card. The named card or hand (if any) is dead and out of play.
For instance, if the King of Spades is flipped up, the hand with the low spade is dead. If a seven is flipped, all Wild cards are dead.
Even with its unique twist, Dead Hand is primarily a straight-forward game of Poker. The Dead Hand mechanic ends up only effecting approximately 20% of the hands played. So don't use the mechanic as a crutch, you've still got to play good poker.
That said, you may find that the added element of chance keeps people in the game longer and folding a bit less than they might otherwise. A reference card is included, so you can watch which cards have been played and have a better idea of which hands are more likely to be killed by the Dead Hand.
$9.95 + s/h
There will soon be Cribbage Boards & sets here.
2 to 5 players
The French Revolution is famous in part for the use of the guillotine to put nobles to death, and this is the macabre subject of this light card game. As executioners pandering to the masses, the players are trying to behead the least popular nobles. Each day the nobles are lined up and players take turns killing the ones at the front of the line until all the nobles are gone. However, players are given cards which will manipulate the line order right before 'harvesting,' which is what makes the game interesting. After three days worth of chopping, the highest total carries the day.
$15.00 + s/h
2- 6 players
Once Upon A Time is a game in which the players create a story together, using cards that show typical elements from fairy tales. One player is the Storyteller, and creates a story using the ingredients on her cards. She tries to guide the plot towards her own ending. The other players try to use cards to interrupt her and become the new Storyteller. The winner is the first player to play out all her cards and end with her Happy Ever After card.
$22.00 + s/h
Once upon a time Expansion - Dark Tales
An Expansion for the Fairy Tale Storytelling Card Game
Explore the grim side of your stories with the addition of the Dark Tales expansion to your Once Upon a Time storytelling card game. The 56 cards included in the set are designed to be mixed in with the original Once Upon a Time game, to provide new story elements and endings. In these stories, trolls lurk under every footbridge, inconsolable wraiths search for their lost loves, fiends tempt the innocent, and evil stepmothers serve up children in tasty stews. Not every fairy tale has a happy ending...
$11.00+ s/h
