Saturday was game day for the Shadow Creek Ranch Gamers. The club meets the third Saturday of each month for an afternoon of gaming and socializing. This month we tried to run with a Halloween theme, but generally just played a few games. We had 9 people available for gaming at the peak of the day, which is one of our largest turn outs. Welcome to a couple of new members, Kathy and Brian as well as Peter.
I had Iain with me which always keeps me hoping, but I did manage to enjoy a few games. We started off with a game of Gloom. This was one of our two Halloween themed games that actually made it to the table. Gloom uses clear plastic cards which are stacked on other cards to try and score points. In this card game players are trying to kill off their family of characters in the most horrible way possible. They play cards on top of their, and the other players family members. One person might be pestered by poltergeists while another is wonderfully wed. Once a family member has a negative score, and is suitable depressed about their horrible life they can be killed. Once a player has managed to kill of his entire family the game ends. Players add up the scores for their dead family members, living family members score nothing, and the person with the lowest negative score wins. The game is most fun for the small stories you can tell about the fate of your family. It is a simple card game, with a dark and humorous theme.
Next we moved on to Once Upon a Time, a story telling card game published by Atlas Games. In this game you receive cards with various story elements on them, people or places or things, and you need to tell a story using those words. The goal of the game is to try to get rid of all of your story element cards and finish up the story with a happily ever after card. Players can interrupt others to take over the telling of the same story, and bringing it off in their own direction. I think I am pretty imaginative, but I really did a terrible job at the game. We played a couple of rounds, but I was not focused, and was doing a poor job of interrupting. Still this is a fun little game with the right group.
We gave Werewolf a try next, trying the game with 9 players. The game went by pretty quickly, but I think everyone felt that we needed still more players. I as a villager, and the werewolves killed the fortune teller on the first turn. We in turn managed to lynch one of the werewolves. In the second round, the werewolves killed off a villager, but the villagers managed to kill off the second werewolf. The game ended quickly, and we decided not to have another go.
We finished up playing a word game whose name escapes me. I am sure I will remember eventually, and will update then. In this game each player has a category, Fruits or Animals on a Farm for example. A letter card is turned up and players can start the round by stating their category, and word that fits that category AND begins with the letter on the letter card. A random length timer is started and all players shout out other words which begin with the letter and fit the category. The player who shouts out a matching term last before the buzz sounds moved forward one space on the track. Again, scatter brains seemed to prevent me from really getting going, although I was able to come up with some good words. We have played this game before and it is a lot of fun. It can get a little silly, which adds to the enjoyment of the game.
The day was fun, look forward to playing again next month. If you live in Shadow Creek Ranch and are interested in gaming please feel free to join the club and stop by for a game day.