Sunday, November 11, 2007

Anolog Game Interest

What the heck is this?

That my friend is a what I call a fun game. I have a bad habit of walking in to a hobby store and finding 20 board and card games I want to try out. The problem is I never have the money to buy them all and the second is, well, they may horrible. This game is one I, honestly, bought on a whim and was worth the price.

King's Blood can be summarized as a glorified Uno. Same idea of getting all the cards out of your hand, but just more rules. Don't worry though, the rules actually make it more fun. In order to complete your objective you have to put down different character cards with matching traits .(ex: color or number) Some character cards have special abilities like draw 3 or skip to help keep your opponent from winning. Each card has a gender as well. If the character placed next to each other are opposite genders and other conditions are met, a marriage is formed. By the end of the game you could a sprawling royal family tree on you table.

I after reading the rules and playing it out alone a few times. (a habit of mine to make sure I know the rules.) I took this game on a vacation and forced a group to play a couple of rounds. After a practice they got the hang of the rules, and serious game play ensued. What was interesting was as the everyone got used to the flow of game play, they began to create stories about characters. They began to note the odd pairing that sometimes were created. It was fascinating to see how people would create their own story for the family tree on the table.

King's Blood is the type of game I like because it takes a tried a true concept and changes it enough to be interesting but not enough to be intimidating. In the group I played with, most had played a game of Uno, but I think the majority don't play hobby shop card games. Trying to get them play a game like this is far easier than say Magic the Gathering, because many of the elements of a "normal" card game are there. The rules are on one sheet of paper and not a booklet.

King's Blood to me is something worth checking out, especially if you have people who are hesitant to try a game that isn't sold at Target or Wal-Mart.