Gloom

Recently I've been playing Gloom a lot. Designed by Keith Baker and published by Atlas Games, Gloom brings something new to the world of card games. It 's made for 2-4 players, with one extra player added per expansion pack (together with some extra features).

The object of the game is to cause as much hilarious misery as possible to your chosen family, which causes negative pathos, while inflicting good things on your opponents families to sabotage them, as this gives positive pathos. You can't kill a family member unless it's selfworth is negative, and once a family is wiped out, the game ends, and the player with the greatest negative score amongst it's dead family members wins.

The main feature that I think makes the game stand out, are the transparent cards. Instead of the glossy cardboard cards familiar from most games, the Gloom cards are made from transparent plastic. This not only makes the cards more durable, as well as spill resistant, but adds a great mechanic. New cards are played on top of previously played cards, overwriting the effects. This has the added benefit of keeping the game area quite small, as some games can occupy the whole table. There are several different strategies you can use, depending on your hand, from killing your opponents family members before they get too many negative points, to ressurecting them from the dead and saddling them with great fortune.

The game goes quickly thanks to the fast and furious rules, and it's a great way to spend an evening. Well worth getting if you like macabre humor.