Introduction:
At my FLGS, we decided that after a rousing game of Gone Fishing!, we would play a couple of games of Pimp: The Backhanding. I had never played the game before and had heard some pretty poor reviews here on the geek.

Components:
The game's components are of very low quality. The cards were already showing wear which was suprising as they were just opened. They are kind of flimsy and I don't think they will last more than a few games without showing significant damage. The game requires a pair of d6's that were not included and need to be provided by the gamer.

On the other hand, the artwork is very well done for the game's chosen style and does a decent job of staying just inside the R rating. The flavor text on the other hand is generally very poor and goes for a faux street posturing.

Rules:
The games rules are very poorly laid out and there are several ambiguities that can arise during play that are not covered in the rules. We ended up houseruling several cases as neither the cards nor the rules told us the specifics of play.

There are 4 main types of cards in three different decks (Pimps, Hos, Draw). The Pimps are used for macking or backhanding and are how you effectively earn money in the game. The Hos are where the money comes from and have to be initially macked then defended. There are then modifer cards that increase either the Pimps or the Hos abilities and there are effect cards that do some kind of instant effect that can range from eliminating a pimp to forcing a reroll.

The game consists of three phases: the Macking Phase, The Backhanding Phase, and the Money Laundering Phase. The game is then played for three rounds with the winner being whoever has the highest total value of Hos at the end of the game.

During the Macking Phase the players are allowed to assign their Pimps to mack on the Hos. Each Pimp has a macking and backhanding value that is used in the corresponding phase. After all players have assigned their Pimps, the phase begins. The highest value Ho is contested first with each player playing any modifiers or effects before the dice are rolled. Then each Pimp rolls the dice and adds the corresponding modifiers with the highest value taking the Ho. This continues for each of the other Hos available for that round.

The next phase is the Backhanding Phase. The players can each assign any Pimps that were not used during the Macking Phase to attempt to backhand the previously taken Hos in order to prevent them from being scored. This is essentially the same as the Macking Phase, except the backhanding values are used, only one Pimp can challenge any one Ho, and the losing Pimp is "whacked" and removed from play.

Any surviving Hos are then scored during the Money Laundering Phase. Generally they are scored for the value printed on the card but there are several cards that can modify this value. These Hos that have been scored can not be backhanded in later rounds but there are some effects that can still target them.

These phases are repeated for a total of three rounds of play to determine the winner.

Thoughts:
Well... the game is intended to be tongue and cheek and humorous, but I found the game to be somewhat offensive. This would probably be alright if the gameplay was good but I found it to be very sloppy and unenjoyable. There seemed to be little that we could do to effect the course of the game as the dice decided most of the outcomes. The modifiers are generally pretty low so usually a single player will only have a net +1 on any given roll.

I would definitely not recommend this game to anyone, and it does not have the lighthearted breezy play of other fillers like Fluxx.


3/10