Title – Gloom
Age Range – 8+
Players - 2-4
Maker/Publisher – Atlas Games
Designer – Keith Baker

The Components:
1 double sided page of instructions
110 cards
That’s it, sounds boring huh? Well, the cards are not your standard cards. They are standard size but they are made of a clear acetate and the art work is printed in such a way that when cards are stacked, certain information is still readable (therefore still in effect) and some may be blocked out (therefore no longer in play). This is a really cool mechanic.

The Concept:
You are in charge of a quirky family and the object of the game is to cause as much misery and mischief to your family members as you can so that when you play an untimely demise (kill them) they get sent to a better, happier place! By playing bad events on your family members you cause their “Pathos” score to go into negative numbers (this is good). If at some point in the game you decide that one of your members has a decent amount of negative points, the only way to make those points safe, meaning that opponents can’t alter the points by playing positive numbers on them, is by killing them! Once a family member has been sent to his final repose and no longer suffering in life, he can rest in peace and just sit there until the end of the game. Well……kind of. There are a few cards that will cause a member to come back to life, but not many.
Play continues with modifiers (both positive and negative) being played on both sides and family members dropping like flies until one entire family is dead. At that point all points on dead family members are counted up and the player with the most negative Pathos points is the winner. Yes it is possible to have living family members but still win because that family still has a lower Pathos total.

The Good:
This game could have easily been gory and disgusting both in mechanics and art; however the designers decided to make it very tongue in cheek. All the families are over-the-top, cartoony, quirky with people like: Belladonna – Consumptive Courtesan; Simon Simone – Androgynous Actor; Melissa Slogar – Cadaverous Child; Willem Stark – Disturbing Handyman. The modifier cards are just as amusing. With the clear cards, the modifiers are placed right on top of the family members so the event actually “reads” like it is actually happening to that member IE, Belladonna “dallied with dignitaries”; Melissa Slogar “was perturbed by the pudding”. The “untimely death cards” follow suit too; Willem Stark “was spoiled by spooks”, and Simon Simone “ran out of air”.
To add to the frivolous theming, the designers chose to use an Edward Gorey style of artwork that both make the game silly and creepy. This was a stroke of genius on the maker’s part. The dry, stuffy, Victorian theme to the artwork is a hilarious counterpoint to the murdering, mayhem and mischief that are in the mechanics of the game.
The actual playing of the game goes very quickly is very easy to follow. For once, the slow down of the game is not caused by analysis paralysis or rules confusion; it is usually caused by players laughing at the cards titles, flavor text or silly combinations.
The generous amount of cards and the myriad of possible combinations make the replayability factor in this game very high. Often times it would not be unheard of for our group to play four or five times at a stretch.

The Nitpicky:
Because the cards are acetate it makes them fairly difficult to shuffle. Sometimes you might be playing a quick game of 52 card pick-up after dropping the cards. Also a nitpick based on the acetate is the predilection for the cards to scratch, after several games my set has become fairly scratched up and in turn harder to read through.

Overall:
This is definitely not your standard happy, snappy set-collecting card game, It is chock full of dark humor and macabre (but not gross) artwork. Though it might take a certain type of person to be able to tolerate the theme, if you can this game is guaranteed to provide many laugh filled games.
I can’t recommend this enough for a fun-filled, filler-type game.

The Score Per The BGG Scale:
1 – Defies description of a game, clearly broken
2 – Extremely annoying game, won’t play this ever again
3 – Bad, likely won’t play this again but could be convinced
4 – Not so good, it doesn’t get me but could be talked into it on occasion
5 – Average game, slightly boring, take it or leave it
6 – Okay game, some fun or challenge at least, will play sporadically if in the right mood
7 – Good game. Usually willing to play it
8 – Very good game, I like to play it. Probably I’ll suggest it and never turn down a game
9 – Excellent game, always want to play it
10 – Outstanding, always want to play and expect this will never change

That’s .02
Gantrell
“KMG365”