SUMMARY
Exciting Premise, Tepid Execution

INTRODUCTION
I found myself at DragonCon looking for a game to play while hanging out with friends. DragonCon is unusual in that it's been around about twenty years, it's a huge convention spanning three hotels, and hosts 25,000+ attendees (basically, GenCon numbers), yet most publishers in the game industry ignore it completely because it takes place in the southeast U.S. Since White Wolf has its roots in the Atlanta vicinity, they tend to be the exception, and are often the only ones in the exhibit hall actually doing any exhibiting. That's how I came across their current crop of board games: Murder City, Exalted, and of course, Mwahahaha!

Of the three, Mwahahaha! immediately caught my eye with its slick, colorful production values and zanily evil premise. Each player selects a board that depicts an evil genius bend on world domination, such as Dr. Hitler (an ape with hitler's brain implanted, complete with obligatory transparent dome), Dr. C'Horthtuk (the cthulhoid "scientist that should not be"), and Dr. Dookie (apparently a master of scatological super-science). With each card sporting a lavish illustration and a distinctively stylized logo, this is probably where the game racks up a lot of impulse buys from fans of Austin Powers or The Venture Brothers. To further add to the crazy motif of world conquest, players also have a large set of doomsday devices available to them--anything from the run-of-the-mill big bomb or souped-up computer virus to such over-the-top terrors as a supernova trigger or ice-age inducer. These are the central elements of Mwahahaha!, and are likely to evoke a lot of initial laughs and grins.

GAMEPLAY BASICS
The goal in Mwahahaha! is to stockpile four sets of resources--energy, money, structure, and eureka--with which you'll build up your doomsday device until it's deadly enough to pose a threat to cities, states, nations, and ultimately the entire planet. The first evil genius to get the world's collective governments to knuckle under to his/her/its demands is the victor. In order to prevent your fellow malefactors from beating you to the big-time, you can assault their infrastructure directly with "minion" cards (such-as jump-suited guards, ninjas, or killer apes), or you can thwart them in a more passive-aggressive manner with "dirty trick" cards (including such dastardly tactics as kidnapping the rival's beloved mascot, or passing along the location of the rival's secret lair to a do-gooder secret agent or superhero).

The game plays out in turns consisting of three phases. First is the Creation Phase where all players attempt to amass resources, either through playing "raw material" cards or through trade with other evil geniuses (and it goes without saying there are "betrayal" cards that allow you to renege on your end of a trade). The resources can then either be left in a stockpile, allocated to their chosen doomsday device, or spent to purchase cards that will strengthen their power base (such as the aforementioned minion cards).

Next comes the Rivalry Phase where players can raid each other, using minion cards for both offense and defense.

Finally, during the Domination Phase each player can issue a doomsday threat to a city, state, nation, or the world; the grander the threat, the greater the amount of resources that have to be allocated to the doomsday device before the threat can be issued. Successfully threatening the world wins the game, while a successful threat against the others provides more resources for the villain's stockpile.

ON THE NEGATIVE SIDE
The production values may be slick, but they're not very efficient. The box can barely contain the many component pieces, which are all dumped in without the benefit of separating trays or baggies. The doomsday device is a circular piece of cardboard, which is supposed to turn in the hole provided for it on the evil genius's sheet. However, the fit is too tight for that. The dice are lousy little green things that are hard to read or find if they're dropped on the floor.

The rules can be rather hard to decode. As with other White Wolf games, there are sections of flavor text mixed in with explanations of core game mechanics. Note to White Wolf: if you're going to do that, then use a layout device such as borders or fonts to distinguish the fluff from the actual rules.

Probably the most damning aspect of Mwahahaha! is that it sets players up to expect a uniquely wild ride every time they play, but the experience is actually not very dynamic at all. Be it energy, money, structure, or eureka, one resource is no different from another, and the only point in having them broken up into four categories is to limit their fungibility. Likewise, the villains seem to implicitly promise diverse strengths and weaknesses, but from a mechanical perspective they're identical; each harvests certain resources better than they do others, but since resources are homogeneous, that doesn't do anything to create diverse strategies. Likewise, the doomsday devices are just repetitions of the same four patterns, simply requiring different combinations of said homogeneous resources.

Mwahahaha! also suffers for not taking into account the issues that have to be considered with every game where it's possible to gang up on one player. For instance, if players can dogpile the front runner, how do you ensure there's an endgame while the game's still fun for everyone, rather than everyone just getting bored and calling for an evil detente? At some point the rules needs to end the game with either nobody winning or by providing secondary victory condition. Likewise, this type of game needs rules that allow for putting someone out of their misery permanently when they're demolished to the point where they're just defenseless prey for others.

ON THE POSITIVE SIDE
I've already mentioned the best thing Mwahahaha! has going for it. Namely, the premise will tempt many into playing it, and getting people to give a new strategy game a fair chance is often the biggest hurdle.

The Rivalry Phase offers the most interesting strategic element due to the game's opposed ice-rolling mechanic. Instead of the winner-takes-all roll-off most have come to expect in gaming, in Mwahahaha! the dice rolled by a player aren't added together. Rather, they're individually arrayed and compared to the opponent's dice in a manner that allows for both players to simultaneously score hits against each other. The highest number the attacker rolled is compared to the highest number the defender rolled. If they're equal then they cancel out, but if one's higher that counts as one success for the player who rolled it. Then they compare the second highest number the attacker rolled to the second highest the defender rolled to see if one's higher, and so on. So, say we're both rolling three dice against each other. I roll a 6, 5, and 4. You roll three 5's. My 6 beats your first 5, my 5 cancels out your second 5, and your third 5 beats my 4. We each scored one success. Conceivably, both attacker and defender could benefit.

Another fun element is the accumulation of maniacal and humiliation counters. A player can gain or lose standing as a menace to mankind through certain actions. A maniacal counter adds a bonus to threats made with the doomsday machine, while a humiliation counter confers a penalty. The main decision of whether or not to accrue one of these counters comes when a doomsday threat fails. You either have the delicious satisfaction of pushing the button and making a glorious example of your victim, which earns you a maniacal counter at the expense losing both your doomsday weapon and some of the resources you poured into it, or you can let the victim slide thus earning a humiliation counter. It's one of the few areas where long term decisions aren't consistently cut-and-dried.

The dirty trick cards add another much-needed dynamic element to the game, but the problem with them is that few of them alter gameplay in any significant way. They usually just provide minor benefits or obstacles.

BOTTOM LINE
A revised edition of Mwahahaha! would likely work out the kinks, attempting things they should've done in the first place, such as making the villains mechanically distinct instead of only superficially distinct, or assigning different values to the different resource types.