Game: Falling

Thread: Re: Falling: "The Goblin Edition" to be released

Robrob — 2008-04-03T21:30:16+00:00

Oh good, hopefully they will reprint others from the Cheapass line. It's a shame the company went away.

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mike selinker — 2008-04-03T15:43:06+00:00

Goblin edition split card

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mike selinker — 2008-04-03T15:42:37+00:00

Goblin edition Extra card

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mike selinker — 2008-04-03T15:39:28+00:00

Goblin Edition box

Thread: Falling: "The Goblin Edition" to be released

Germarish — 2008-04-03T15:32:23+00:00

Posted on Funagain Games website:
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Falling, Titanic Games proudly brings you a re-envisioning of James Ernest's highly-popular card game. You're all goblins and you're plummeting toward the ground. Be the last one to hit and you win!

Falling: The Goblin Edition is a fast-paced, real-time card game for 4-to-8 players, suitable for any audience.

http://www.funagain.com/control/product/~product_id=018976

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jeffwiles — 2007-10-14T19:23:33+00:00

Box Front - High Quality

Thread: Re: Can anyone post scans?

CubsKing99 — 2007-09-15T18:09:39+00:00

Alright, thanks for the reply and the advice. I didn't think about them possibly reissuing it... I'll look into people offering it for sale or trade.

I'm sort of new to all of this, so thanks again.

Thread: Re: Can anyone post scans?

Twinge — 2007-09-14T05:18:07+00:00

I can give a total card count - 54 cards.

I don't think anyone will post full, reproduceable scans of the game. It may be out of print, but it is still a Copyrighted game that they may decide to reprint at some point.

There are other ways of getting the game if you really want it - there are two dozen odd people willing to trade it away through BGG here, including myself. You can make offers to specific people or even try posting in the trade forums as well if you need a copy.

Thread: Can anyone post scans?

CubsKing99 — 2007-09-13T22:01:07+00:00

Since this game is out of print, and not even available on eBay, can someone provide scans of the cards and the rules? Counts of the cards would also be greatly appriciated. Thanks!

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JAskier — 2007-08-03T08:10:43+00:00

Thread: Re: Everyone Ends Up Holding a Card

beri — 2007-01-26T01:42:35+00:00

I think the big thing is, don't pick up a card until you can play it. It's okay to let one go by.

Thread: Re: Everyone Ends Up Holding a Card

majcher — 2007-01-15T20:19:59+00:00

We ran into this exact problem in a six player game of Falling last night. Two of us had played before, so we took turns dealing, but the other four were at first confused by all the confusing stuff (and by our less-than-perfect recollection of the game), but quickly all came up with the "best strategy", which involved all holding a card like that. The game locks up, the splats come down, and nobody had fun. I don't know what to do/think about this - fundamentally, I really enjoy the *idea* of the mechanics behind this game, but it feels like there's a piece missing that would make it more playable for new players, and completely awesome for those familiar with the game.

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moxtaveto — 2006-09-23T02:45:52+00:00

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feebleoreo — 2006-08-15T02:01:07+00:00

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stalkeroi — 2006-06-21T21:41:05+00:00

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Boomer — 2006-05-15T18:07:27+00:00

Back of Box

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Boomer — 2006-05-15T17:55:30+00:00

Front of Box

Thread: Session Report

Fawkes — 2005-04-02T08:36:34+00:00

Falling [6P]

Nick took on the task of teaching the group James Ernest’s Falling, a really fun real-time game. Having played before, I was at an advantage, moving the Hits and Splits off of me to the newbies while stockpiling the Skips and Extras. As usual, the game didn’t last long, and we all hit the ground. I hit the ground last, giving me the “win”.

We played a second game, and this time Fred got the win. He hated the game though.

Thread: User Review

Fawkes — 2005-03-28T10:56:50+00:00

Falling – The Review

FALLING is a frenetic card game for 4-8 players. Everyone is falling, and the object is to hit the ground last. It’s not much of a goal, but it’s all you could think of on the way down. – Blurb on the box of Falling

Say what you want about the game designs of James Ernest, but you can’t say that Falling is unoriginal. The premise alone is wacky. The gameplay is just as wacky, if not even more so.

The players are, well, falling. Come up with whatever reason you want. They could be stockbrokers who just invested in stock that went bust, skydivers whose chutes failed to open, aliens whose flying saucer just blew up… the possibilities are endless. As long as all the players are falling.

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On the way down, the players try their utmost to hit the ground last. The flap their arms, they whack each other; they use every option they can find. In the end, everyone hits the ground, but the one that hits the ground last dies like everyone else, but he wins the game.

This is a James Ernest game, and it is also a Cheapass Game. While Cheapass has a reputation for using cheap components, the smooth plastic-coated cards of Falling are reasonably sturdy. For your ten bucks you get 54 cards and a rulesheet. The art by Brian Snoddy is humorous and fitting for such a silly theme. The rules are reasonably clear and well-written, but this is a game best learned from someone who already knows how to play and can act as the dealer the first few times down to the ground.

The Game

Falling requires one person to be the dealer. This person is not falling; he is not a player. He deals out the falling cards to the players, acts on the cards used by the players, and keeps the game moving (and sane). In general, the dealer is going around the table, to each player in turn, and is dealing cards to them throughout the game until the deck runs out.

Each of the players has a “stack” of cards to begin the game. The dealer deals cards onto this stack. At any time, a player may pick up the top card of his stack. This card may be used either on himself or on another player, depending on the card. A player may only have one card in hand at any time, and once a card is picked up for use it cannot be returned to the stack.

How are cards used? There are three types of cards. The first type is the “rider”. A rider is a card played in front of a player, and it tells the dealer how to deal to this player the next time he gets to the player. The three main riders are “hit” (deal an extra card to this guy), “skip” (don’t deal a card to this guy) and “split” (start another stack for this guy). There’s an “extra” card that’s played on a rider, doubling its effect. Remember, you can either play a rider on yourself, or on someone else who doesn’t already have one in front of him. Once a rider has been “used” (the dealer has followed the instructions once) the rider is discarded.

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Then there are the action cards. There are three of these things: “grab” (take someone else’s rider), “push” (give someone else your current rider) and “stop” (cancel any rider, or delay the ground). Each action card is used once then discarded.

Speaking of the ground, that’s the last type of card. If you get dealt a ground card and you can’t stop it, you become a red splotch all over the pavement. The Falling deck comes with five ground cards, and these are always the bottom cards of the dealer’s deck. There’s an infinite amount of ground, so when playing with more than five players, the dealer can just point at a player and say “ground” when he runs out of cards. If everyone else hits the ground before you did, you win. Congratulations.

How does the game play? The pace is set by the dealer. For a bunch of newbies he can deal slowly, allowing the players to look at the top card of their stack, pick it up if they want to, then use it on themselves or someone else before the dealer gets back to them. As the players get more comfortable with the game, and they can assess the situation, pick up and play cards faster, the dealer can speed up. The cards fly across the table. There can be some timing issues, when two or more players try to play cards in the same place at the same time, but these can be resolved quickly by the players themselves. After all, Falling is a game which plays out in three to five minutes. You can play again.

Strategy

It’s a “real-time” game! What strategy? Isn’t it stupid?

Well, sort of, but not quite. Yes, you need fast reflexes and quick eyes to play well. If you have trouble picking cards up off the table, and you fumble a lot, you’ll probably get a bit frustrated. However, Falling is a game of stack management. All the turns before the dealer gets to the bottom of his deck are for “tuning” your stack to be nothing but skips (with extra skips) and stops, with maybe an occasional grab just in case. Get rid of hits, pushes and splits as soon as you can. Splits might actually be useful early on, since the extra stacks disappear if you empty them, but as the ground approaches, you’re playing with fire if you have more than one stack. (However, if you have a bunch of skips in both stacks that might work, since skips make the dealer skip all of your stacks.)

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Timing is everything. You don’t want to play your skip in front of yourself too early, so that someone steals it with a grab, but you don’t want to play it too late either so that someone has time to stick you with a hit or unwanted split. Oh, and never pick up a push unless you’ve got a rider. If someone sees you holding a push he can stop your rider, freezing the push in your hand until someone else plays a rider on you. If no one does, you’re helpless.

So yes, there’s a bit of strategy. Seriously!

Reviewer’s Tilt

And yes, it’s a stupid game, but I think that’s the point. If you don’t take it seriously, you can have a good time with Falling. I don’t recommend playing with more than four players (excluding the dealer) with one deck, since it’ll be over too quickly. You can shuffle two Falling decks together when playing with five to eight players. If you’re new to the game and don’t have an experienced dealer, take it slow. Once everyone gets it, you can speed up. Of course, this is a game best played fast. I have to admit that Falling is lots of fun when you’re with the right crowd and in the right mood, filled with flying cards, cursing and yelling. You might even call it a party game.

There will be some people who will hate the game just because it’s stupid, or because it’s in “real time”. It’s surprising though that many people initially find the game disorienting, but once they give it a chance, they find that they’re played twenty games in a row.

Do I like the game? Yes, I like it for what it is – a different kind of filler for when no one really wants to do any mental lifting. That was unexpected, since I was fully prepared to hate Falling. It’s not going to substitute for meatier fillers, but if Falling is what the group wants to play, I’ll happily grab a spot at the table. Heck, I’ll even deal.

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Fawkes (3/28/2005)

Thread: Re:Everyone Ends Up Holding a Card

Salt-Man Z — 2005-02-16T16:16:15+00:00

We've had 1 or 2 players "freeze up" with an unplayable card in their hand. But never the whole group. That's something special, right there.

Thread: Re:Learning Curve Problems and Solutions

casterlyrock — 2005-01-26T00:26:41+00:00

Dave Sokolowski (#40361),
I still don't understand this game after all these years.
Can anybody tell us, in plain English, how to play it?

Thread: Everyone Ends Up Holding a Card

Kozure — 2004-11-29T15:12:27+00:00

Having had this happen to our gaming group twice in the past six sessions we've played, I wondered if this has happened to anyone else.

We have a relatively small group of players - four - pretty much the minimum for playing the game with a dealer. In some games, we've had the situation come up where everyone was left holding a card (an Extra, Push or Grab) and the cards simply were dealt out until we hit the ground no further card plays. Since Extra, Push and Grab are only played on riders, and no one played a rider because everyone else was holding a card which had to be played on a rider, the game "locked up", as it were.

When it happened the second time, we checked the rules carefully to see if there was anything which specifically addressed this issue. The only thing mentioned was a caution to "be careful about what card you pick up" since you can't willingly discard cards except by actually playing them.

By that interpretation, this situation (no one doing anything while the ground rushes up to them) seems a legitimate possiblity. While the odds of this happening obviously decrease in a 5 or six player game, it seemed to us that this was not an unlikely event in a four player game.

Anyone else run into this "frozen" situation?

Thread: Re:Rules Question

sparr0 — 2004-10-20T01:31:36+00:00

Imagine (#46157),

From your explanation I think youve severely misunderstood the rules. No one but the dealer puts cards on other players' piles. The only place you can put a card for another player is in their rider position, and there can only ever be one card (not a pile) there for each player. And that is the only place that a Skip matters, and it gets discarded by the dealer as soon as its done.

Thread: Re:Rules Question

Trent — 2004-07-23T05:07:48+00:00

The skip is moved to the discard pile by the dealer when the player is skipped (just like hits/splits).

I believe there's a variant out there where some cards are "super-strength" and are not removed. Hits become anvils, skips become parachutes and splits become helicopters - in the normal game they never stick though.

Thread: Re:Rules Question

Imagine — 2004-07-21T08:41:46+00:00

Ryno8 (#45887),

as long as the the SKIP card is on top of the pile, that pile (and that player, as long as it is his only pile) is ignored by the dealer. It doesn't have to be destroyed or moved, though - you can simply play another card on that player's pile.

Thread: Rules Question

Ryno8 — 2004-07-19T19:32:28+00:00

Does a Skip rider only work once or do you skip that player until the rider is destroyed or moved?

Thanks

Thread: Re:Learning Curve Problems and Solutions

Chris Sjoholm — 2004-06-15T22:29:44+00:00

I taught this to several people at my office a couple of years ago. For a few of them, I used (I think) the teaching method suggested in the rules -- introduce new cards one at a time, go very very slowly before picking up speed, etc. It takes about a half hour to teach the game to somebody this way.

Some other players tried to simply jump right in and play.

All the people who were trained slowly loved the game. The people who tried to jump right in all hated the game.

It makes a difference.

Thread: Learning Curve Problems and Solutions

Dave Sokolowski — 2004-06-14T21:54:56+00:00

Just played this for the first time this weekend and personally had a horrible time learning it, even after I read the rules a couple times.

However, once I had to be the dealer and was able to walk slowly through the game without having the cards thrown at me, I suddenly understood what was happening. I called out all the card that were played and while I moved slowly I didn't stop at all.

Once I had a chance to do that twice the game really opened up for me and I actually gained a great understanding of the game. It is very fun, but was very confusing until I played the dealer...

Thread: variant - bullet time

Trent — 2003-06-05T12:59:18+00:00

Whenever a ground card is about to be dealt, the game goes into "bullet time" mode (note the extremely clever reference to the Matrix/Max Payne ). In bullet time mode, the ground card is only dealt when all players have finished playing any cards they wish to play ie. the dealer must wait until all players indicate that they are satisfied with their position.

This variant makes for a very different end-game - players have time to pull off more complicated moves before hitting the pavement.

Thread: General Comment

BoardGameGeek — 2002-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

"Falling" is really a love-it or hate-it game. Unfortunately, most of the people I know hate it, and it's kind of hard to teach to a group of new players. But once people "get it," it can be tremendously fun. Plus, a full game only lasts about two minutes, so what's not to like about that?

Thread: Session Report

BoardGameGeek — 2001-09-08T04:16:34+00:00

Falling
5 players (1 dealer): *Joe*, William, Dan, Chester, Jy (Rick)
Avg enjoyment:

So finally all 6 of us were at the same table again. There were immediate calls for 6 Nimmt but I asked if we could play Falling first since I knew it was a 'real-time' card game and therefore should play quickly. It worked as we pulled it out. The rules weren't too complicated but remembering what the cards did and which card could be played where made for a very confusing time. I think we played four games and were kind of overwhelmed. Chester, the card shark of our group, picked up on it quick, while Dan and I floundered. I am usually pretty good at realtime card games like Speed and Dutch Blitz/Nerts, but I really stunk up the joint on this game. I just couldn't seem the remember which cards did what.

Winner: Joe won once, and Chester won once I think, but most of the games were slow-motion practice type games.

Ratings: Joe 7, William 5, Dan 4, Chester 8, Jy 5

What a strange game. I mean straaaaaange. Most of us admitted befuddlement but Chester declared his affinity for it. Strange game

Thread: Session Report

derk — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

George, John, Drew, Derk

In an effort to waste a little more time before someone else showed up, George brought out this Cheap Ass card game. After hurriedly running through the sparse rules, George dealt out the cards. The first game was quite stupid as we three newbies tried to get used to the game. The second game was a little better as we got used to the mechanics a little more, but I don’t think there’s much of a game here. It’s a turnless game where reaction times are based on the dealing, which is less than perfect science. Personally, I can find almost no reason to play this game again. There’s not enough substance to warrant the time spent, even for a brainless filler.

Drew: It really does feel like you are falling, which is kewl. But it is going so fast, you don't care. If I never played it again, I would be happy, but it might have appeal on certain days in certain places. Rating: 3

Thread: Session Report

dougadamsau — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Doug writes:

I bought this small card game more as a curiosity a few months ago. Alan had been asking for a game of it to see if the 'love it or hate it' attitude would infect our group!

Eyes were crossing and uncrossing in confusion as I read out the rules, but it really is a simple game. One player deals cards to the others, who are falling. The bottom five cards are GROUND cards, and if you are dealt one then you've hit the ground and are out. The object is to hit the ground last. The winner becomes the dealer in the next hand.

Sound stupid? Okay, maybe it is, but I found it a lot of fun. I was dealer in the first game and managed to get one and a half times around the table before pandamonium struck! Some clarifications were tidied up and off we went again.

The first game was a mess, which I think Alan won as he dealt second game. I foolishly played a SPLIT on my stack near the end of that deal which saw me hit the ground early. David took the second game, and dealt the third which I won, by playing a STOP to cancel a ground card, then a SKIP on me followed by a HIT on Alan for effect!

Thoughts - I didn't mind it at all. Janet had know idea what was happening, and was often caught with a card in her hand and using the other hand to play off her stack! Donna liked it enough to borrow it off me for a week. Fun, and different.

Thread: Session Report

BoardGameGeek — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Date: October 28, 2000
Place: Starbuck's Coffee House, Kelan's Apartment

AT THE TABLE: Stephen Glenn, Kelly Thomas, Kelan Wieloch

Kelan is the newest member of the Old Dominion Strategy Group. We met via an internet database (either ACCESS DENIED or WGD) and I was pleased to find out that Kelan lives just right down the street from where I work. He is an old-school gamer who is just now getting a chance to play the newer German-type games. Kelly is an old friend of mine and a civilian (non-hardcore-gamer). The three of us enjoyed an afternoon and evening of games this past weekend. We started off in a Starbucks Coffee House in downtown Ghent (the "Soho-Bohemian" part of town) for some small starters and then migrated to Kelan's apartment a few blocks away for the bigger games -- the tables at Starbucks are about the size of a large pizza.

Kelan started us off by teaching us this not-so-cheap CheapAss game. He explained at the outset that it wasn't particulary suited for three players, since one person would have to be the dealer and the others were the fallers. He was right. I didn't get this one at all. Kelan was kind enough to take us through the "turns" (there are none) slowly. But even falling in slow motion didn't help me grasp the point of this game. It could *only* get better with more players, but not to a large degree. I hit the ground just before Kelly did, so I lost. At least that's what I was told. My rating: 3. Could move up to a 4, I suppose, with more players.

Thread: Session Report

Jonathan Degann — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Jonathan, Josh, Mike, Alfonzo, Glenn, Gary

As we stumbled around to pick a game, Mike whipped out this notorious James Earnest microgame. Mike explained that he bought it because someone on the Funagain site rated it a "zero", and that piqued his curiosity. I offered to sell him a slew of games in my collection that I'd rate a "zero", and we're still negotiating on the price 8-b.

In Falling, the dealer rhythmically deals cards to each player on top of his stack or stacks. At the bottom of the dealer's deck are a series of "Ground" cards, and the last one to be dealt a Ground card wins. To manipulate this, players can take cards, singly, from the top of any of their stacks and play them on themselves or on opponents - the general effect of these plays is to cause an individual to receive either greater or fewer cards when his turn comes around on the deal. So, initially, one arguably wants more cards (that give you more options to play from) and toward the end, as the Ground cards are coming out, the clear goal is to play cards that cause other players to receive more cards, and cause yourself to receive no cards.

No one is calling this a great game - the main appeal is it's real-time flavor and its Earnest sense of humor. However, unlike some critics, I'll acknowledge that there is a game here.

I won the first game through skillful planning and shrewd exercise of my strategy (i.e., I figured out what to do before the game ended), and I think Josh won the second through cunning negotiation and hand management (Mike and I played simultaneously on each other, Glenn ruled in favor of Mike, and I got eliminated).

Rating: Greater than zero - beyond that I'm not saying