Game: Torches & Pitchforks

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Aubigny — 2008-09-15T11:20:45+00:00

Contents of the German edition

Thread: Re: Green Ronin laughing all the way to the bank.

thewretched99 — 2008-08-15T02:25:01+00:00

Now that it's 2008 and I've just found this game, I'd like to note to any NOW current persons curious about the game that you can pick it up online for a mere $16... yes it doesn't come with the di (you need 1, not two btw) which is rather cheap but the idea of the graytone cards IS atmosphere since you're fighting tongue-firmly-in-cheek versions of classic 1920s-1950s monsters; this isn't rocket science, but I guess I'll agree that they saved a few bucks sure.

Thread: Re: Monster Discard Pile? A myth or am I sleepy and skipped it?

thewretched99 — 2008-08-15T02:19:07+00:00

Just played a few times last week (love it btw, but you don't care about that part =P), and it looks like Donald nailed it: the Monster deck contains Monsters, duh, but also event cards which get tossed into a Monster discard pile. As well, as Donald stated, you're never FORCED to go hunting from the moor--also, the hunting is from taking a RANDOM monster from the moor, so you never know, you could get the Giant Rat or the Ghost if you're lucky.

By now... you probably know all this, seeing how it is 6 mo. later, but I just wanted to affirm Donalds answers for future users... man I wish they'd make a sequel.

Thread: Re: Monster Discard Pile? A myth or am I sleepy and skipped it?

Walsfeo — 2008-06-03T13:24:14+00:00

The event cards from the Monster Deck go in that discard pile... I think.

And as I remember you are not required to go hunting.

Thread: Monster Discard Pile? A myth or am I sleepy and skipped it?

jbwc — 2008-02-26T03:02:07+00:00

Reading through the rulebook, I noticed on the illustration of the game set-up (page 6), there is a monster discard pile. However, no where in the rules does it mention putting cards there. (They all go to the moor pile or the players score pile, correct?) I haven't read the text on the all the cards word for word, so maybe there are some that state 'put this in the monster discard pile'. When, if at all, do you place the monsters in the monster discard pile?

Another question: At the start of a game, player one draws a monster they can't defeat, but successfully flee-- this monster goes to the moor. Yet, according to the rules of the hunt! phase, that player must randomly draw from the moor (thus picking that same monster they just escaped from). The rules do state that this time around you can't flee the monster and you must fight it. I just thought this was kind of odd. I think if this happened, the player would just pick from the monster draw pile, but there's the chance it might not be a monster, but rather an event card...I'm probably over thinking this too much, but I know when I play with my friends this no doubt will come into play.

[BGCOLOR=#FFFF00]Any non-sarcastic replies[/BGCOLOR] would be great. I've seen way too many posts back and forth before someone finally gets a straight answer.

-Jeff

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jbwc — 2008-02-23T04:13:23+00:00

Custom Point Tracker for Torches & Pitchforks

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Jormi_Boced — 2007-11-03T22:12:22+00:00

Pimped Townsfolk

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projectmatter — 2007-10-27T20:07:09+00:00

More Monsters

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projectmatter — 2007-10-27T20:00:59+00:00

Some Monsters

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projectmatter — 2007-10-27T19:54:17+00:00

Some Enhancement Action & Defence Cards

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projectmatter — 2007-10-27T18:22:58+00:00

Event Cards

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projectmatter — 2007-10-27T18:18:16+00:00

Townsfolk

Thread: Re: Green Ronin laughing all the way to the bank.

JonnieK — 2006-09-01T12:22:25+00:00

I do confess to being interested in this game until i saw the price in the UK (£20)
seems alot for cards, especially when the german version is only about £10 on ebay.

means I will be looking elsewhere

Thread: Munchkin...for the time considerate.

Yib-Yab — 2006-06-30T23:33:50+00:00

I remember once, while visiting a friend out of state, I had an epiphany; create a light horror based game using cards only. No set up, no charts or graphs...just lots of card playin and vampires.

Later that trip, I was introduced to Munchkin...and my dreams were dashed. It was exactly what I was trying to create in my head (and on one beat up pad of yellow paper).

Well, I was wrong. Torches and Pitchforks is EXACTLY the game I was trying to create. I'm sad that im not that creative, but happy that now I dont have to think up the rules to my own game.

Simply put, Torches and Pitchforks is SIMILAR to Munchkin, minus a few elements. It will appeal to fans of that game (of which I am one) and conversly, those who hate all things munchkiny will want to stay far away...well, they might want to give it a chance.

Objective: Be the first player to reach 30 points. You do this by killing monsters, each one is worth it's respective power value (the average being about 6 or 7) so generally, once someone takes out five or six monsters, the game is over.

How is this done?

Each player is dealt six "townspeople" cards, which they lay in front of themselves face up. Each town person has a cosmetic differnce from the others, but each one is only worth one point of power which is used when determining if you beat a monster. So in other words, all players start at a base power level of six.

Then each player is dealt a hand of five cards from a "mob" deck. These cards include "action" cards that, like munchkin, can be played at ANY TIME to either help you or hurt someone else; Defense cards, which are used as a last chance help if you cant beat a monster and you dont want to run away; As well as weapon cards, which are played during times other than combat to increase the power of your townspeople.

Turns are carried out in a series of steps.

1. A player draws back up to five cards, if they are holding less than five. (This is a nice improvment over Munchkin, since all too often in that game you hold crappy cards for wayyyyy too long).

2. The active player turns over the top card of the monster deck. If it's a monster, than the player is in combat. If it's anything else, you carry out that card's instructions and go about the rest of the steps.

a. Combat is carried out by comparing the monster's power level to the collective power of your mob plus any weapons they are holding. If your level is higher than the monster, you win and it's killed. If not, than the monster wins and you must either flee, play an appropriate defense card from your hand, or just let the monster get you.

b. To flee, you roll a six sided die, and must discard that many cards. If you roll more than you are holding, the monster gets you, and it "kills" a number of people in your mob equal to the monster's "kill number." "Killed" townspeople arent removed, they are simply turned over, negating any power they may have, and losing any weapons they may have. Needless to say, if you dont play any action cards to help stop the monster, you'll be holding five, which means only a six will get you nabbed. But beware you dont burn a bunch of action cards from your hand only to have an enemy boost the monster even higher leaving you needing to run but only holding two cards!

c. If you cant beat the monster, it goes FACE DOWN into it's own discard pile known as THE MOOR. You'll see why.

3. If you dont find a monster, than you may opt to go HUNTING for a monster to kill. You do this by drawing a card AT RANDOM from the MOOR. You then enter combat with that monster, as per the rules for combat above.

4. You then enter your RECOUP phase, which lets you bring ONE townsperson "back to life" by flipping them back over. You may then play weapon cards on your townspeople, and even play cards that appoint a townsperson a LEADER, which gives them extra powers.

5. Discard as many cards as you like.

The biggest change from this compared to munchkin is that this playes a bit smoother. Adding up your power is a snap, and the fact that only one type of card can be played at any time (action cards) keeps the game running quickly.

Also, keep in mind that like munchkin, monsters and weapons often have modifiers that increase or decrease depending on the combinations of cards already out on the table, although it doesnt get anywhere NEAR as arglebargled as munchkin can get, when you have to take into account race, class, gender, power, weapons..and so on and so forth.

One element that has been removed is the concept of teaming up. In munchkin you could beg someone to help you fight a monster. Here though, there's no real incentive to do so since there is no "treasure deck" and no way to split what you win from a monster in terms of points. But like I mentioned, the "screw your neighbor" factor is same as it was.

I love the "draw every turn" feature, as it gives you a fighting chance even after a distarous turn or two (I lost ALL my cards on MY FIRST TURN OF MY FIRST GAME and managed to come back to win). And none of the rules seem counterintutive, although you might have some fights remembering that your core six townspeople can never be DISCARDED from in front of you (only FLIPPED OVER when KNOCKED OUT) but any additional townsfolk you get from the mob deck CAN be LOST COMPLETLY sometimes.

And that's about it. If you like Munchkin once in a while, but avoid it because it gets bogged down in endless rule conflicts, I think this game is for you. It's fun, what else can I say?

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ChrisRachael — 2006-06-18T16:41:40+00:00

Thread: Spicier player interaction

toutfour — 2005-12-29T21:09:54+00:00

As written, this game is mediocre. The art is nice, but the gameplay is bland. This variant made the game enjoyable to our group. It's a variant which adds some spicy player interaction.

First prepare the monster deck by removing several smaller creatures. (I removed 1 ghost, 1 toy, 2 rats, 2clowns and 3 bugs). Now the monsters are too big to fight alone, so players must help one another.

During any turn, players may help one another in combat:
**A single player may loan another mob one of his/her mob's members. That loaned member may not be chosen to be killed if other choices are available. The loaned member returns immediately after combat.
** Any player may play cards to help one another.

To solicit this help, players may trade or make promises. They may trade weapons, townsfolk, mob cards, killed monsters or simply promises to give help in the future.

Important rule: any promises made during the game must be kept and a player cannot agree to help another player and then also play cards to hinder them in combat .

Any weapons or enhancement cards which are traded may not be played until the recoup phase.

Nothing too complex, but it really changed the flavor. Enjoy.

**********************************************

To make the game go faster I also removed the following:
Monster deck: arms shipment, the plot thickens
Mob deck: 3 bungling spies, 2 escape plans (now not needed), 2 meddling kids, antacid, werewolf? there wolf!, baby shortage, harpoon squad and violinist.

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Skymarshal — 2005-10-16T15:10:09+00:00

Box back of the new edition (Truant Verlag - 10/2005)

Thread: Green Ronin laughing all the way to the bank.

dougiehowitzermd — 2005-09-13T18:57:37+00:00

Not only do Green Ronin fob you off with single colour print cards (don't try to pretend it adds to the atmosphere - it's cheap print. Period.), they haven't even got the decency to put the two D6 that you require to play in the box.

Overpriced. Avoid!!

Thread: Re: User Review

jtkauff — 2005-07-06T19:12:19+00:00

One thing that I actually liked about the black and white cards was that it fit the theme of old horror/sci-fi B-movies. I'm sure that cost was a factor also, but I felt that it fit thematically as well.

jt.

Thread: User Review

relic10 — 2004-11-18T19:38:01+00:00

Being a fan of horror-themed games, card games, and relatively simple and quick games that are easy to learn and teach others, it is no surprise that I ended up buying Torches and Pitchforks.

Components: The game comes in a small box of good, sturdy quality that doesn't take up much space. Inside the box, you get a rulebook and a very large stack of cards. These cards and a six-sided die are all that is needed for play. The cards are the same size, shape, thickness, and texture as found in a standard deck of playing cards. The only bummer with the cards is that everything is printed in black and white, which is a shame because the artwork is very well done and I feel color would have added to it. This, of course, doesn't in any way detract from the gameplay, and even without color, the cards still look great.

Theme: I have indicated above that this is a horror-themed card game, but it is also has a humor theme. Normally, as a horror fan in all forums, I don't feel that the two go well together. But in this case, it really does work. As a matter of fact, the light, humorous feel actually adds to the game in my opinion, and goes very well with the artwork and text of the cards. Many are actually quite funny.

Setup: The cards are divided into three catergories (Monster cards, Mob cards, and Towsfolk Cards). Each player is dealt six townsfolk cards; this represents his or her beginning mob. The very vast Mob deck, which makes the meat of the game, is shuffled and five cards are dealt to each player. The remaining cards form a facedown deck in the middle of the table. The Monster deck is shuffled and placed facedown near the Mob deck. The Mob cards are all unique and kept secret from the other players, each player keeping his mob cards in his hand. The townsfolk cards are all unique in name and appearance, but identical in function (i.e. they each add +1 to the player's fighting score). Because the townsfolk cards are no mystery, each player lays his townsfolk cards faceup in front of him in his play area.

Gameplay: The idea is that each player controls a mob of townsfolk who are trying to kill a horde of monsters invading his or her town. The object is to be the first player to score 30 points. On a player's turn, he will draw back up to five cards if he has fewer than that in his hand. Then he will flip over the top card on the Monster deck, showing the card to all. Now there are two types of Monster card that it could be: A creature card or an event card. If it is an event card, the card will direct some action to take place that affects all players. More likely than not, it will be a creature card; this means that the player drawing the card has to choose to fight or flee that creature. Each creature has a "kill" rating and a "power" rating. The player drawing the creature card must decide to fight or flee before any other cards are played (if the Monster card drawn turns out to be an event card, no fleeing can take place and the outcome cannot be avoided). Once a player chooses to fight, he cannot flee, and vice versa. If the player chooses to fight, combat ensues. To win the combat, the player's mob strength must be greater than the power of the creature they are facing. The base mob strength is determined by how many living townsfolk currently make up the player's mob, but that is just the beginning. Cards depicting weapons, etc., can be played on the townsfolk, which stay in effect from battle to battle. Also, the player fighting the creature has the option of playing instant, one-time effect cards from his hand of Mob cards to increase his mob's chances of success during the course of this battle, by either increasing his mob strength for the current battle or by decreasing that of the creature he is fighting. On the other hand, the opposing players can play Mob cards too, which have the effect of lowering the fighting player's mob strength for the battle (or in some cases permanently), or giving the creature a nice boost of strength to ensure that the player loses the battle. This is obviously a "screw your opponent" type game where you want to beat the monsters, but want the monsters to in turn beat your opponents. After any cards are played, by the player whose turn it is or his opponents, the final tally is made of the creature's power and the player's mob strength. The higher one wins with a tie going to the creature. If the player wins, he puts the creature in front of him and gets points equal to the power rating of the creature (remember, 30 points wins). If he loses, he loses a number of townsfolk equal to the kill rating of the creature. Any killed townsfolk cards are flipped facedown to indicate that they are dead, thus reducing the player's mob strength. Any enhancements on a townsfolk who is killed are lost permanently. In the case of a creature winning, the creature is put facedown in a separate pile of cards called "The Moors", which is formed of creatures that either win in combat or are fled from if the player chooses to flee instead of fight. Speaking of fleeing, if the player initially chooses to flee instead of fight, he rolls a six-sided die, and then must choose and discard a number of cards from his hand equal to the number rolled. If this is possible, the fleeing is successful and the monster is placed in the Moors. If the roll is higher than the number of cards in hand, you get to keep all of your cards, but must fight the creature. After combat or fleeing, there is a hunt phase, but a player can only hunt if he did not fight this turn (i.e, if his Monster deck draw produced an event card instead of a creature card, or if he successfully fled his creature). To hunt the player shuffles all monsters in the Moors and draws one randomly. He must fight that creature, and fleeing is not an option. Combat is handled the same way as normal combat. Then comes the Recoup phase, in which the player may put any enhancements from his hand onto the townsfolk in his mob. These enhancements come in the form of leaders (each player can have only one leader in play at any time), weapons, or other townsfolk which are part of the Mob deck and can be played in addition to the initial six from the Townsfolk deck divied out at the beginning of the game. The weapons enhancements either add a set number to the mob strength, or may require a die-roll to determine outcome. Also during the recoup phase, a player may turn over one of his dead townsfolk, if any, symbolizing that one of his dead members has been replaced. Lastly, the player may discard as many cards as he wants from what is left in his hand, then it's the next player's turn.

Fun factor:This game works, because the cards in a player's hand can come in many forms, and the other player's never know what to expect. If I choose to fight, will another player throw a card to enhance the creature or hurt me? And if so, do I have a card in my hand to counter his card, or enhance my own mob strength if need be for this battle? Or maybe the other player(s) has nothing of use right now, and the fact that I have barely more mob strength than the creature has power will be enough for victory. If I chance it and lose, this particular creature is going to put a hurting on my mob. What to do?

Replayability: The game contains a large quantity of cards, not all of which will be drawn during the course of any one game, so this is very much a non-collectible card game. It is very possible to play the game quite a few times without playing all of the cards contained therein. This type of variety obviously adds to the replayability of the game.

Overall: Overall, this is a simple card game that is definitely enjoyable for the right crowd, and works well with two players as well as five. The cards have nice artwork and are well conceived, and work well with the theme. A fun game that always brings a smile to the table. I recommend it.

P.S. If any aspect of any of my reviews is unclear, I welcome any questions that might help clear something up.