Thoughts of LoWriter

"Kill Dr. Lucky"

So, after an exciting day of role playing (yes, I am a nerd. I celebrate my nerdliness entirely), I've decided that I'm going to be like my character in that I'm going to review stuff online in an effort to obtain free stuff. That's right. This is a shameless ploy to attain free stuff. It's one of many free stuff campaigns I am currently running, but it is a free stuff campaign non-the-less. If you produce things that you think I would like to have for free, feel free (hee hee) to email me. I will praise or rip on your product as I see fit. (Keep in mind that free stuff is always better than stuff you've had to pay for, so you'll automatically get a small number of free stuff brownie points before I even look at your product.)

Here's what you all need to do: Go out and buy "Kill Dr. Lucky" from Cheapass Games right now. (This is totally un-related to role playing in any way, shape, or form.)

This was a Christmas gift, given to me by the amazingly awesome Carl and Jill. It's excellent because it's like "Clue" only it doesn't suck after you've played it several times with the same people. Also, instead of trying to solve a murder, you're trying to committ one.

Dr. Lucky owns the mansion wherein the game takes place. Everybody wants him dead. You win if you succeed in killing him off; however, he is exceedingly lucky, so killing him is difficult. Also, all the other players want to kill him before you do, so they help him.

Basically, you have to get Dr. Lucky alone in a room, and you have to be holding a weapon, which is assigned a certain point value, in your hand of cards. Other players can thwart (yes, thwart) your attempts to kill him by throwing down "failure" cards, which also are assigned point values. Others can play as many failure cards as they want, but the failure cards never go back into the real deck, so at the end, Dr. Lucky definitely uses up his good karma and will eventually die. (Sorry, but that's just the way it is. If you're a fan of Dr. Lucky, then this game is not for you.) The other players combined must throw down enough failure cards to equal the points of your weapon card or else you succeed in killing Dr. Lucky and, therefore, win the game.

Why is it awesome? The weapons are things like "Rat Poison" or "Broom Stick" and they're worth more in certain rooms. Also, the failure cards say things like, "You are distracted by thoughts of a mispent youth. The Dr. escapes," or "The Dr. disappears inexplicably in a whirl of feathers."

Finally, there's no stupid envelope where all the answers are stored, and there's no way to figure out what cards the other players are holding by powers of deduction or through threats of torture (which, be honest, you've all considered after a round of "Clue" with your know-it-all cousin Ike). Like all Cheapass Games I've played so far, you can only depend on any one of the three fates of gaming (Strategy, Risk-taking, and Sheer Luck) for so long. After awhile, you have to rely a little on all three.

All in all, it's a very enjoyable game, which, if you're not planning to play with Grandma, you can definitely take to otherwise boring Christmas parties, etc. (And be honest, you all know what boring Christmas parties I'm talking about.)

Happy Holidays if I don't update by Ye Olde Christmasse Daye, and remember: Send me free stuff. :)

Posted by LoWriter at December 20, 2004 02:16 PM