Music to Play By:
Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saens
Night on Bald Mountain by Mussorgsky
Symphony Fantastique - Dreams of a Witch's Sabbath (5th Movement) By Berlioz
Toccata & Fugue in d minor by JS Bach
The Isle of the Dead, Op 29, by Rachmaninov
and any other Macabre or Creepy music you have on hand.
Why Did I Buy Gloom?
Well I didn't go out looking for Gloom at all. In fact I hadn't intended to buy anything that day. I was just killing some time before I met up with my family for lunch. I knew I had about 15 minutes so I decided to dash into a game store that happened to be near the restaurant. To be perfectly honest I'd only ever been in this particular store once before and I had had terrible customer service, but this visit had a different person on staff who was very friendly and helpful. I had thought that since I was in the store I would look at the game "Five Tribes" as I have heard good things about it, however they were out of stock. So, instead I just looked at the shelves and pulled out boxes that struck my fancy when I landed on Gloom. It's interesting art style stuck out to me so I took the little box out and read the back,
"The Sky is Grey, the Tea is Cold, and a New Tragedy Lies Around Every Corner"
Seems interesting I thought, and since I had a little extra cash this week I thought why not! So yeah, very intense thinking process on the purchase of this game.
How Much Did it Cost?
Gloom cost me with tax $36 Canadian dollars
Where/Who Would I Play it With?
Since in involves a fair bit of storytelling I wouldn't play this with someone who doesn't like that sort of element in a game. I wouldn't play this with anyone under 10 as it may (but not necessarily) scare them with some of the descriptions. I most recently played this game with my 12 year old niece (I call her Beans) and she loves this game. Every time we get together she wants to play it and loves the storytelling aspect to the game. As to where I would play this, somewhere with a table. The game play itself involves stacking cards on top of each other so it isn't meant to be played around a coffee table or campfire. Other than that since it is a card game and its small to pack it's a great game to bring along when you go out with friends.
Actual Game Play
The game itself is fairly easy to learn. Basically you start with five cards to your hand and during your turn you have two play chances to use your Modifier cards on your own characters or other players cards. For instance with a family member (let's use Miss Melissa Slogar her as an example)you are going to want to have miserable things happen to them.
As it stands Melissa has neutral self worth
Then you add a clear Modifier card on top and sadly for Miss Melissa her self worth has gone down.
However another player can increase your self worth with positive cards.
On your turn you may counter any positive moves with another negative card.
On your first move of your turn you may happily kill off any of your family with an Untimely Death Card provided they have a negative self worth at the time of death.
Event cards are used in other player interactions.
Aesthetics
I have to admit I was very attracted to the artwork of the family cards and I enjoyed the clear cards as a factor in the game play.I also like that you don't have to worry overmuch about getting greasy cards. However the slick design and card surfaces made the deck a little hard to shuffle.
Did I Like it?
Yes! I very much have enjoyed Gloom. It is a rather recent addition to my game shelf but I am sure it will be in a fairly steady rotation at my game nights.
Rating:
Out of Five Game Pieces I give it:
For those of you interested in a video of actual game play I suggest Tabletop on Youtube.
