Our latest Card Game: Gloom

Gloom is a gothic card game that reminds me of the Lemony Snicket books, Edward Gorey's The Gashlycrumb Tinies or the Adams Family, the objective is to make up miserable things to happen to your characters, and the one with most miserable wins. The object of the game, in fact, is to make your characters as miserable as you possibly can. Each player has a family, a group of misfit characters that they then play event cards on.

The really interesting thing about Gloom is the story-telling aspect of game play. When you play an event card such as "Terrified by Topiary," or “Was Mauled by Manatee,” you may explain how this event occurs. Each character develops as more and more event cards are placed on it, so the character’s life story becomes increasingly unfortunate and, well, abnormal. Your opponents then can cheer up your characters with happy occasions. The card are clear so you can see your characters and any effects that have been played on them. Rodney and David really love coming up with their stories. Sometimes they even became a little too long and had nothing to do with their cards. But it was good for them to play a game the really gets them thinking about what they are doing and get the creative juices going.

The game is for 8 and up and takes about an hour to play. You can play it simple or with the more complex effects on the cards, so adults will love it to.