Discworld: The Board Game!

Discworld is a book series that the author describes as "an attempt to do for the classical fantasy universe what Blazing Saddles did for Westerns." This series is just brilliant and is a wonderful satire. There's a lot of magic, but also references to the real world and mythology. The books are also light novels, so they make for quick and enjoyable reads.

There are a few one-offs, but mostly the series contains a handful of story arcs. My favorite two arcs being The Watch and Death.

Discworld...which is flat and rides on the back of four giant elephants who stand on the shell of the enormous star turtle Great A’Tuin, and which is bounded by a waterfall that cascades endlessly into space. Scientists have calculated that the chance of anything so patently absurd actually existing are millions to one. But magicians have calculated that million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten. ~Mort by Terry Pratchett

Anyway...there is now a board game* based off this series. It takes place in the city of Ankh Morpork (the largest city on the disk). The board has twelve territories and accommodates 2-4 players. Each player gets 1 of 7 characters to play, and each character wins under different circumstances. Everyone has people and buildings as well as a hand of cards. Your objective was to fulfill your character's winning requirements (such as controlling the most territories, having people in every territory, having the most money). Each turn you played 1 card (unless the card specifically said otherwise) and performed as many of the actions on it as you wanted. Cards were based off characters and places in the Discworld and allowed you to do things like gain money, construct buildings, and place people. There are also Random Even cards, and they are definitely random. Some of the event cards we encountered involved trolls, floods, explosions, and there is even a card that will end the game.

We compared this game to a few others. It was a little bit like Clue because you want to figure out who the other players are so you can stop them from winning. It is also a little bit like Monopoly and Risk (or Small World) as you are trying to acquire territories and/or money. Also like Monopoly is that if you build in a territory you own it so you get some bonuses from that as well (money, placing extra people, etc). I also think it is a little bit like Dominion because you are trying to play one strategic card on your turn.

None of us tonight had ever played before, so it was a long game as we muddled our way through. It is estimated to take 60 minutes, but we played for close to 2.5 hours. However, there was a brief (well...60-90 minutes) break while my sister skyped with her predecessor for the JET program (she's going to teach in Japan and starts July 27!). However, as we started figuring things out and didn't have to look at the instructions on every move, things started speeding along and we had a really good time. There were only 3 of us and it was still fun, but I think this game would be best played with the maximum of 4.

*Although for purchasing of games, I am loyal to Cool Stuff Inc. They have awesome prices, free shipping over $100, and a rewards program. If you are in the IL area, Gamers World in Woodfield Mall is also a great place to buy games. I have also seen some of the more popular games of this style (like Settler's of Catan, Carcassonne, etc) at Target and Walmart--online at least, sometimes in store.