Gloom Game

Here's a game you can play any time of year, but that seems especially apropos in October! Subtitled "The Game of Inauspicious Incidents & Grave Consequences", Gloom is a game in which you seek to have the most horrific events happen to you, and if a happy event comes up in the deck, you try to impose it on one of your opponents. In flavor it's very much like Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events", and it's fun for adults as well as kids. What's also neat is that the cards are made of plastic that are transparent in strategic spots so that you can pile cards on top of one another and some elements of the cards underneath are still visible and in play. It's really quite clever. We occasionally have friends over for games night, and everyone enjoyed this one. The recommended age is 8 years and up, and that sounds about right to me.

The original Gloom game comes in a little box that's about as wide as two decks of cards, and there are also expansion sets (one deck each) available: the Unwelcome Guests (think Typhoid Mary) expansion, the Unhappy Homes expansion, and so on. You can easily find these online or ask at your local game store. The original game has a suggested retail price of $24.95, but it's available on Amazon for $16.90 plus shipping.

Go forth and be miserable!

What: Gloom Game
Where: Amazon or any game store
How much (as of today's post): $16.90 (plus shipping)