Two player – Page 9 – Random Geek Child

Escape Rooms! …Digitally?

Yeah, you read that right. So, as far as I know, I’ve never done a real escape room. I have, however, done plenty of these online ones! A while back I stumbled upon HoodaMath (probably thanks to school friends, but no guarantees on that) and consecutively their entire Escape Games page. My cousins and I obsessed a bit, all three of us hovering around the screen and binge playing them together.

I’m not really going to be comparing this to real escape rooms, since, as I already mentioned, I haven’t really done those. Hence, these will be judged by their own merit and someone else can do a comparison.

There’s always a little bit of plot. Let me start there, because… well, the game starts there. They aren’t just throwing you into the situation; they have a blurb at the beginning explaining why you are where you are and usually some reason for why you can’t get out. You got lost, you stayed too late and the gates are now closed, etc. Not always realistic, but not all of the games are either. Hence, Escape with Hansel and Gretel.

The rest of the game is running around using the green room movement arrows and clicking on things to find clues, helpful objects, and locks of various types that need opening with your smarts and the clues you’ve found (or haven’t yet). They have an impressive variety of things to do and find, and despite the kids’ game animations they’re still difficult for me. In other words, fun!

Eat This!!!

Or, really, please, please don’t. We need that. You know, for the rest of the game. And hopefully the many to come after. Because throwing burritos at your friends is too much fun to pass up.

Throw Throw Burrito items - 2 squishy burritos, a stack of Burrito Bruises, and a Fear Me token

Yes, you read that right. Throwing burritos. Yes, I’m serious. No, are you crazy? Of course they’re not real burritos! Do you know how much of a mess that would make?

Throw Throw Burrito is a fun speed game that involves collecting sets of crazy cards, and sometimes throwing fake burritos at your friends, in a variety of ways. You can duel with one other (like a good old Western back-to-back, walk, turn and draw), battle between just two, or have an all-out war, giving someone else (hopefully) a Burrito Bruise!

But that’s only if you get three cards of that type and color. Otherwise, you’re collecting other types of cards in groups of three, looking to gain points to become the Burrito Master, to be feared by all. There are no turns, just drawing from your deck and discarding on top of someone else’s, and occasionally drawing from the pool decks. So, you know, points for points and burritos because… throwing stress burritos at people is lots of fun? I mean look at those! They’re adorable and squishy and so much fun to peg Mom with. Repeatedly.

Fire Boy and Water Girl

“Don’t die. No! No, green mud, jump jump jump…” Game over. This is about how games of Fire Boy and Water Girl go when I’m playing with my best friend. Technically, I’m not sure that it’s supposed to be a two-player game, but that’s how we always played it within our friend group. After all, there are two characters, and it’s easier to each take one than to play two characters doing completely different things at the same time. Then again, sometimes you really don’t want to have to share the controls, especially when it’s your seventh time running that map because someone keeps missing the jump (though realistically, who that someone is varies. It’s been you, too).

See, in this game, Fire Boy is controlled by the arrow keys, and Water Girl is controlled by WASD (try keeping those straight in your head as you try to avoid jumping to your death with two characters at once) and each can only traverse their own elements. If either of them steps in the other’s element, they die. This means that sometimes only one can go in a certain direction. There are also colored gems that only the matching character can retrieve, also suggesting that they should be the one to go in that direction. Green mud kills both, and is the bane of absolutely anyone trying to coordinate a jump on a swinging log so that they both make it across the pit.

You are scored (well, graded, it’s a letter grade) based on how long the round took you, and once you succeed the branching levels from it open up for attempts. I say branching because not all of them have only one track; some have three or more options from which to choose. You can always go back and play the other tracks as well.

Each version of Fire Boy and Water Girl has different systems special to it, like the Light Temple’s mirrors and portals and stuff, but I’ll leave those for you to discover on their own. I usually play it on Cool Math Games (1, 2, 3, 4). There is an official Fire Boy and Water Girl site as well, which is the one I’ll link to hereafter. This one has five versions, in order: The Forest Temple, The Light Temple, The Ice Temple, The Crystal Temple, The Element Temple.

Rock Paper Scissors… Lizard Spock?

At our elementary school, at the end of recess we all had to line up by our class as sit down, and it took a ridiculously long amount of time. As such, my best friend and I took to playing games: Chopsticks, Concentration, a few others, and one that she taught me: Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock. Apparently it’s from the Big Bang Theory. At least, I think that’s what it’s from.

Anyhow, the rules for Rock, Paper, and Scissors, in relation to each other, are the same as in the original game (I sure hope everyone here knows how to play Rock Paper Scissors!), but there are new rules involved, since there are more components. The original rules are phrased eloquently in a semi-rhyming pattern, as I recall, but I never bothered to memorize that, so here are the new rules, blandly put:

Spock is the “Live Long and Prosper” sign from Star Trek. Look it up. Lizard is just a curled hand, like you’re drawing a lowercase “r” with your hand so that someone in front of you or to your right can read it. (*deep breath*) Spock vaporizes Rock and smashes Scissors, Lizard poisons Spock and eats Paper, Paper disproves Spock, Rock smashes Lizard, and Scissors decapitate Lizard. (*exhales*)

Personally, I think the best part of the game is acting out the end result. For instance, possibly my two favorites are Lizard and Spock, and Paper and Spock. To quote actual incidents of each, “*choking noises* No… I see the light… *hand flaps and falls flat*” and “No! It… does not… make sense! Gah! *hand flaps and falls flat*”, respectively. Because this is what happens when you get over-dramatic teenagers (or tweens, when we started) to play what should be a reasonably simple, straightforward game.

I can’t get through! There’s a Bearicade!

No, that isn’t misspelled. I really did mean “Bearicade,” not “barricade.” That’s because Mom and I recently played a wonderful card game called Bearicades, about forests and scared prey, and big, scary lumberjacks and equally big and scary predators, but they happen to be playing defense and trying to protect the prey, so they count as the good guys. You know something’s gone really bad to get the predators and the prey to team up!

So there are these cute animals, all innocent and stuff (yeah right, like that snake wasn’t just waiting for a lumberjack to bite!) that are specially grouped into forests. You can choose whether you want to play beginner style by color, or by ring numbers. Each has a special ability, which will be activated as specified on the card (sometimes it’s when the animal runs away, when you Flip the card, or some, like the Salmon, can just be activated whenever).

Then there are the lumberjacks. The active player for the turn (designated by the Frog) draws the top lumberjack and places him in the middle. But of course, no lumberjack lumberjacks by himself, so each lumberjack card lists a certain amount of friends of his who also get drawn. The active player then gets to distribute the lumberjacks between the forests in whatever manner they like, the only rule being that each has to have one.

Then comes the predator phase. There are some really cool predators in the deck, like Cougars, Bats, Foxes, and Angry Bees, but most of the predators are Bearicades. No, not “bears,” “Bearicades,” named as such because they can block a lumberjack, leaving both in play but, at least for the time being, neutralizing the threat. Bearicades also have abilities that can be utilized if they are discarded, depending on the species of Bearicades, including Flipping an animal, forcing lumberjacks to Run Away, or allowing a trade of themselves for another Bearicade in the discard. Other predators can do similar to the latter two, though some allow a switch for any predator in the discard, instead of just Bearicades.

In the sad event that a lumberjack is unstoppable and reaches your forest, you must choose one of your four animals to Run Away as a result. The good news is, the lumberjack follows it over to the discard pile. Some animals also have effects centered around running away, making them the strategic choice, depending on the situation. The bad news is, that animal is out of the game for good, and you only have four of them, so you have to be careful!

Once all of the lumberjacks have been taken care of in some way or another, whether they’re staring down a Bearicade or the back of another lumberjack in the discard, it becomes Night. The player with the Frog draws one Predator for each player still in the game, getting first pick as to which one they want. Each player gets one Predator to add to their hand, and then the Frog passes and the next long day of fighting off the evil forces of humanity begins.

Fluxx Who?

Or maybe Doctor Fluxx? Ooh, that could be fun. “Got a problem? Doctor Fluxx can help! When you’re feeling down, just grab a Fluxx deck and play! Relax as you get Time, Money, and the Rocket you always wanted! Change your goals to something that works for you! Watch as the rules that stop you from winning in life are discarded! Email doctor.fluxx@looneylabs.com for a free consultation today, and we’ll tell you what deck will target your problems the best! Doctor Fluxx — helping people one game at a time!”

On second thought, maybe it’s for the better that they called it Doctor Who Fluxx. Less confusion. For the most part, Doctor Who Fluxx is like the other Fluxx variations (see Science and Firefly Fluxx here, respectively): specialized Keepers, Goals, and Creepers, as well as some specialized New Rules, Actions and Surprises. For this version, the change that stood out to me the most was the grouping system in the Keepers. Some were marked as “The Doctor” or “Companions” with a little symbol on the side. Sometimes, you need a specific Doctor for the goal, but sometimes any one of them would suffice. The same goes for companions.

Murder of Crows

Yes, that’s what a group of crows is called. But no, that’s not actually what I’m going to talk about today. Not that way. I’m here to, for the first time in a couple of weeks, actually talk about a game! Yeah, I know, it’s about time, but there’s a reason we re-branded….

Anyhow, there’s this game called Murder of Crows that I got in my stocking for Christmas. Crows are actually barely involved, it’s mostly about the murder. Each of the five letters (yeah, there are five letters in “murder”: the “r” only counts once) has an effect when played. It either affects the players’ hands or their murders, which are the cards set out in front of them. When you play a card, you put it in the stack for that letter (“r” has two stacks but one effect). The goal is to get the six stacks necessary to spell out “murder.”

Once you spell murder, you get my favorite part of the game: the story. Each letter has a part of a sentence (who, where, why, how…) that, when put together, create a story. As a writer, I love this method, and it gives you some interesting stories, like the guy who killed someone in a dark alley with nail clippers thanks to a misguided sense of justice. Not as well worded here as it was with the cards, but just be glad you didn’t get the pictures. The bloody nail clippers are the stuff of nightmares.

Prepare for a Knuckle Sammich!

Or, well, it isn’t so much a Knuckle Sammich as a Kobold sammich or just a non-descript sammich… but that doesn’t sound as cool, so Knuckle Sammich it is!

In Knuckle Sammich, everyone is a Kobold, trying to eat the most sammiches without getting eaten by your friends (oh yeah, did I forget to mention that Kobolds have cannibalistic tendencies?) and serving King Torg (“All Hail King Torg!”). Because Kobold paws are quite small and don’t have opposable thumbs, they can only hold one card at a time, so when they draw a card at the beginning of their turn they must immediately play one of their two cards.

Knuckle Sammich Card Game (Kobolds Ate My Baby!) Cards have five important parts. There’s the meat, the flavor, when in activates, what it does, and the footnote. Meat is only really important if a card someone plays specifically says so. The numbers range from -1 to 13, and there are also variables such as how many beverages are on the table or how many sammiches you’ve eaten. Flavor can be chicken, bacon, beer, Kobold, baby, pretzel, everything, and, if you have the Kickstarter special, pickle. Again, these only really matter if a card brings it up.

Cards can activate in three different locations: In Your Paw, When Played, or On Your Plate (your plate is the pile of cards you’ve played). In Your Paw cards react to what someone does while you’re holding the card. There’s a card called Cursing where if one of the players swears while you have Cursing in hand you eat them. Eating a Kobold means that they place their paw face-down on their plate and are out for the rest of the round, and you get to eat a sammich. When Played is exactly what it sounds like, and On Your Plate means that it is the most recent card you have played (so, at the top of your plate).

Obviously, the most important part of the card is what it actually does. I used the example of Cursing earlier for In Your Paw. A common card is Fork, where you guess a Kobold’s flavor, and, if you’re right, you get to eat them. While the action is the most important part of the card, it’s also pretty straightforward, so I’m just going to move on. My favorite part of the card is definitely the footnote. Occasionally it’s something useful, like “You both get a sammich if you tie,” but most of the time it’s just funny. Some of my personal favorites are, “You would be surprised at what a Kobold considers soup,” “Kobolds have been known to not stop eating when they reach the plate,” “Kobolds will never understand why ‘adventuring parties’ don’t have a buffet,” “Random horrible death is the leading cause of death in Kobolds. Being lunch is in the top ten though,” and “#Drunk #Yolo #BeerAndPretzels #AllHailKingTorg.” I was shocked to find out that not all cards are fortunate to have a footnote. Oh, and I suppose the title of the card is mildly important. But not important enough for me to actually talk about.

A round ends when there is one Kobold left or when all Kobolds have been eaten, a card says to end the round or the deck (“Kitchen”) runs out and a Kobold needs to draw. The survivor (if there is one) and King Torg (“All Hail King Torg”) each eat a sammich before everyone is brought back to life, their paws and plates discarded, and a new round started. The game ends when the Pantry is out of sammiches, or if King Torg (“All Hail King Torg”) eats nine sammiches, automatically winning the game. Whichever Kobold (King Torg [“All Hail King Torg”] included) has the most sammiches by the end of the game wins and is crowned The Victor of Lunch! All Hail King Torg!

The Word On The Street is… Junior!

Gee, another Out-Of-The-Box game! It’s almost like we have a lot of those in our house… Word On The Street Junior — surprise! — a word game. And, more than that, it’s on a street! That would make sense, given the name, right? Well, it’s true. The board is a five lane street (Honestly folks, can’t you choose an even number like a normal street? Jeez.) with the entire alphabet up the middle. Oh, wait! The middle is green, so it’s probably the grass divider between the two directions of traffic. But then the letters are… Yikes! Yes, kids, drive perpendicular to the street and across the dividers. Good plan.

The players divide themselves into two teams and sit on opposite sides of the street. At the beginning, everyone decides whether it will be a green game or a blue game (easy or hard). The cards are shuffled and then set to have either the green or blue side facing out from the little card holder that just barely covers the questions (so you can’t cheat).

One team flips the timer while the other pulls a card. The card has a category (like “A Month” or “Something Blue.”) The team with the card has until the timer runs out to confer and choose something of that category. It must be one word (proper nouns are allowed, obviously, otherwise “A Month” would be pretty hard criteria to meet) and in English (no smart translations, sorry!), and the whole team must agree on it.

When the team has decided, they go through, spelling the word, moving each letter tile in the word one space closer to their side of the board. Once they move the third time in that direction and off the board, they have been captured and can no longer be moved. Whenever that letter is used in a word, it is simply noted as out of play and they spell the rest of the word. This is partially because the game would be incredibly difficult to play once the main letters (especially the vowels) had been used if you couldn’t use words with letters that had been captured, and the game would be over far too quickly.

For similar reasons, the board is five lanes instead of one or three, to allow the space for the players to give and take with the pieces, pulling it to the brink, then having it pulled back to the center, then slightly one way, then further the other, and so on. It’s quite amusing to watch the pieces move back and forth, and adds a strategy level to the game: it isn’t just about long words, it’s about finding the words with the letters on either edge to steal theirs and capture yours.

I think it would be fun to just play through everything and count up at the end, but that gets hard when the only letters left on the board are Q, U, W, V, Y, X and Z, in any combination thereof. So instead, the goal of the game is to have captured at least eight letters. The first team to do so wins.

Cobra Paw

Cobra Paw? Sounds interesting. What’s it about? Snakes? Wait, snakes don’t have paws. Mutant snakes? No, but that could be an amusing game. Cobra Paw is about ninja cats snatching up stones. Why? Long story. It’s in the rules, if you want to know. Cobra Paw: Ninja-like know how steals the game!

You place all the stones in the center of the arena (table or designated patch of floor.) The combatant with the smallest paws rolls the Catnippon Dice first. When the dice are rolled all players must attempt to find the stone with the matching pair of symbols. The first to “snatch” it gets it. Snatching is done by placing your finger/s on the stone. If there’s a tie, whoever’s finger is closest to the divot in the center gets it. If the stone rolled has already been snatched from the pool, you may snatch it from the player who has it. The goal is to have 6 stones, or 8 if it’s a 2-player game.

The rule booklet is one of the funniest parts of this game, because of the way the rules are stated. Tournament essentials are “21 Clawfuku Stones, 2 Catnippon Dice, and the will to compete.” Because obviously, you have to want to play to play. Other rules have additions to explain them, like, “Bickering over who touched a stone first makes Master Meow very sad,” or the constant justification of certain rules by codes of honor, such as “It is considered shameful to cover the stone with one’s paw.” My favorite is the very last rule: “Competitors who continue to play dishonorably may be forbidden from the Cobra Paw tournament and may even be cast into the Litter Box of Shame!”

This game also has three variations from the original, Ghosts of the Fallen, No Touchy and Two Ninja Stand-Off, but I won’t explain them here, since I haven’t played them yet.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: