Humor

Your genius could have been such a boon to humanity. Your death ray had wonderful pest control applications, and your volcano activator was perfect for fighting global warming. But the fools at the institute, they wouldn't listen. They called you mad! You built a monster to rend them limb from limb, which your minions assured you was the very worst way to be rended. When it became clear that the only hope for the world was your own benign leadership, you took control of TV to announce this fact. But your broadcast was interrupted by someone else taking control of TV and announcing his own plan for world domination – and then that broadcast was interrupted by yet another interloper. So. Competition. Well, the world will never be as scared of these upstarts as it will be of you. Archimedes once said, "Give me a long enough lever and a place to stand, and I will move the world." You will be the most terrifying lever the world has ever seen.

Nefarious is a quick-playing game in which the players race to build inventions like a freeze ray, cloaking device, or robotic pet before their opponents can do the same. (Interesting side note: Eighteen different artists contributed to the artwork on the different inventions in the game.)

Nefarious is played over several rounds. In each round the players simultaneously choose and reveal one of their actions that will allow them to allocate one of their Minions to an area on their Lair, obtain money, obtain a blueprint for an invention, or build one of their inventions if they have enough money to do so. The minions that you allocate to your Lair can earn you additional income depending on the actions that your neighbors choose. The first player to build 20 or more points worth of Inventions AND have more points than any other player wins.

There is a twist to the game, though – actually, two twists! At the beginning of the game, you randomly draw two Twist cards, which change the environment so that the game plays differently each time. This means that in order to win, the players will have to revise their strategies each time they play Nefarious.

Game description from the publisher:

Adventure Time Card Wars is the most epic card game ever found in the Land of Ooo, or anywhere for that matter! In the Adventure Time episode "Card Wars", Jake begs Finn to play his favorite trading card game. Finn accepts, despite warnings from Beemo on how very competitive Jake can be while playing the game. Finn and Jake battle against each other to decide who will be the Dweeb and who will be the Cool Guy.

Now fans can play the actual Card Wars game in Adventure Time Card Wars: Finn vs. Jake, with all of the action taking place in four combat lanes. Jake's corn-themed deck features creatures from the episode such as the powerful Husker Knights, the intimidating Legion of Earlings, the heroic Archer Dan and many more! Finn's "Blue Plains" deck features creatures from the episode such as the wise Ancient Scholar, the aptly named Cool Dog, and the most fearsome critter of all – The Pig!

Each turn, a player has two Action Points to spend on Creatures, Spells, and Locations, and cards cost between 0 and 2 Action Points to play. When you summon a Creature, you choose which lane you want to place it in; some Creatures have FLOOP abilities that allow you to use their special abilities. When you attack with a Creature down a lane, you might find an opposing Creature, or you might get to deal your damage straight to your opponent's Hit Points. Reduce your opponent's Hit Points from 25 to 0 and you're the Cool Guy (and you win the game)!

Each Card Wars starter set has a pair of different forty-card decks and is ready to play right out of the box. Mix the decks together to come up with your own righteous combos!

Game description from the publisher:

By our detailed calculations, more than 2.5 million additional games could be played each year if you took less time picking a start player. Start Player solves this problem: Just turn over a card and you'll know who the start player is. Maybe it's as simple as identifying the tallest player, or the player with the most unbuttoned buttons. It's the most comprehensive system ever devised for choosing who starts a game.

Description from the publisher:

You and your wicked companions have spent the day pillaging the countryside and "dealing" with meddlesome adventurers. It's about time you kicked back with a pint at the evil equivalent of The Red Dragon Inn — The Black Dragon Depths, a nefarious tavern hidden deep in the catacombs below Greyport. No more heroes this time. Now you get to play as the bad guys!

The Red Dragon Inn 6: Villains is a standalone expansion to The Red Dragon Inn series of games. In this game, you and up to three of your friends play as evil villains celebrating the defeat of your archenemies at a wild fantasy party. You gamble, brawl, and drink the night away as you compete to be the last villain standing at the end of the night.

Each player plays a character who starts the game as a teenager and then must choose the cards that will make his life take shape. He can repeat a school year and get new friends, start smoking, take part in a Bible discussion group and have his first sexual intercourse during Oktoberfest – all very realistic. Every event in the life of a character has some effect on his main characteristics - tobacco addiction, alcohol addiction, drug addiction, wealth, health, sadness, spirituality and wisdom. Excess comes at a price, though, and when a characteristic gets too high, it cancels another one – if you smoke too much, you get thin; if you get too fat, you must stop drinking; if you drink too much you lose your wisdom, and so on – once more, very realistic. During game, you can get friends, and often more, with other player’s characters. This is an important feature in the game, since what happens to you usually affects, in good or bad, your friends, and this is one of the main interaction aspects of the game.

Description from Bruno Faidutti's ideal game library.