Title: A game about quickly grabbing creatures that are totally different, and watching out for turnips.
WBG Score: 8
Player Count: 2-3 or more with more sets!
Published by: Stuff By Bez
Designed by: Andrew Beardsley, Behrooz Shahriari
Where to start with this game? The name? The art? The crazy fun gameplay? Everything about this release from board game designer, enthusiast, entrepreneur, and all round great person Behrooz Shahriari makes me happy. Very happy indeed!
Following on from the 2021 UKGE release of A game about WEE WHIMSICAL CREATURES and trying to identify them after someone makes noise which sold out after one day (I bought my copy at about 11am!) I sense that Bez has got a cheeky glint in her eye when she names games this way. Perhaps it is because she finds a descriptive name like this helpful? Maybe it helps the game stand out? Maybe, its just because its funny? But for whatever reason, the game is a lot of fun and one my family and I have brought out many times over the last few weeks to share with other family and friends. The game is always a hit!
The game is based on the game Grabbell which was one of the many games playable with the ingenious deck of cards released by Bez called ELL deck. I picked this deck up on a whim, and was surprised and delighted at the contents. The cards are cleverly designed to show two letters with a different border for each. They can be used for many different games out of the box, with lots more variations available online. You can find many examples here.
Grabbell is a fun game, but doesn't look as good as this. What Bez has done with the art here is change a simple graphic lettering design to hilarious looking monsters and creatures. There is also a bit if colour, which is new for her games. But what has remained consistent is that they are all hand drawn and delightful. It feels like something you may pick up from a local art fair, but with the fun and craft of someone who knows how to make a really good game.
Learning A game about quickly grabbing creatures that are totally different, and watching out for turnips, is quicker than saying the name! Place all the cards face down randomly on a table. The game then starts as players, simultaneously in real-time start to grab the cards!
Players can use one hand to pick up a card and another to hold their collection. Players need to gets as many cards as they can before they are all gone. Points are scored for the number of consecutive cards in your deck that don't have matching body parts. Either the head shape, body type, or leg style. All must be different. You can have turnips between similar creatures, but you can never have more than one turnip in a row. And if you have more than five turnips in total, you loose. Once all the cards are collected, players check their hands to see if they broke any rules and the player with the most points wins.
Its quick, fast, hilarious fun! Perfect with children or adults after a few drinks! I have enjoyed this game so much over the 2021 festive period, and saw it as a perfect game to bring out with all my friends. As you can set-up and teach this game to any player of any age within a minute, the game works for all occasions. It plays within a few minutes, and generally the players who loose demand a rematch immediately. I have never played this game just the once!
This game will be a treasured part of my collection and I hope to enjoy many more plays with this deck. I have two decks allowing me to play with more people, up to six is suggested. Two to three players per deck. But I played with eight with these two decks and it was fine. It was a quicker game with more players. But not less fun! The frantic nature of eight hands all grabbing at the same cards at the same time made for a hilarious game, that perhaps was more suited for the adults than the children. It seems that the quantity of players has a direct affect on the competitive nature of adults playing family games!
The game costs just £5 and is available from here. I would not hesitate to buy this game again and again myself and would recommend it to anyone! Bez will be at multiple conventions in 2022 if you want to try the game first. But if you have a copy or not, I would highly recommend popping over and saying hello to her. I would wager you will leave with a big smile on your face. Bez is amazing!