Gloom
A card game where the goal is to make your own family as miserable as possible, and ruin everyone else's good news.
Who it's for
You like Addams-family humor and a group that will happily narrate each mishap with a flourish. Great for groups who like a bit of mean-spirited mischief.
Not for you if…
You prefer silent, strategic games or players who dislike improvising a story. Without the narration it is just stacking cards.
Vibe's take
Silly, macabre and very talkative. Half the fun is telling the story that grows on the table, and the other half is dropping a wedding on somebody's favorite character.
About this game
Gloom is the card game where you want your family to suffer, and do it beautifully. You steer a clan of eccentric misfits through a grey world of cold tea, debt, disease and flesh-eating mice, and the goal is to pile up as much misery as possible before sending them off to a well-earned rest. The cards are printed on transparent plastic, so each character slowly vanishes under a heap of misfortunes, and you narrate every one with relish. Mishaps like Pursued by Poodles go on your own people to lower their self-worth, while marriages and happy events go on your opponents' characters to cheer them up and ruin their score. Part take-that, part dark storytelling, and much better with players who enjoy putting on a dramatic voice.
Get it
By the numbers
Players
Duration
60 min
Ages 10+
Complexity
1.6 / 5 — LightBGG Rating
6.1/10
Rank #2,518
17k ratings
Published
2005
Language
Heavy text
Designed by
Keith Baker
Published by
Swan Panasia Co., Ltd., Edge Entertainment, uplay.it edizioni, Black Monk, Atlas Games and 1 more
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