[0:21] Hello, everyone. I'm Jonathan. I'm Crystal. And this is Haunt Weekly,

[0:26] a weekly podcast for the haunted attraction and entertainment community. Whether you're an actor, owner, or just plain aficionado, we aim to be a podcast for you. And we return to you this week with some fun. It's been kind of serious around here lately. We wanted to do something a little entertaining. So we're talking about a board slash card game. It really has elements of both. like it's framed as a card game but it's advertised on board game sites it definitely has a board but it definitely has cards.

[0:56] Yes so there you go that's the conclusion of this week's episode about Scranton Park that's all the details you need to know please check us out next week no that's not how this works you know this alright well indeed we will be talking about a board slash card game this week that part was serious so please if that is not what you're interested in right now I understand but do check us out at all the places we exist. We're at HauntWeekly.com, HauntWeekly, and Facebook, YouTube.com slash HauntWeekly, and wherever you get your podcast from.

[1:25] Alright, so let's do the early stuff this week. Work we did for the Haunt. We actually did this. What we're talking about this week. No. We've been talking a lot about how an important bit of Haunt is keeping contact and keeping up with your crew over the year. So that's what we did this weekend. And we got together with some of our core crew, and we played a card game. Yes. And we brought them a saw. And we brought them a saw, and we brought them alcohol that they'll probably not drink. Oh, well. You can't win them all. But on that note, that's the work we did for the Haunt this week. And guess what? You get to share it with us. Isn't that great? Now, shut up. But on that, it's serious. Okay. We're always serious here. Yeah, dead serious. Super serious podcast slash YouTube thing.

[2:19] But yes, one thing that is serious is we do ask a question of the week every week. And last week we were talking about the upcoming, we're doing the news. And the big news story was we finally got some real details on the upcoming Universal themed year-round haunt in Vegas. And after hearing those details, our excitometer went down a little bit. Yeah. I think that's safe to say. I think that's safe, yeah. I mean, I think mine went down more than yours, but... Our skeptical meter went up a little bit. Yeah. Our skeptical erection rose. I mean, you can phrase it however you want. I don't think anybody phrases it like that. No, probably not. So we asked you guys, do you think a year-round Vegas haunted attraction will work? And, well, we got some feedback.

[3:11] Don Garlick said, Orlando had a couple of pretty successful ones. As long as it's kept up, I see it doing well. Jinx Midnight said, looks like it's going to be located at Area 15, which is the same venue as Meow's Wolf Omega Mart and other entertainment options. I could see it doing phenomenally well there because there's so much to do already at the location, which we did not know when we reported on it. It's not really far off the strip either. Okay, and I've got to say, this comment I think really does help move my excitement meter a little bit back up. Right. Because knowing it's in the same venue as Meow Wolf is a big deal. It is. Meow Wolf is a big art collective, art space attraction. We've actually written about it here.

[4:00] We actually did a news episode about them not that long ago. Right. And, you know, if people are seeking Meow Wolf out, they're going to be interested in not-strip kind of things. Yeah, I can see the overlap here. Yeah. And I don't know what is not far off the strip in this case. No, me either. But the thing is this, we live in a tourist town, and I can tell you straightforward that you want to see tourists turn around constantly. Just stand on Canal Street and watch them approach it from the French Quarter and go, oops, went too far. This is the real city.

[4:39] It happens a phenomenal amount. So, yeah, even if it's just a block or two away, there's still a lot of reluctance for tourists to go outside that. But hey, like I said in the episode, if they can get good transportation, good signage, good promotion, maybe they can pull it off. Um, Isaac, who asked me kindly never to attempt their last name again, um, said, I see it doing very well. However, they are missing out. They don't take advantage of all the licensing. They don't. Thank you.

[5:10] Right. Um, they could host events for new horror movies or horror movie celebrity appearances. Interested to see it be an all indoor as well. I don't know how much the indoor thing will matter in Vegas because it does not rain much. But it seems like it'd be hot.

[5:26] That is. Okay. that's a valid point so but the heat could be a problem so yeah you know whatever you know one of those um collectible shows could be a it could be a good venue for that too yeah lots of people travel to those yeah and since you're already like jinx said in there with meow wolf and all that other stuff um there's a lot of overlap and a lot of things you can do there but i agree they need to exploit all their ip and the ones they i think the reason our flames went down a little but it was the IP they announced. Yeah. Did not inspire. Right. Other than Texas Chainsaw Massacre, that one I meant. Yeah. Teresa Griffin said, yes, it's a tourist town. And I'm going to add, something I was thinking about after the episode is that not only is it a tourist town, it's a repeat tourist town. Yeah. There are people who go to Vegas quarterly, every six months, every year, or whatever. They go repeatedly, time and time again, Partly because it's cheap and easy to get to, but because they like Vegas for Vegas. Myrtle Beach, where my parents' vacation, had a very similar thing, where the same people would come back every year and constantly be looking for new things to do. That could benefit them. Right. And we do know people who come to New Orleans every year for Halloween. Exactly. Or for Mardi Gras.

[6:45] I mean, I love how it's like, people who come to New Orleans every year, and you're like, for Halloween? And I'm like, yeah, that's not the holiday that gets all the people here every year. Let's just be honest with that one. Okay. It is the second competitor. It is. It is the runner up. I will agree. And the people I talk to go to the Halloween ones.

[7:06] I think your sample is biased significantly maybe a little bit all right haunted the roxbury said universal with their deep pockets and being area 15 in vegas yes for sure let's see how they use those deep pockets first off yeah that's my thing they they it's the how and and and much like the rest of this episode we're gonna say we hope that they succeed and that oh I hope to how they succeed. I want them to do well. I really do want this to do well. I just, they gave my butthole a clinch when they announced the IP. Yeah, okay. Greg Packard said there are already 2.6 million people per year going to Area 15 for other attractions, so it's likely to succeed. I guess we will see. Oh, and by the way, I was told that Butthole is very inconsiderate. You're supposed to say Stinkstar. Oh, okay. Okay. But finally, Jared Haggerty said, if they stick to the plans of changing themes, then yes, it's in the right spot. And that's a thing, too. They did say they were planning on changing themes, but they didn't say how often or didn't give any real details about it.

[8:16] Meow Wolf, one of the things that draws people to it is that they are constantly cycling out exhibitions and cycling out things. Every time you go, especially if you go only every few months, it's a different experience. So that's going to be the type of thing they have to keep going to keep that crowd going.

[8:37] All right so this week's question week once again is on topic what spooky card or board game do you enjoy uh let us know once again what's up hauntweekly.com hauntweekly on facebook and youtube.com slash hauntweekly and when you answer this one if you have a favorite let us know where to get it because we will play it most likely yeah drop us a link um especially if it's remotely relevant to the haunted attraction industry yep uh we would like to know all right so i i want to start this episode off with a spoiler i know this car game is created by it looks like two people, and i know how it is to be a solo or a small team creator and have anybody do a review yeah of your show. You're basically clenching the entire time. Yeah, so I want to release the tension in the room a little bit here. And besides, if you're just wanting to know the end game, hey, we're going to tell it to you. So basically...

[9:42] And the other reason is that I'm stalling. The other reason is that I know we're going to spend a lot of time down the road complaining because complaining is easier and funnier and more engaging. And I don't want people to get the wrong opinion. Well, and we try not to just complain. We try to give constructive criticism. And we've got that at the end. Which is different. Yes. We've got some of that at the end. So I know that, but I know that like the one in seven rule thing, it can sound way more negative than we intend it to be. Oh, yeah. And I want to just come out on the top and say that ultimately we did really enjoy this game. And so did everybody playing with us. It was five for five in the group. Everyone did enjoy it. In fact, our friends are buying their own copy. Yeah.

[10:30] So yeah, it was a bit of a road to get there. We'll be discussing that. But it was a fun game. With some great artwork and some unique mechanics that we all five ended up really enjoying once we got to that place. Yeah, we played it for over an hour and a half of actual gameplay time. Close to two hours. It was approaching two hours of gameplay time. I will say on the box it says it's about 30 minutes per game. Five people, it's longer. Yeah. I could see it being 30 minutes if we had just done the two of us, which we had planned on doing. But then we just, like, didn't. We got gamed out, basically. Because, like I said, we spent about three hours. We spent a lot of time on this. On Saturday. On Saturday. And, yeah, we'll be going into all of that.

[11:20] How we found out about it. I saw a Facebook ad for it that multiple of my haunty friends had liked. So it showed up for me. And I'm like, huh, this looks cool. Now, I did misinterpret what I was seeing to think that my friends were promoting it, and they weren't, but... Eh, whatever. You know. It's a haughty game. Like, how could I not, right? Well, I mean, the honest truth is you were going to buy the damn thing anyway. Exactly. Partly fueled by the fact it was only $25. Yes. It was a relatively inexpensive game. Which brings us into the physical, like, what the hell are we talking about? Right. So, Scream Park is, as I kind of joked at the top of the hour, is a card slash board game. It was developed by Jasper Beatrix and features art by Nick Tafani and published by DVC Games, which is the site where you can get it. And we will have a link to it in the description. And it was manufactured, if anyone actually gives a rat's ass, by Panda Game Manufacturing. They apparently do a lot of this type of small batch game manufacturing. So if you're a game designer or developer, it might be something to look into. Yeah, that's good to know. The cost is $25. And if you live anywhere near Syracuse, New York, first of all, accept my deepest sympathies.

[12:46] And second, I don't really know what's in Syracuse either. I know. You've never been to New York. Why are you shitting on people today? Why am I shitting on Syracuse specifically? But if you are near Syracuse, New York, you can actually pick it up from them directly. So that's kind of cool. You don't even have to get it shipped. Yeah. They have an option to get it from them directly. Yeah, and one of the things we really like is the flexibility and the number of players. Yeah. Because sometimes it's just the two of us, and then, like, this Saturday, we were playing with five people, because it is for two to five players. Yeah, and the mechanics largely work the same. It's not like you have to learn

[13:23] a different set of rules. Right. I guess if you have two people, the passing the cards mechanic doesn't need to change directions. Yeah.

[13:32] But yeah, the mechanics work largely the same, and you don't have to learn anything different when you get more players in, which is not true of some board games we played. Right. They get significantly more complicated or more simple as you get more players. Yeah, and I want to find out if this one's more simple, because I know you mentioned it later, but you do use all the cards if you're playing with five people. Yeah, especially in... Which I think makes it harder. Yeah, yeah. Well, you still only draw the same number of cards in some cases. So, yeah, I don't know. But basically, the idea is you as a group are building a screen park. You're going to be building multiple attractions at one theoretical location. And your goal is to each build an attraction, and each attraction will feature multiple scenes with multiple elements, And you'll be awarded points by various factors that we will go over as we get a little deeper in. And the winner is declared by who got the most points after three, quote-unquote, nights of gameplay. Right. And so, yeah, we'll go into the actual mechanics a bit more detailed later. So, what's in the box? What's in the box? Not a severed head this time. Very fortunate. Well, there's pictures of severed heads. But not an actual one. No, it's a tiny box. It's very portable.

[15:02] Anyway. Moving on, Crystal. The box is really attractive. Like, it's really pretty. That's one of the reasons we bought it, honestly. And honestly, the best thing about the ad, and you shared the ad with me, was that it just showed the fucking box. Yeah.

[15:18] It's mostly black and white horror-themed game. Yeah, they know how to put it on the tin, man. Why can I tell you? Exactly. Um, and it's a little snap box, so it's a well-designed thing. Yeah. And it holds everything well, as long as you don't try to even out the cards. Yeah. You have to make space for the little peoples. Yeah. There's a, there's a little minor confuffle there, but basically the artwork in general is amazing. It comes with a mat. Yes. Um, that's well-drawn and well-designed. Um, and the cards themselves, the artwork, I mean, I literally, I cannot say enough good about the artwork yeah nick tifani did an absolutely amazing job drawing these cards the artwork is beautiful is on brand it reminds me a little bit like has been hotel yeah it i get that view it has a lot of energy in it yeah it's it's it's dark it's gothy it's but it's very energized which is why i think of has been hotels yeah i agree with that so So, yeah, it's got that kind of feel. Maybe they were going for it. I don't know. But it's what I immediately leaped to. There were a few quality of life issues.

[16:30] First, the cards are different sets, but the same size. We're all mixed together. Yeah. Like, you would unwrap a pack, and the first 20 cards would be X, and then the bottom 10 would be Y. Yeah, and we didn't realize that, but apparently this is a common thing. One of the people we were playing with does make games, and they have gotten ones before, and they're like, yeah, that's just how they package them. How they package them at the factory. Yeah. So, yeah. There's not much that the game designers can do about that. Yeah, it's still annoying, and especially since we accidentally, in one case, shuffled a deck with two types of cards in and had to re-separate them out. That was a little bit annoying. But yeah, apparently this is a common thing for especially smaller runs like this.

[17:18] Second, the box doesn't have a good way to store the cards after you open everything. Like little sleeves or slots to put them in. Or even like bring some rubber bands or hair ties or something would be my advice something to wrap around the cards i don't think they'd fit back in the box if you did that huh i don't think it's that tight of a fit but yeah but basically there's no way the cards just kind of go into the box yeah and it all gets jumbled around after you're done so you're going to have to separate everything out the next time you go to play um so yeah no slots no trays nothing like that it's not a huge deal but it is it definitely ended the night kind of weird when we're like oh how do we put this up and not have everything get mixed again well we were also trying to get out in a hurry because we were all pretty tired by that point yeah so what do you get well you get 120 scene cards 20 genre cards 10 theme cards 10 vip cards five reference cards five vip tokens five scordon tokens 20 staff tokens a placemat a rule sheet and a pot twidge and a pet tweed.

[18:28] Yeah you might know that is a lot of different stuff and that kind of brings us to you know the part where we wanted to do the spoiler at the beginning yeah because this is the part that gets a little bogged down in some of the less than pleasant things. Yeah, but there's definitely like, we've already gotten our money's worth out of this game. Oh, God, yeah. $25. And the fact that we got about two hours of gameplay with a total of five friends in the group. I feel like we did pretty well for ourselves. I'm not, like I said, I'm not returning this. If that's your rubric, I'm not returning this. But yeah, let's set the scene.

[19:15] You and I, because Ellie was running the store, went over to our friend's house. They are another triad. And we hung out with the three of them around Ottoman. Which, by the way, first tip if you're going to play this game, get a decent-sized table. Yeah, decent-sized table. And cats do love the black and white colors of the cards. So just putting that out there. Babies probably would, too. Yeah, your cards are going to be primarily on the table, not in your hand. Yeah. So just recognize that you're going to need a bigger space than you probably initially. And we got it to work, but no one said it was elegant. Right.

[19:53] All of us are well beyond full adult. We're all into haunty stuff. And one of us, as you mentioned, is a card slash board game super fan who also designs games, including card games occasionally, and has designed and published two card games. So we're setting up on this ottoman, and we're opening the game up. And uh one of us is reading the rules it wasn't either of us it was one of them no i decided i couldn't be trusted reading the rules that day yeah and i at that point did not have my glasses yeah and we're going to get back to that point that's actually yes if you need readers you're going to struggle yeah a little bit so we open the game up and we give the rules to someone with eyes and glasses that they can read them. And then we immediately realized we cannot figure out how to play this fucking game. Yeah. Panic, overwhelmed. Well, and part of it is like, so we're not a neurotypical bunch. No, we're all neuro spicy, but in our own ways. Yeah. We're like, you know, the justice league. Yeah. Well, and it's really bad because I gave someone else a.

[21:08] It to read because i didn't think i could focus enough on reading but i can't learn from somebody reading the instructions like that's not how i learned yeah but no one else was understanding it either so it wasn't just that um but yeah first now i think one of the problems is is that the rule sheet is too small there are a lot of rules of this game and the rule sheet is relatively tiny yeah and i think that one of the things that could be helped um instead of just complaining about it yeah would be to add the qr code to it to some rules yeah and we'll get to that we've got our recommendations at the end but yeah so we're not we're not just idly complaining no um so then our board game friend the one we mentioned earlier had the actually very smart idea of hey hey, let's get a YouTube video up. We'll all just sit around and watch a YouTube video. And that's great because now no one's under pressure to read the rules and explain what they probably don't understand.

[22:16] And we can all watch and listen together. Yes, and we purposefully went into this situation without any knowledge of how the game is played and without telling our friends what game we were going to play. Nope. We wanted to see where we were from zero to 60. To reasonable. And so our friend got on their TV, found the official U2 playthrough, and it was 55 fucking minutes long. Yeah. I don't think you can say 55 minutes long without the word fucking in there. Yeah but they did talk a lot about you know characters and stuff around the game that wasn't really part of the gameplay and i get that and and that's cool like it was entertaining but i absolutely want to go back and watch that playthrough now yeah but right then in that moment when we're trying to pick up the rules of the game it was the worst thing we could have gotten.

[23:16] It was just not what we needed in that moment and and mind you they're trying to fast forward and go back and forth and find the various things and speed it up speed it up and slow it down and it just was such a goddamn mess i got so overloaded i'll just say i've never been happier i needed to take a poop not at home in my life because i'm like i have to poop and i'm gonna make it a long one because I need to get on overloaded yeah I mean I just so I just sat in the bathroom room and it's like oh my god I'm going to die here.

[23:52] Because I thought my brain, was going to be hopelessly overtaxed. And bear in mind, we were all sober. Oh, yes. There was no inebriation involved here. Yeah, by the way, pro tip too, do not attempt this game on a night of drinking or getting high with friends. Unless you're able to understand complex things. Or unless you all already understand it. If you understand it pretty well, you probably can pull it off. But if you're trying to understand it for the first time, no. Bad player. Don't do that.

[24:26] Try to come in this with all your mental faculties but here's the thing, after about 90 minutes it felt like each of us were like getting different components yeah and after about 90 minutes it kind of just clicked and when we all brought it together with our powers combined we brought a modicum of understanding of how the game worked yeah and we just decided to go ahead and jump in yeah and here's the thing i don't know if we got everything right no in fact i'm about 90 sure we fucked up a few.

[24:57] Things yeah um yeah i know i i misscored once oh i and and even that i like i think we all misunderstood some of the rules yeah like i think some of the ways points were awarded we didn't understand but you know what we all had a common understanding of our rules exactly and that ended up being way more fucking important because we were able to create a functional and yet fun game out of it so even if we didn't clear winners and clear losers and clear clear clear goals and clear mechanics and everything based on our understanding of their rules and so yeah even if we were not perfectly in line with their rules we got close enough that i feel like we played the game screen park yeah and we still since we had a common understanding you know we were able to have fun and make the game work um so basically to try to explain how it works kind of big picture because we're not going to get into like every detail because apparently that's a 55 minute video yeah and it's probably not it's probably closer to 30 minute video really but it's a long video the game centers around 12 rounds and those 12 rounds are spread out over three nights so that's three nights times four rounds each night that equals 12 yes math right that's basic math.

[26:24] So, you start the game by choosing a theme for your haunt. Right. You get a choice between two of the cards. You draw two cards, and there are, like I said, there are ten theme cards. So, if you're playing with five people, as we were, you will have all the cards played out, doled out to someone.

[26:43] And, basically, you look at the two, you go, okay, this is going to be my theme, and then the other one's discarded. Yeah, and these are classic-type themes. There was a camp, there was an alien abduction scene. The cabin in the woods one type thing. A cathedral. Yep. So things like that. The mad scientist's laboratory was one, I think. You have stuff like that. You have very broad themes that you can do a lot with. And most notably, most importantly, have elements that you can bring into the scenes in your haunt later. Right. Now, the goal of each night is to build the best darn haunted attraction you can with the random bullshit nature gives you. Exactly. I think that's about describing the game. So, your attraction is built using scene cards. Now, every scene card has two parts. A top part, which is like the top three quarters of the card. Right. And the bottom, which is the bottom quarter. Yeah. The top part is the name and the name of the scene. Right. It's the name of the scene, and it tells you what is required to complete the scene. Yes. And the bottom part is an element in that scene. Right. And what type of element it represents. Yeah. And so what you do is you place a scene down, and then we're not getting into, like, the points. Right now the points are awarded for a scene down. Okay. So we're not doing that yet. No, no, no. Okay. I don't think we're going to get that detailed.

[28:11] Because, like I said, we could be in the weeds on the mechanics on this for literally the next week and a half. This would have to be a three-part episode. Well, yeah. But I will say that it is important to stay on theme if you can. Yes. Well, yeah, we're getting into... Okay.

[28:28] The main thing is scenes are worth either two, four, or six points, and you start left to right, and you cannot do a scene of fewer points after you do one of earlier points. So you can't follow up a two with a four and a four with a six, and these are the types of mechanics. No, you do. Oh, okay. Never mind. You can't put a four and then a two down. Right. To the right. You can put a two and then a four, but not a four and then a two. Exactly. And these are the types of things that got us really fucking confused, by the way. This type of stuff. So anyways, to keep it simple. Too late.

[29:08] Basically, what you do is you put down the card. And if you put down the card as your scene, then you have to fill the diamonds on the side to complete it. And you do that by placing other scene cards underneath it, exposing just the bottom, which is meaning just the element. So even though you're not using that graveyard scene, you put it underneath another one, you might be using the zombie from inside it. Yeah, or a sound effect, because some of the cards have effects on them. Yeah, some of the cards are sound effects, some are props. Lighting. Lighting, some are actor things. They basically have a wide variety of what the cards can be. Right. And some are just elements like trap doors and things like that, too. Or you might even call them hazards. Yeah, and some are bonuses. Yeah. So basically the bottom of the card is the element that you're using the most throughout this. Because it's very common to have one scene card, but then have three things underneath it and a bid to complete it. Yeah.

[30:16] So initially you draw eight scene cards. You get to use two cards per round. Now, how you use those cards is what's up to you. You can use it to place a scene and then put something in it.

[30:30] You can sacrifice a card and get staff. Right. You can sacrifice both cards and get an element, which is basically just a free diamond filled. Yeah, and that's really helpful on your last turn of the night. Yeah, because by the time you get, and we'll get to it in a minute, because what happens is after you've used your two everyone plays simultaneously there are no turns in this yeah although you know we had trouble with simultaneous that didn't happen but the problem with simultaneous and this was another issue with the game is that if one person is thinking hard i.e maybe they got a shit hand maybe they got a really good hand they're trying to figure out how to maximize it yeah they're or they're just really competitive and trying to chest the worry out of it or maybe they just don't give a fuck and are just trying to make something that doesn't suck you know whatever the reason if one person is taking a long time it does hold the game up and it can be very difficult to know who that is initially yeah especially because what you do after you've used your two cards and done with them whatever you're going to do uh you pass your remainder of your hand to the player next to you and you pass the direction that the game tells you. And that's another mechanic that confused the shit out of us. Well, so we just forgot about it. It didn't confuse us. It was written clearly, but we just forgot.

[31:58] Well, four out of the five of us forgot. Yeah, we forgot to change directions.

[32:05] So, yeah. But basically, you pass it on. And that means every time you do a round, you're looking at basically new-to-you cards. Now, that's not true if it's two players, though, because you're going to get that hand back to you. Yeah, I think that if it's two players, it would be better to draw from the pile. Yeah, I agree, actually. That makes a lot more sense then.

[32:31] But anyways, you're going to get new cards each time. And basically, over the course of four rounds, two times four, you'll have used up the entire hand. And once you've used up that entire hand, the night is over. And when the night is over, it's time to score your attraction. Yes. And there are three ways you can earn points. First is the points I mentioned for each completed room. Yeah, so if your card on top, if you've got all of the symbols matching at the bottom, it is a completed scene. You get whatever points is awarded for that scene. Yeah, so it's two, four, six. Yep, that's easy. The second is the VIP. Now, we haven't gone into the VIP because this mechanic confused the shit out of us.

[33:19] Jesus, take a shot every time I've said that. Wake up dead. Well, yeah, and to be fair, we only played it two full rounds. Two times, yeah. Two full games. Two full games. But yeah, the VIP, basically at the start of the game, you draw three VIP cards, one for each night. It's a Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And the VIP, the idea is they walk through your haunt from left to right. Right. But in order to progress to the next room, that room has to meet certain criteria. Right. And they start outside. Yeah. And some of the players didn't understand that they started outside. So you don't automatically get two points for the first room. Yeah. So they have to be able to get into the first room to progress to the second room and so on.

[34:13] And some of these are really fun. like i didn't like the the fire marshal mechanic yeah the fire marshal was fuck the fire marshal is it's hilarious that he's in there yeah and and it's funny that he's in there and his mechanic is he only advances if the scene isn't complete yeah so basically you're making the choice with the fire marshal am i completing the scene and getting the scene points or am i just leaving the scene incomplete and essentially pissing the shit out of the fire marshal and having him go through the entire scenes because each scene he goes through is two points yeah and it can only be the next scene that's incomplete yeah so you've got to keep another other cards you can place that will allow the vip to move forward even if you don't meet the criteria things like trap doors which I'm sure the Fire Marshal loves the shit out of those.

[35:12] That's gonna make the Fire Marshal real happy. No. But yeah, there are cards you can play that will allow um... The fire marshal to move forward, but even if you don't meet the criteria, but still, those are relatively few and far between and are best used in situations where you don't really have another choice. Right. So, yeah. Now, the second way you can gain point, or the third way. Actually, I wanted to cover one more VIP that I saw on the site that I love this one. The super fan. We didn't actually get this one. I thought we got him the first time. Yeah, but only goes through rooms where there is eyes on the card's artwork. Oh, okay. So, no, we didn't get that one. We got the one where you had to have an actor in the scene because that is a mechanic of it. Yeah.

[36:05] That's how you use your snap. We're not going to go over it in this super brief overview. The super brief, meaning 45 minutes instead of 55. Well, the actual overview part's like 15. Yeah, I know.

[36:15] I know. Still super brief. But anyway. anyway um but yeah the i think the vips are an interesting mechanic um and i think we all enjoyed them yeah yeah they were fun seeing who was coming to the haunt that night yeah and the third one you were talking about yeah was being on theme so your scene card has two theme elements and this not no your theme card has two scene elements and then your scene cards have those elements so you try to get as many scenes that have the theme on those cards and then you get extra points for that yeah so it's kind of like you know the old adage about you know good fast and cheap pick two because you're never getting all three yeah it's kind of like that you're trying to figure out which what you're going to really focus on and what's going to kind of be your dump step stat for that round like most of us when the fire marshal came to we said fuck the fire marshal yeah fuck that asshole we're focusing on completed rooms because we can get more points for scenes and we can get those beautiful theme points we were just talking about exactly you can get more than two per scene that way even on two point scenes but then again what you could have done is just laid out all the cards as scenes and not put any elements in them and probably had that asshole traipse through six.

[37:45] Eight different scenes.

[37:46] Yeah, the maximum was eight, I think, because Farrell and I did the math. Yeah.

[37:54] I think that was the max points for just laying down the cards and not focusing on building any scenes. Well, but the fire marshal would have been 16, wouldn't it? Because he would have gone through eight rooms. Or you limited the five, four scenes. I don't remember. Either way, we did the math and it was better for all of us to just buck the fire marshal and build rooms. Yeah. But that's the kind of thinking you've got to do. And then you repeat this for all three nights.

[38:23] And we didn't go into a lot of the mechanics. We didn't talk about the staff mechanic at all. Right. Because some cards you get staff to start with. Sometimes you spend. You can sacrifice cards to get staff.

[38:33] But that was just not a super interesting mechanic. And there's other little elements, too, that are interactive that we're not discussing here for a bunch of reasons. But, yeah, so let's get into the good. This is kind of where we wrap it up and then we do our suggestions at the end. The good, the artwork. Yeah. I keep harping on the artwork, but my God, it was good. It's really pretty and it plays really well together.

[39:03] The multiple strategies is also really good because you can, what you can focus on. Yeah. If you want to make it so that your strategy is just to build like six point rooms and not worry too much about your theme or the VIP, you can get some serious points that way. Yeah, and I wound up doing a mix with mine because I always had a six-point room, but I think with five people, or maybe in all, I don't know, it's really hard to complete two six-point rooms because I tried to do that one round and it did not work. I agree. My usual strategy was two twos and a four, and then make some vague effort to stick with theme, and then kind of worry about the fire marshal third. Yeah. But basically, you can go multiple directions with this.

[39:58] I don't think there's any right answer, and a lot of it really does depend upon the VIPs. Yeah. Because that fire marshal can go slot my knob. But the police chief was pretty cool. Yeah. I believe it's like if you had anything that was, like, gore-related or something, he would go through. Which is funny because you had a police scene in one of your scenes with hanging bodies. Yeah. As the element in it. And that's the third element is the humor. It's got this kind of weird cards against humanity thing going. Yeah. Where even though, like, the elements you're looking for will kind of steer the elements you add to a scene. Right. To make kind of some kind of sense. The reality is there's no breaks on the stupid train here. Because A, you can put elements you don't need in a scene, but they match your theme. So, for example, I had a graveyard scene once.

[40:55] And, but I, but my theme for this game was the alien abduction one. Right. And so one of the elements, I had to have sci-fi elements to stay on theme. So I had a graveyard scene with a zombie and something else in there that was very fitting for a graveyard. And an alien just hanging out. Maybe it was an alien zombie. I, do you know what? I don't know. You don't know what that alien did to. But you're right. I also had a police station with hanging bodies everywhere. Yeah. Because that worked with a crime theme. And it was like, I don't know. Well, and I had a cathedral that had a whaling nun and a monk. I'm sorry. You said whaling nun. I assumed it was a nun that hunts whales. The whaling nun, arrr! There she blows, my lord. No, no.

[41:45] But no, it was three elements that all went together. And I could tell that I don't know. It just seems like the people who made it really put a lot of thought into how the scenes would work together and the elements and like they've had industry experience so yeah if you play it straight and you fill the rooms as the cards describe it'll mostly be sometimes it'll be kind of funny and you'll get a get a little bit humorous but once again there's no breaks on the stupid train like i said especially if you're trying to appease the vip or your theme yeah so you know if it makes sense to put an alien in the goddamn cemetery you're putting an alien in the fucking cemetery that's all there is to it yeah um so yeah i really did enjoy the the scenes you would come up with both from a this is humorous and outrageous because some of them were right But also just how much they made sense sometimes, too.

[42:44] And honestly, it's just the final thing is it's a great party game. Yeah. If everyone knows the rules or is remotely familiar with them, it's a great party game. And I can definitely see us bringing this one back to them now that we know the rules and don't have to go through that uphill battle there. I think it's going to be great to hang out with them and play this. And I'm looking forward to that, actually. So the rough stuff.

[43:09] The learning curve is a brick wall, guys. I mean, there's... I think it's a combination of... There's just... The game's throwing too many mechanics at you at once. Mm-hmm. And I think there may be too many mechanics full stop.

[43:27] It does seem jam-packed full of mechanics. That is true. And it's easy even when you know them to forget them. Right. because of the whole clockwise, counterclockwise. And also, I'm pretty sure everyone fucked up the staff mechanic. Yeah. And I would say also the staff mechanic is way too easy to game because it comes with 20 pieces. We have five players, and we ended up having to look up in the rules what to do when we ran out of staff pieces. Yeah. The answer is you go get your own tokens. You're allowed to make substitutes. But the mere fact that's in the rules probably should warn you that the mechanics easy to gain right and the staff roll over every night yeah because that's how you break a tie at the end of the game at the end of the third night, and which because one of the ways you can dispose of a card which once again at the end of a night this can be a common thing oh just give me two staff at that last card that ain't gonna do shit it for me otherwise right at least now it's something right and so the result is i ended up with a shit ton of staff i never needed yeah which is never a problem in the industry it's the exact opposite yeah i wish that's a great problem to have i wish i had that problem so yeah um, So, the cards themselves.

[44:54] The artwork is so beautiful. They are. They are very pretty. It is a very compact game. They're small cards. They're very small. Even with glasses, we struggled to read it and to see what the symbols are. Because some of the symbols are very similar to each other. Yeah. And so, it was hard to tell them apart at a glance. There is a candle symbol that's meant to reference lighting effects. I think or what was the candle for again like a haunting kind of yeah but there was a candle effect and a candle icon and an.

[45:27] Icon of a ufo beaming up something yes and three people have.

[45:34] Three different versions of what that is now you saw it online so you know what it actually and i actually saw it on the alien abduction card i had the theme card okay yeah because it is a little bit bigger there yeah but i thought it was a chess piece and then somebody else thought it was a beaker um so there's some but basically there's two symbols that are long slender things with something vaguely at the top yeah and they all look a lot alike until you look at them super close now i think we may be reaching we're impossible please because we just said that you need a large table to play this game on and now we're saying the cards are too small well yeah but like if they were regular card size card size yeah these are skinny these are.

[46:21] Tiny cards yeah they're almost like moo moo cards yeah if you remember anybody remembers moo cards other than us no probably not probably not if you remember moo cards let us know leave a comment or something you're very curious to see if anyone remembers those yeah they were they were popular for like five minutes something like 20 years ago yeah um but yeah if they were regular size then you could have the artwork be bigger and you could see the symbols easier yeah so yeah even with glasses it was a struggle um we already talked about the broken staff mechanic i don't i think that needs to be adjusted somehow and we just also mentioned at the beginning the packaging issues just that there was no warning no heads up that the cards are all mixed together and need to be separated it out.

[47:10] Our suggestions for improvement. A lot of it is on the learning curve. I personally think what you need to do is create a snappy, 10-minute, focused video on just explaining the game. Yeah. Just a quick, round playthrough, even. Yeah.

[47:31] That's focused. And put somewhere in the packaging, put that there. Yeah. And I would also consider a tutorial that introduces one mechanic at a time. Okay this game we're just going to build scenes right this now we're going to add in the theme, and you see you want things to add to that now we're going to add the vips now we're going to add staff you know what i mean and just keep growing it until you get to everything look at video game tutorials you play a game like star wars outlaws or assassin's creed they do little mini tutorials of each mechanic you'll get a stealth tutorial a combat tutorial climbing tutorial you'll get all these tutorials and then you're invited to bring them together yeah i would also say that um for the rules themselves focus more on short bullet points instead of paragraphs of explanation yeah and one thing there was one game i wish i could remember what it was yeah you open the box and it says do not shuffle these cards in big letters because the instructions.

[48:37] Take you through a game of it it was a two-person game this one didn't have more people so they could do this it was a two-person game and you actually played out the game according to what the instructions said and that was how you learned the mechanics was being handheld through your first game that would be cool too i don't know how practical these things are but that'd be cool no but yeah larger cards with clearer symbols yeah we've already talked about that um it would actually so i mentioned playing cards but it would also be pretty cool if they were like tarot size cards yeah i did we kind of fit with the theme yes you would need a huge table yes but you know we were the idiots who tried to do this on a tiny ottoman so a little bit of that's on us yeah um we didn't realize that the gamers didn't have a game table yeah that was really weird wasn't it yeah the dnd family didn't have a dnd table yeah that's kind of weird when you put it like that all right um i would also say consider alternate versions with fewer mechanics, like say okay this is the robot version or we don't have to worry about staff yeah you know and instead make it something else you get if you sacrifice a card or just have it so that you discard a card if you don't want it.

[49:56] Um, basically alternate versions with fewer mechanics can help in teaching it. And like I said, revamp the packaging. The main thing I want in the packaging realistically, it's just a way to store the cards so they don't get all shuffled together. Yeah. You just want a, um, little divider in the box. A little divider would be good. Little slits you can put them in. Or even just sleeves would be fine. Uh, paper sleeves. I'm not picky. Well, I think that's about everything. Yeah. And even with the intro and outro, this episode will be shorter than the 55-minute tutorial.

[50:31] But on that note, everyone, thank you very much for joining us for the past 50-ish minutes. We greatly appreciate your time. Please check out more Haunt Weekly at HauntWeekly.com, Haunt Weekly on Facebook, and YouTube.com slash Haunt Weekly. We will have information on where to get the game in the description. It is by DVC Games. All in all, enjoyed it. encourage others to enjoy it as well um and by the way the dvc games website because i forgot is dvc.games jesus christ jonathan you should have had that up the whole time, but yes indeed check out dvc.games to get this among other games until next time i'm jonathan i'm crystal and we will see you all next week.