Last Thur we gamed

Well the weather was starting to look all boardgamey so it seemed only appropriate to not fight with it.  I’ll come back to the main game of the night later but for now I have to mention the wind down game we played or more accurately survived

Panic Lab!

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/121073/panic-lab

is a kids game.  Seeing a trend here?  Which is very simple but with the addition of a few rules makes it’s an adult game and a complete head wrecker.  In one of the circles of Hell they’re playing Panic Lab right now with pitch forks and electric shocks.  If you wanted to break and enemy agent or find out where treasure is buried, force them to play Panic Lab, they’ll crack sooner rather than later.

I reckon (a scientific measure) that as a kids game, someone that masters this game should be locked up away from the rest of society.  It’s like mirrors, it’s not natural.

The game of course is simple.  You spread the cards in a circle and they consist (depending on how hard you want to make it and how much you hate your brain)

• Start Points
• Creatures
• Transformers (optional)
• Vents (optional)

You then roll the four dice and it dictates

The colour creature you’re looking for (red/blue), Spots or Stripes, Travel Clockwise or Anti-Clockwise and whether it’s a ghost or a slug type creature.  First one to spot it sticks a finger on it and claims a point, get it wrong they loose a point.  Simple so far….

Here’s where it all goes wrong.  Along the way you have Transformers (not those ones)

 

And these little honeys swap around what you’re looking for.  So now you’re looking for a striped creature and now you’re looking for a blue one.

Let’s not stop there, along the way are vents, go onto one and you teleport to the next vent and continue from there.  It’s quite possible to wind up (in your mind) doing a few revolutions of the circle before you find the little fella you want.  Do this before everyone else does it, ignore the foam on players mouths.  Mind Blown.

Seems very simple but try it and you’ll find a new level of profanity issuing from your lips as you get it wrong again and lose a point

The game is cheap as chips.  About a €10 or so.  It is very intense so you couldn’t play more than a few games but while you’re in that masochistic zone it’s a very “interesting” experience.  It’s great with kids, start them off without the transformers and vents.

I’m certainly going to pick up a copy of it but I’m not sure if that says more about me than the game

It’ll be a Knavecon

Huzzah!

Vic