Peasant Buffet: Bad Moon Rising
Created by: Wargi Studios LLC.
Reviewed by: John Cano
There are no survivors just leftovers, pillage and backstab your friends to climb to the top in this high-stake action card game.
Coming in a nice solid box that roughly measures 8×10.5 inches, it includes 17 peasants, 101 items, dooms, events, monsters, and bosses plus a 50-card spirit deck to troll your friends from beyond the grave as well as a Wargi turn marker. The box does come with a 12 page, fully illustrated rule book that also outlines the different play styles and scenarios that can be played with a different number of players. A single game can take up to about 15 min. however it can stretch a little bit more depending on how you choose to play the game, up to 4-7 of your greatest friends or frenemies can enjoy this amazing adventure together.
You first select your peasant and randomly choose 5 bosses then shuffle into the village deck. Set up your Graveyard deck and make room for a discard pile. The objective of the game is quite simple, raid the village for loot and fend off any monsters that stand in your way. The game ends when A) all Peasants are devoured, B) the last remaining Peasant completes 1 turn, or C) the Village runs out of cards. Each player
tallies up their total number of Victory Points. Peasants gain one Victory
Point for every item in their Stash that matches their Peasant’s Wants.
Surviving players score 2 additional Victory Points. In the event of a tie, the
tied player who last drew a card wins. The game basically works by working together, slaying the bosses or screwing over the other players and letting them get devoured while you swoop in for the win.
Example play through:
Player 1 touches the Loot first, so he begins the game. He draws a card from the
Village and places, it faces up on the oversized Loot card. The first card he draws is a
“Weapon,” which is an item card. Player 1 sees that his Peasant, The Grump, Wants
Weapons, so it will grant him a Victory Point if he can keep it in his Stash. Player 1
could stop drawing now and take the Weapon, but he decides to push his luck.
This time, he draws an event card called “A Hero Appears!” Since Event cards are
immediately resolved, he reads the effect of the card and follows its instructions (in
this case, discarding One Monster that is in play) and then discards the Event.
Again, Player 1 could end his turn, but he presses on and draws a third card: “Skull
Cap,” another Item!
Now, Player 1 knows that if he draws a Boss or a Monster and can’t defeat it, he will
end up losing both items that are currently in the Loot, so he decides that it’s
time to collect.
Player 1 turn ends when he takes the Loot and places the cards in his Stash. Well
done, you’re two cards richer, and now that the Items are in your Stash, you
can use them to fight Monsters!
As of now there are no expansions however that could change in the very near future.
I thought the game was very fun, a great game for people who are wanting to start playing tabletop or it can also be picked up by more experienced table toppers who just want to try something different. What makes it unique is that you and your friends can either play together to fight the hordes of bosses or fight against each other to see who the sneakiest peasant is to make off with the loot.
I actually thought the game was great with its very fun aesthetic and hilarious and well-drawn art, with the added benefit of being a simple game to learn but at the same time still pose a great challenge for those seasoned players wanting to try something different.
I did run into a few hiccups threw my playthrough with this game, one of them being sometimes the rules of the game can be very vague and you will have to search a how to video to see how those players figured out the same problem you encountered which does break away from the pace of the game. Another problem I ran into with the game being a bit fast paced and a lot of different things are happening at once, I found that using one of my own personal life counter dice actually helped keep track of my peasants health, other than that I feel the game was really solid.
So, if you’re looking for something simple and a bit different then I would certainly recommend this little gem known as Peasant Buffet: Bad Moon Rising. A shout out goes to Wargi Studios LLC. For the amazing interview and also gifting us this wonderful game for us to try out for ourselves, currently the game is still on Kickstarter where it currently has 358 backers and has raised over 10k so show your love for the developers and the Wargi’s at
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2083771375/peasant-buffet
and if you want a play threw check out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnEwaKEm7Z0
