Game Night at NerdStrong Gym

After work I headed to NerdStrong for our monthly game night. Started with a classic card game of "Pit". Get a taste of trading on the commodities market. Shout your deal and trade your cards to try to “corner” the market. Be the first to get all the cards of one commodity and ring the bell to win the hand. You’ll feel like a real trader in the “pits” of the exchange.

I forgot how much fun this game is. Lots of yelling and trading of cards. It's simple, easy and extremely entertaining. Glad someone brought it to game night.

Next I played a few rounds of Exploding Kittens. It is a highly-strategic, kitty-powered version of Russian Roulette. Players draw cards until someone draws an exploding kitten, at which point they explode, they are dead, and they are out of the game -- unless that player has a defuse card, which can defuse the kitten using things like laser pointers, belly rubs, and catnip sandwiches. All of the other cards in the deck are used to move, mitigate, or avoid the exploding kittens.

I played this at the last game night and really enjoyed it. This time around someone had the NSFW version and those cards were hilarious. This is an instant classic.

I then played a few rounds of Cockroach Poker. Cockroach Poker is a reverse set collection game that has nothing to do with poker – except that the game is all about bluffing, but with cards that show cockroaches, rats and stink bugs instead of queens, 10s and aces. The goal of the game is to force another player to collect 4 of any one type of critter. The deck includes 64 cards, with eight copies of eight types of critters. To set up the game, shuffle the deck and deal the cards out to players. On a turn, a player takes one card from his hand, lays it face down on the table, slides it to a player of his choice, and declares a type of critter, e.g., "Stink bug". The player receiving the card either; 1 Accepts the card, says either "true" or "false", then reveals the card. If this player is wrong in her claim, she keeps the card on the table in front of her face up; if she is right, the player who gave her the card places it face up before him. Or 2 peek at the card, then passes it face down to another player, either saying the original type of critter or saying a new type. This new player again has the choice of accepting the card or passing it, unless the card has already been seen by all other players in which case the player must take the first option. The game ends when a player has no cards to pass on his turn or when a player has four cards of the same critter on the table in front of him. In either case, this player loses and everyone else wins.

This is by far one of my all time favorite card game. Everyone always has a blast playing it.

The final game was new to me called Resistance.  The Resistance pits a small group of resistance fighters against a powerful and corrupt government. The resistance has launched a series of bold and daring missions to bring the government to its knees. Unfortunately spies have infiltrated the resistance ranks, ready to sabotage the carefully crafted plans. Even a single spy can take down a resistance mission team, choose your teams carefully or forever lose your chance for freedom. The Resistance artfully balances pure deduction elements with the social elements into a game that creates the adrenaline filled moments of high stakes poker in a full interactive and social event.

This was a fun game, I got to be part of the resistance in one game and a spy in the second game. I'd play this again.

Overall it was another fun and successful Game Night.