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Abduction is an interesting card game, published by Eden Studios and written by George Vasilakos. It's a non-collectable game as well - buy the box and that's all you'll need.

What you Get:

72 Cards printed as Green on White. Four of these are the instructions, printed on both sides, with large faint numbers in the background to help you keep them in order. Two of these are the pieces - you cut each card in four strips along the lines and fold them in half to make eight little pieces, one of which is a poor cow who is out of her depth. One card is the starting location, and the rest make up the play deck.

Beyond this, all you need is a six-sided die.

What you Do:

You're one of these little markers, a harmless earthling who wakes up in the center of some alien spaceship. Your goal is to explore the ship and make it out of the ship before anyone else. Each turn you get to do three things, and after each thing your opponent gets to react with event cards.

Locations are used to slowly build the map as you play, similarly to Steve Jackson's Illuminati card game. There are a large variety of types, from simple corridors, storage rooms, and examination rooms, to teleport, engineering and the Main Bridge. In addition, there are about four exit cards, which you can't play unless there's four other cards between it and the home, so there aren't any first turn lucky wins.

Item cards give you funky abilities. A number of them make it easier to avoid being picked up again by the aliens and put back into your cell. Others give you movement powers, or other miscellaneous abilities.

Event cards are the fun ones. A fair number of these are useful to mess up your opponents plans, by either moving locations around the board, forcing them to discard, forcing them to play items in their hand, or the dreaded 'Pause', which ends the current turn immediately. These are played either on your own turn, or in reaction to another player's play. Since at the beginning of your turn you draw cards up to your hand size (5), you often try to dump card during your opponents' turns to get more cards on your own.

Is it fun?

Yes. It's a good, fun game. The box states that games take 20 minutes, and that's true. Our first game ran into some problems and really dragged, however. There are a limited number of location cards, and we built the board in such a way that there were no legal places to play the exit. We had to use location-moving cards to create a legal end to the game. Once we realized that slow and careful play prevented you from winning, however, we got into the spirit of the game and now quickly play our cards out.

There's a fair bit of luck in the game, too. There are cards to force you to discard, or to pass a card to another player, or your whole hand. You can't count on an important card being in your hand on your next turn, so it's usually best to play cards as soon as possible. Heck, even if no one messes with your hand, there are four or five cards in the deck that will whisk the exit to the other side of the board just as you're ready to escape!

It's a good, light, fun beer and pretzels style game. It's easy to learn, and would probably be very playable with children (who would get a kick out of saying 'Anal Probe'). I recommend it for when your gaming group is waiting for that last guy who's going to be late.

However, keep in mind that this is a 'weasel game' - the easiest way to win is to keep throwing your opponents to the wolves... or aliens in this case. There is no cooperative play here, except for when everyone is trying to prevent the active player from winning.

Bad Points:

The cards are a bit flimsy, and would crease easily. Their lightness also means that if you're not careful with your hands, you could mix up the location cards on the board.

It states on the box that it's designed for 2-4 players, but the one 2-player game we played was slow and not as much fun as with three players. I expect (although I haven't tested it yet) that part of the problem is card flow - with two players locations aren't played as quickly. So if you want to play this with two players, I'd recommend using seven-card hands instead of five. (And if the item that gives you a seven-card hand comes up, I'd revise it as a nine-card hand.)

Altogether: worth your money for a quick fun game.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Abduction
Author: George Vasilakos Category: Card Game Company/Publisher: Eden Studios Line: Abduction Cost: $10 Page count: n/a SKU: EDN2300 Playtest Review by John Fiala on 08/19/99. Genre tags: Science_fiction Modern_day	Abduction is an interesting card game, published by Eden Studios and written by George Vasilakos. It's a non-collectable game as well - buy the box and that's all you'll need. What you Get: 72 Cards printed as Green on White. Four of these are the instructions, printed on both sides, with large faint numbers in the background to help you keep them in order. Two of these are the pieces - you cut each card in four strips along the lines and fold them in half to make eight little pieces, one of which is a poor cow who is out of her depth. One card is the starting location, and the rest make up the play deck. Beyond this, all you need is a six-sided die. What you Do: You're one of these little markers, a harmless earthling who wakes up in the center of some alien spaceship. Your goal is to explore the ship and make it out of the ship before anyone else. Each turn you get to do three things, and after each thing your opponent gets to react with event cards. Locations are used to slowly build the map as you play, similarly to Steve Jackson's Illuminati card game. There are a large variety of types, from simple corridors, storage rooms, and examination rooms, to teleport, engineering and the Main Bridge. In addition, there are about four exit cards, which you can't play unless there's four other cards between it and the home, so there aren't any first turn lucky wins. Item cards give you funky abilities. A number of them make it easier to avoid being picked up again by the aliens and put back into your cell. Others give you movement powers, or other miscellaneous abilities. Event cards are the fun ones. A fair number of these are useful to mess up your opponents plans, by either moving locations around the board, forcing them to discard, forcing them to play items in their hand, or the dreaded 'Pause', which ends the current turn immediately. These are played either on your own turn, or in reaction to another player's play. Since at the beginning of your turn you draw cards up to your hand size (5), you often try to dump card during your opponents' turns to get more cards on your own. Is it fun? Yes. It's a good, fun game. The box states that games take 20 minutes, and that's true. Our first game ran into some problems and really dragged, however. There are a limited number of location cards, and we built the board in such a way that there were no legal places to play the exit. We had to use location-moving cards to create a legal end to the game. Once we realized that slow and careful play prevented you from winning, however, we got into the spirit of the game and now quickly play our cards out. There's a fair bit of luck in the game, too. There are cards to force you to discard, or to pass a card to another player, or your whole hand. You can't count on an important card being in your hand on your next turn, so it's usually best to play cards as soon as possible. Heck, even if no one messes with your hand, there are four or five cards in the deck that will whisk the exit to the other side of the board just as you're ready to escape! It's a good, light, fun beer and pretzels style game. It's easy to learn, and would probably be very playable with children (who would get a kick out of saying 'Anal Probe'). I recommend it for when your gaming group is waiting for that last guy who's going to be late. However, keep in mind that this is a 'weasel game' - the easiest way to win is to keep throwing your opponents to the wolves... or aliens in this case. There is no cooperative play here, except for when everyone is trying to prevent the active player from winning. Bad Points: The cards are a bit flimsy, and would crease easily. Their lightness also means that if you're not careful with your hands, you could mix up the location cards on the board. It states on the box that it's designed for 2-4 players, but the one 2-player game we played was slow and not as much fun as with three players. I expect (although I haven't tested it yet) that part of the problem is card flow - with two players locations aren't played as quickly. So if you want to play this with two players, I'd recommend using seven-card hands instead of five. (And if the item that gives you a seven-card hand comes up, I'd revise it as a nine-card hand.) Altogether: worth your money for a quick fun game. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)