Review of Button Men

Being a sucker for anything from James Ernest and Cheapass Games, when I saw this game in RPGnet's review queue, I jumped at it. I was not disappointed.

What I got was the following: two pairs of Button Men from each of three sets: Fantasy, Dork Victory, and Freaks. You can see the buttons themselves at the Cheapass site, or for detailed "recipes" and the complete rules, you can head over to the Button Men site.

Appearance & Format

Button Men are just that: buttons. They aren't made on a Badge-A-Minit(tm) any more, but it's the same idea. The various sets are generally focused on the work on a single artist, so the art on the buttons tends to be of high quality. Larry Elmore, Rob Schwartz and John Kovalic illustrated the buttons I have.

The buttons come two to a set, in a tiny polybag, with a sheet of instructions between the buttons (featuring intentionally ridiculous bios for the characters). Each set of buttons retails for $4.50.

The Setup

Each player needs a button, and some standard polyhedral dice. Since many of the buttons require more than one of something, two players will probably want to share a Big Bag o' Dice. For the first few games you play, especially with a new set, you will probably want the instructions handy for when you forget what a certain dice type does.

As alluded to above, the buttons themselves tell you what dice that character has. Most are single dice (some with special properties), but there are Option and Swing dice where you can choose a size, or things like Twin Dice, where two dice are rolled together and treated as one. Once both players have their dice sorted out, they roll them, and the game begins.

The Play

The basic play of the game consists of "capturing" your opponent's dice with your own. Dice captured score points for you, and the dice you used are re- rolled. You must attack if you have any legal options, or pass. When both players pass in a row, the game ends.

There are two basic attacks: Power attacks, where you use one of your dice to capture one of your opponent's with an equal or lesser face value, and Skill attacks, where you can capture one of your opponent's dice with any number of yours whose face values sum to exactly that of your opponent's.

This quickly becomes complicated with special dice types like Shadow (which make inverted Power attacks where you must roll under your opponent's dice), Poison (which score negative points), and Mood Swings (which randomly change size each time they're rolled).

The Playtest

I enlisted the help of several of my coworkers who are also Cheapass fans (once I could pry them away from Shadowfist) to help me playtest the game. Everyone pretty much got the rules after a couple of minutes, and had a lot of fun with it. Games took about 5 minutes on average, and with experience might get even shorter.

The three sets of buttons that we had were ideal for this. Fantasy has only one special dice type (Option dice), and made a perfect learning set. The basics mastered, we moved on to Dork Victory (with art from the creator of Dork Tower, natch), which has some more funky dice, but is typical of the game as a whole. Freaks was really an exercise in excess, and features, for example, a character with a Speed Poison Shadow Turbo Swing die....

The thing that impressed us afterward with the amount of thought and strategy that seems to have gone into the game design, judging from the articles on the website. Button Men seems to be one of that wonderful class of games where you don't need to put a lot of thought into playing, but it is possible and seemingly rewarding to do so. It's easy to learn without being "shallow" in strategy.

The Bottom Line

I would definitely recommend Button Men. It's inexpensive, easy, and a lot of fun. I give it 4 for Substance, and a 4 for Style (adjustable /- 1 depending on how much you like the particular artists).

Button Men
Button Men Playtest Review by Sixten Otto on 20/07/01 Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty) Another novel and fun design from the folks at Cheapass Games. Product: Button Men Author: James Ernest Category: Dice game Company/Publisher: Cheapass Games Line: Button Men Cost: 4.50 Page count: Year published: ISBN: SKU: CAG3xx Comp copy?: yes Playtest Review by Sixten Otto on 20/07/01 Genre tags: Fantasy Modern day Horror Comedy Other	Review of Button Men Being a sucker for anything from James Ernest and Cheapass Games, when I saw this game in RPGnet's review queue, I jumped at it. I was not disappointed. What I got was the following: two pairs of Button Men from each of three sets: Fantasy, Dork Victory, and Freaks. You can see the buttons themselves at the Cheapass site, or for detailed "recipes" and the complete rules, you can head over to the Button Men site. Appearance & Format Button Men are just that: buttons. They aren't made on a Badge-A-Minit(tm) any more, but it's the same idea. The various sets are generally focused on the work on a single artist, so the art on the buttons tends to be of high quality. Larry Elmore, Rob Schwartz and John Kovalic illustrated the buttons I have. The buttons come two to a set, in a tiny polybag, with a sheet of instructions between the buttons (featuring intentionally ridiculous bios for the characters). Each set of buttons retails for $4.50. The Setup Each player needs a button, and some standard polyhedral dice. Since many of the buttons require more than one of something, two players will probably want to share a Big Bag o' Dice. For the first few games you play, especially with a new set, you will probably want the instructions handy for when you forget what a certain dice type does. As alluded to above, the buttons themselves tell you what dice that character has. Most are single dice (some with special properties), but there are Option and Swing dice where you can choose a size, or things like Twin Dice, where two dice are rolled together and treated as one. Once both players have their dice sorted out, they roll them, and the game begins. The Play The basic play of the game consists of "capturing" your opponent's dice with your own. Dice captured score points for you, and the dice you used are re- rolled. You must attack if you have any legal options, or pass. When both players pass in a row, the game ends. There are two basic attacks: Power attacks, where you use one of your dice to capture one of your opponent's with an equal or lesser face value, and Skill attacks, where you can capture one of your opponent's dice with any number of yours whose face values sum to exactly that of your opponent's. This quickly becomes complicated with special dice types like Shadow (which make inverted Power attacks where you must roll under your opponent's dice), Poison (which score negative points), and Mood Swings (which randomly change size each time they're rolled). The Playtest I enlisted the help of several of my coworkers who are also Cheapass fans (once I could pry them away from Shadowfist) to help me playtest the game. Everyone pretty much got the rules after a couple of minutes, and had a lot of fun with it. Games took about 5 minutes on average, and with experience might get even shorter. The three sets of buttons that we had were ideal for this. Fantasy has only one special dice type (Option dice), and made a perfect learning set. The basics mastered, we moved on to Dork Victory (with art from the creator of Dork Tower, natch), which has some more funky dice, but is typical of the game as a whole. Freaks was really an exercise in excess, and features, for example, a character with a Speed Poison Shadow Turbo Swing die.... The thing that impressed us afterward with the amount of thought and strategy that seems to have gone into the game design, judging from the articles on the website. Button Men seems to be one of that wonderful class of games where you don't need to put a lot of thought into playing, but it is possible and seemingly rewarding to do so. It's easy to learn without being "shallow" in strategy. The Bottom Line I would definitely recommend Button Men. It's inexpensive, easy, and a lot of fun. I give it 4 for Substance, and a 4 for Style (adjustable /- 1 depending on how much you like the particular artists).