Cannibal Pygmies In The Jungle Of Doom, an action/adventure B-movie card game, is a new pickup game and a follow-up to Grave Robbers From Outer Space. The two games are fully compatible - "just shuffle them together!"
Cannibal Pygmies In The Jungle Of Doom casts 2-6 players as would-be directors of jungle adventure movies, each pitching a story that they're clearly making up as they go along. To do this, they share 120 cards which determine Characters, Locations, Props, Special Effects and Creatures. Creatures are used to attack other players' characters and locations, since a movie with no cast doesn't stand a chance at the box office, while special effects are generally interrupt cards with a variety of effects.
Play begins by turning the deck upside down... At the bottom of each card is a suitably pulp-adventure word. Six cards are drawn at random and as many of these words as possible go into the title. This affects scoring at the end of play, where having one of those cards gets you five points. So, for example, after cutting the deck I draw... Valley, Stone, God, Portal, Expedition, Eye. Expedition to the Valley of the Stone Portal of the Eye of God is a little cumbersome, but increases the players' chances of scoring a few points at the end of the game. There are no doubles, although there are near-matches like Gold and Golden. Naturally, smart-aleck gamers can use this as a random title generator for suitably pulpish games.
After that, everybody draws six cards. If anyone doesn't draw a Character, they show this and redraw completely. Play starts with the player left of the dealer playing the Characters in their hand. Play then proceeds with locations, props and the like being used. The first turn is the Establishing Shot where nobody attacks anyone else's cast. After that, anything goes.
Characters have Defence Strength to ward off attack by marauding Creatures, Traits which define what they can do and have done to them (Female characters are better for sacrificing to volcano gods than Males, Large characters sink faster into quicksand and so on) and assorted special rules. The Jungle Man ("Me kill rubber thing") is a lot tougher than the Camel, for example, but the Camel has the uncanny ability to avoid injury by discarding Props it is carrying. Similarly, the Camel and the Rich Fish Out Of Water ("Lovey, how many suitcases full of money should we take on this three hour tour?") are the only Characters with the trait Dumb.
Props generally increase the Defence Strength of characters carrying them, as well as having assorted abilities of their own. The Rickety Bi-Plane allows you steal Locations from other movies or the discard pile, while the Hat means a male non-Native character wearing it cannot die... And yes, the picture indicates that it is a battered old Fedora.
Treasure is a specific Trait of some Props (and a few Locations and one Character) that you need to have in play to finish your movie and the game. You also need one of two Roll The Credits cards. Keep these for when scoring favours you, naturally.
Locations generally add to Defence Strength and have assorted special rules associated with them. However, some of these include bonuses to attacks by certain Creatures, and two Locations are actively dangerous. You can play these on other players' movies...
Creatures cover all the variety you'd expect in a jungle adventure serial, with a few surprises. Leeches ("They're like vampire snails!") are more dangerous than Giant Ants. Their Attack Strength has to exceed an entire movie's Defence Strength to succeed, which can be difficult with a large cast, but they have various special rules and some Special Effects can boost their chances. They also have Traits - Aquatic monsters have a better chance of attacking characters in a Houseboat than those at the Volcano's Edge, while Native monsters always attack Native cast members (the "bearer dies first" rule in game form).
Special Effects are interrupt cards, that can be played whether it's your turn or not. These range from simply cancelling Attacks and other cards being played, to entirely removing Characters, Props and Locations, to doubling Attack Strengths of Creatures, to adding further special rules (Tacked-On Love Interest means that a Female character cannot die as long as there is a non-Native Male in the same movie as her).
The variance of Character, Location, Prop, Creature and Special Effect cards means that this isn't a game for strategic play. The unexpected is to be expected.
When someone plays a "Roll The Credits" card and the game ends (assuming nobody interrupts the card play) the players' movies are scored. Defence Strength of all cards in play gives each player their Base Score, 5 Bonus Points go to anyone with a card bearing one of the Title Words (Expedition to the Valley of etc., etc.) and other cards give further Bonus Points. For example, the Third World Diamond Mine is hard to defend (-2 to Defence Strength) but counts as Treasure and is considered 10 DS if you have it when the game ends.
Physically, the cards are of good quality, printed in colour with greyscale artwork. Unfortunately only one of the artists signed his work, so I can only say that I particularly like the work of the artist responsible for Haitian Voodoo Dancing Zombies and Lava Men.
One typo I noted appears in the special rules for the Museum Location, which is generally very safe but has two negative features - you cannot add new Native Characters while inside and "The "Mummy" always succeeds in the Museum", a reference to a Creature attack. Unfortunately there is no Mummy in this game. There might be in Grave Robbers From Outer Space, but clearly there should be a Mummy in Cannibal Pygmies In The Jungle Of Doom. I want my Mummy!
All in all, it's a pretty simple game, with quite a lot of interplay between players, an encouragement for banter and largely funny card descriptions. It can be picked up in five minutes flat and played in about twenty. Cannibal Pygmies In The Jungle Of Doom is a well-balanced, easy to learn, unpredictable game and a good source of laughs.
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