Once upon a time the nice people at RPG.net sent me a copy of a product from the nice people at White Wolf to review.
The product was numbingly bad.
But, that said, they gave me something with the understanding I'd review it for them. Since that product is long out of print, the review I wrote won't do White Wolf any good. And since sites like RPG.net get free copies of stuff to give out based on people actually reviewing these comp copies, my not writing a review didn't help out this website either. So, to make amends, I will not only post a review of this awful product, I will also review 5 other in-print items from White Wolf. White Wolf gets its ad space, RPG.net gets its reviews, and I'll feel like I made amends.
That said....
Pimp: the Backhanding is a card game by White Wolf consisting of 100 cards, a rules-sheet, and a little box. It deals with violence, prostitutes, violence towards prostitutes, sex, sexism, and so on and so forth. Most gamers don't have a problem with these themes. What's created the furor is that it tries to be funny about it all.
Play basically consists of the deck being broken into three parts: Pimp Cards, Ho Cards, and Draw Cards. At the start of the game, each player receives 5 random Pimps and 5 random Draw cards. Pimp Cards depict a pimp, some tag line, his "macking" and "backhanding" scores, and any unique rules for the pimp. Draw cards are elements that add even more random elements to the game. At the start of a turn, 5 random Hos are placed in the center of the table. The players decide which of their Pimps will "mack" and which will "backhand". Macking is determined by rolling a six-sided die, adding any modifiers for the pimp, and adding any modifiers from draw cards. Whichever Pimp gets the highest total wins, with ties rerolled until there's a loser. If there's only one Pimp on a Ho she goes with him without rolling. After all the macking is done, players then send out any Pimps for backhanding. The goal of backhanding isn't to steal the Hos, but to damage them so much they aren't worth any points (or money in this case). The backhanding is done much the same as the macking, using a die roll, Pimp backhanding bonus, and any other modifiers. If the backhander wins, the Ho is ruined and worthless. If the backhander loses, the Ho is counted for money in the money-laundering phase.
A turn thus consists of drawing out the Hos, macking them, backhanding them, counting them for money, and throwing out surprises and modifiers with draw cards. Three of these turns make up a game, and the player with the most valuable Hos wins.
For the most part, the game mechanics are fairly simple. Draw cards and Pimp/Ho modifiers add a lot of random variables into the game though, so no two games will likely be the same. The art is cartoonish but vulgar, which fits the mood of the game. The packaging is nice, and the quality of the cards seems fairly durable; I wouldn't shuffle them like cheap poker cards, but they should hold up to regular play.
Let's forget the moral implications of this game and ask a more important question: is it fun? And I'll have to say: enh. It's certainly not for everyone, and wouldn't make for a good family game I hope, but if you like shows like South Park and Drawn Together this should give you a chuckle. The game plays a little bit crazy and it feels very random, but that's the nature of card games. If you want more strategy go play Magic: the Gathering or something.
Because of the quality and feel of the art and packaging, I gave it a 4 for style. It's good, and possibly closer to a 5, but there's almost an ADD quality to it that makes it all distracting after a while. I give it a 3 for substance. It's a good game, but it doesn't grip me to play it the way other games do, and I figure once the humor wears off I'll never look at it again. Another way for me to put it would be that I got Pimp the same day I got Gloom by Atlas Games, and Pimp was the game I wanted to show to people but Gloom was the one I wanted to -play-.
