Review of Geeks: The Convention

The premise of Geeks is that each player has a busload of geeks, and, by playing cards, attempts to force other player's geeks to flee from the convention to the Bus Depot. The art, by Daniel Jude Miller, is hilarious, thoroughly uncompromising, and results in the game carrying a warning label. This is some of the best geek humor art I've seen on any game.

The problem about the game is its mechanics. Each player has a hand of five cards. On your turn, you draw a card. You then play a card, which forces one or all other players to lose a Geek from their busload (their controlled area) to the Bus Depot (uncontrolled area), unless they can respond with a particular card or type of card to prevent the loss of their geek. Other card effects include retrieving a geek from the Bus Stop, becoming the player whose turn it is, and stealing a geek from another player. Each player fills their hand to five cards. If you cannot play a card during you turn (many cards are purely responsive), you discard a card.

That's about it. Play is abstract and not tied to the subject matter of the game. You typically only have one or two cards in your hand you can play during your turn. Turns are repetitive (either force other players to lose a geek, or retrieve a geek from the Bus Depot). Stealing turns is only noticable with four or more people. We had to add a rule that allowed you to discard and draw cards at the end of your turn to add something approaching strategy.

If you're a casual "beer and pretzels" player who prefers humor over mechanics, you will enjoy this game. If you're looking for a game with both humor and good mechanics, look elsewhere.