Every 100 Games Series - Falling

The 3,200 game played for me was Falling, a game designed by James Ernest and published by Cheapass Games. It is for 4-8 players, though really you could combine decks and add more players. 

I first heard about this game quite awhile ago, maybe on a podcast I listen to or maybe just stumbling across a review about it. For some reason though, the theme of falling and knowing you are going to hit the ground, but wanting the other players to hit first, just stuck with me and so I added it to my wishlist. It turned up in the math trade at IndyCon this past year and I won it!

Image by jeffwiles on boardgamegeek.com

What You Get

Falling is a Cheapass Games production, so I wasn't expecting much, but it is actually better produced than many of their other games. You get a deck of cards, which is it, but these cards are at least in color and have somewhat interesting art on them and are of good stock. I've not been a fan of their other games, sometimes just because of the quality of the pieces (yes, I I'm that shallow). There are several different kinds of cards including pushes, splits, blocks, etc. Then there are ground cards, which are at the bottom of the deck, and towards which players are hurtling!

What's the Play Like?

There is the moderator who isn't actually falling, he is just dealing the cards out to players in real time fashion. Everyone is hectically trying to move cards around, play them against other players, get their turn skipped so they don't get dealt bad stuff, trying to get other players more cards, and generally chaos just ensues the whole game until all but one player gets dealt a "ground" card which are the last 5 cards on the bottom of the deck, thus ending their life and knocking them out of the game.

Did I Fall for Falling? (Yeah, that was a stupid pun)

Well....yes and no. I found it to be the best Cheapass game I've ever played, mostly because it takes literally the time to deal the deck out. We're talking 3-7 minutes I'm guessing to play the whole game. It can be a bit confusing though, especially for new players, since it is simultaneous play and there really isn't time for questions. I'd suggest that if you are going to sit down for this game, that you should make everyone play 3 times in a row to be sure it gets its best chance to be a success. The new player learning curve is the biggest downside to the game. I like the game enough that I do want to take it on a youth trip sometime and teach the highschoolers, because I think they'd get a kick out of it. I still can't give it great marks though, because part of being a good filler is being quick to teach and this can be daunting for even gamers in this one, not because it is so complicated, it's just so different than anything else. So as of now, I give it a 6/10.

Image by Neratora on www.boardgamegeek.com

About the Every 100 Games Series: A long time ago, since I log the plays of board games, I decided I'd review every 100th game that I played. I decided to do this for a couple reasons. First, I like to write about board games in general. Second, I figured it'd be more likely for me to write about a game that I don't nessicarily like a bunch, since I wouldn't be choosing the game I'd be reviewing. So the Every 100 Games Series was born.