Sometimes the family are in the mood for a light game but it can be hard to choose which one to break out. One advantage of seasonally themed games is that they do much of the choosing for you. At Christmas time at least, this is a game to which family members will naturally gravitate...
Designed by Steve Clemens and published by Clemanor Games, Get Stuffed! is a light set collection card game for 2–6 players; and at Board's Eye View, we found it was at its chaotic best with 4–6 players. As the name suggests, it's also light-hearted but tho' the title might sound mildly abusive, there's nothing in this game that makes it in any way unsuitable for children or elderly relatives.
In Get Stuffed! players each have their own Stocking List of presents and you have a hand of action cards. Each turn, you'll pick a card from the 'conveyor belt' display (2 face-up and 3 face-down cards) and you have the option to play an action card. You'll be hoping that your conveyor belt picks help you towards completing your Stocking List and you'll be using your action cards to give yourself a boost or to sabotage the efforts of other players. It's the action cards that turn a very simple set collection game into a good-natured 'take that' game where players will be constantly stealing cards from each other and forcing opponents to discard cards from their hand. Action cards also have an alternative secondary use where, for example, they can be held as one of the player's Stocking List items. Stocking List items are mostly displayed face up so you can see how many and which ones an opponent has but the action cards are always retained in a player's hand so you're never completely certain about how near your opponents are to claiming victory (the requisite number of presents from their Stocking List).
You can find yourself picking up lumps of coal, which take up Stocking List space, and these can only be gotten rid of by playing an appropriate action card. If you ever end up with three 'Noel the Coal' cards, you are out of the game! Yes, there is player elimination, which can be a downer in family games but Get Stuffed! plays quite quickly (most of our plays ran to no more than 15-20 minutes) so no-one is likely to be left out in the cold for long. There's a single Santa card, which gets taken, passed about and seized in response to action cards. It's a coveted possession because it gives immunity from most action cards, except those that target the Santa card itself. We found this functioned almost like an amusing 'pass the parcel' mini-game in the background.
To add to the seasonal fun, the Get Stuffed! rules dictate certain phrases have to be recited during the course of play: if you don't say 'Oh No! Noel the Coal' when you pick up a coal card, then you are also liable to be penalised with the loss of an action card from your hand. Likewise, failure to say 'Ho! Ho! Ho! I'm stealing Santa' before you touch the Santa card will you mean you lose the right to take the card. Younger players will especially enjoy policing these rules and imposing the forfeits on their elders.
Get Stuffed! is coming to Kickstarter on 1 August and backers can expect delivery of the game in good time for this year's festivities. Click here to check out the KS and back the game.