Due to Brandon currently being neck deep in Student Teaching we were unable to do a video review as we intended. Instead, please enjoy this old timey textual teleplay script and do your own reader’s theater at home!
Brandon: You probably shouldn’t be playing Pawns.
Tarehna: PWNs.
Brandon: Pawns is a game wherein you control cute, but disgusting, little military men and try to destroy your opponent by farting on them or vomiting on them, only not really.
Tarehna: It’s pronounced “PONES” you dilettante!
Brandon: What?
Tarehna: P-W-N-S is pronounced “pones”. Like “to be pwnd”.
Brandon: Like your mom’s friend, Pone?
Tarehna: Sure.
Brandon: That doesn’t make a lot of sense. You see I have these military men and they are like under my control and stuff. That makes them my pawns.
Tarehna: Whatever.
Brandon: Anyway, you have this board. Do we have a picture? And then you have these terrain tile thingies you put on the board, and then you place your pawns..
Tarehna: Ugh!
Brandon: …pawns on the terrain tiles. Not in the water though. You can’t really swim and if you get pushed in the water it hurts. Like you fell from a great height or had the wind knocked out of you, but then you got back up. Go ahead and put your Pawn…
Tarehna: PWN!
Brandon: Whichever.
Tarehna: Whatever!
Brandon: Exactly! Put your…military men on grass, dry grass, dirt, ice and fire. No! Not the fire. Fire bad! Then you have these cards you can play to attack or defend or heal. All this kind of stuff. Like, you can use a dead rabbit slingshot, or a dead rat slingshot, or a smelly bag of smells. It’s kind of a lot of gross stuff. One pawn…
Tarehna: PWN!!!!!
Brandon: That bit keeps on being funny. One of the…dudes…is named Queasy. There’s this whole potty humor component, but it doesn’t run all the way through. There’s one card that’s just called “Reflector”, not potty humor at all.
Tarehna: Your point?
Brandon: Other than this review has gone on for awhile without saying much? This game was kind of blah. The components are nice and the look, feel, and theme are all solid and work together but it’s just kinda…
Tarehna: Awesome? Yes. I know! This game has “Leaky Bag of Leftovers” and “Scary Mask” and is 2-4 players. You’re not just moving your pieces and playing cards and having some sort of board game version of magic. There’s strategy; especially when you have four players. Sure you could just attack and hurt an opponent, or you could use the aforementioned “Scary Mask” and knock an opponent into water, fire, or even into the path of yet another opponent and start a fight between them. Did I mention that the terrain tiles allow for you to use different setups so you don’t all fall into the same ruts of attack and defend this way or that on this specific part of the board?
Brandon: I think you just did.
Tarehna: Go me! And, as you mentioned, the theme is cohesive and solidly put together. So, given all that, why do you think people shouldn’t play it?
Brandon: Oh I do. I had a lot of fun with this game. So did our friends. But Awry Games should really redo that instruction manual. How some things resolve was a little unclear and visually it’s a lot of boxes. Also, I’d prefer if the different characters had special abilities. I don’t get naming all of them if it’s just for flavor text.
Tarehna: Like King of Tokyo?
Brandon: Totally like King of Tokyo.
Tarehna: But other than those minor things you liked it and would play it again and would recommend that other people check it out.
Brandon: Tots.
Tarehna: You mean “totes”.
Brandon: Yes.
Tarehna: So if you like it then what’s with all of that rambling you did up above?
Brandon: Cheap literary device! You’ve been pawned!
Tarehna: PWND!!!!
Brandon: Always funny.
Learn more at:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/awrygames/pwns-a-game-of-strategic-mayhem
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/183568/pwns-game-strategic-mayhem
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