Board Game: Trogdor!

Insert your favorite Homestar Runner reference here.

The Game: Trogdor: The Board Game
The Publisher: Boardelectrix
Time: 30 minutes or so
Players: Me, Sarah, Kai, Michelle

Game Play: Many things about the game will not make a great deal of sense without this bit of context:

OK, moving on. In the peasant kingdom of Peasantry, the majestic dragon Trogdor the Burninator holds sway. The players cooperatively control Trogdor, and to win, you need to burninate the countryside, the peasants, and all three of the thatch-roofed cottages.

So we start out with a 5 x 5 grid of tiles, including cottages, peasants, two knights, an archer, and the wingaling dragon himself in the center. All the players get a Keeper of Trogdor card that gives them a special power usable only on their turn, and an item that can be used and then recharged (usually; some of them are one-use only).

Michelle assembling Peasantry

On one's turn, then, one draws an action card that grants a number of action points and a special effect, and you can do actions equal to your action points. You can move, chomp (eat a peasant, which sends him to the Trog-Meter, which acts as your health), burninate a tile, a cottage, or a peasant, or hide in the mountains.

Once Trogdor moves, the countryside fights back; peasants move (and might repair burninated tiles), knights move (and repair cottages), and the archer moves and fires arrows. If Trogdor comes into contact with a knight or gets hit by an arrow, he takes damage, which removes a peasant from the Trog-Meter and puts it into the Void.

Cottages can only be burninated if all surrounding tiles are. Peasants can be burninated any old time, but doing that sends them to the Void, which is risky. They do, however, run around setting things alight before they die, so it can be a viable strategy to burn them. Trogdor's health is represented by the peasants on the Trog-Meter, so chomping them gives you health back. Taking damage with no peasants on the Meter triggers Trogdor's Fiery Rage, which is a last-ditch rage-quit that might result in Trogdor's victory. I'll let Brainkrieg explain:

Opinions: OK, let's cut to the chase: If you're not a H*R fan, does the game hold up, or is it just a mish-mash of jokes from the early 2000s?

We won, by the way.

I think it holds up just fine. The humor might go over your head a little if you're not a fan, but honestly the humor has always come from the absurdity, the pormanteaus, and the general silliness of it all, and that comes across. The game play, likewise, works just fine. Doesn't have the tension of Pandemic and I'd need to play it a couple more times to see if it feels too easy, but after playing it I was interested in playing it again, so that's a good sign.

Keep? Yep.