Gloom

Gloom… A game of unfortunate incidents and tragic consequences.

The world of Gloom is a sad and dark place. The sky is grey, the tea is cold and a new tragedy awaits around every corner. Debts, illness, anguish, packs of rabid meat-eating mice...

When it seems things can't get any worse, they do. But there are those who say that the reward received in the afterlife depends on the torments endured in this one. If so, there might still be hope; if not in this world, then perhaps in the peace of the hereafter.

In Gloom you will take control of the destiny of an eccentric family of misfits and misanthropes. The objective of the game is sad, but simple: you must make your characters suffer as many tragedies as possible before their transition to the well-deserved rest of death. You'll drop cards with dire tribulations like "He was hunted by poodles" or "He was angry by dwarfs" on your characters to lower their Self-Esteem scores, while trying to cheer up your rivals' characters with marriages and other happy events that give them positive points. When one of your family members finally suffers an untimely death, that character and all the tragic circumstances that led to their demise will be set aside until the end of the game.

Transparent cards reveal or hide the effects of the other cards under them; In the end, the results shown across all the cards will determine your score. May the most miserable win!

The game will end the moment an entire family is completely eliminated. Then, each player will tally up the Pathos points visible on each of their dead character cards to get their Self-Esteem scores, and then add those scores together to get their total Family Value. The player with the lowest Family Value will win the game.