cursedCursed is a beautiful game, and now having played it, I can confirm the quality of its components. The question is, can I confirm the quality of its play?

The short answer. Yes!

Cursed is a light bluffing game where every turn one player takes the role of a monster and tries to siphon as much life from the other players, villagers, as they can. Can the monster kill all the villagers? Will the villagers kill the monster? It all comes down to die rolls and how well you can bluff.

Play starts with the villagers each rolling their die, and the monster secretly rolling as many dice as all the villagers rolled. All the players can now play a card that can beef up their total, or have some special effect on the game. The monster then wagers a certain amount of life tokens, and the villagers have to match that. Wagering can go on as long as the monster keeps adding tokens, or either the villagers or the monster things to pot is too big and runs. After that, the monster totals up his rolls and card, and the villagers do the same. If the players win, the tokens the monster waged are tossed into the void. If the player wins, the monster takes all the tokens they wagered.

Now all the players can buy more cards for 1 life token per card. Play continues with the next player becoming the monster and the other players the villagers.

The game is quick, at times tense, and a whole lot of fun. I got the whole family involved with this one, and everyone had a great time becoming the monster and laughing maniacally when they won a battle. There was even more celebration when the villagers triumphed, and got to dump the monster’s tokens into the void cup.

There’s nothing deep here, and the game relies heavily on the players’ ability to bluff. With the right crowd this game is an overall winner, and I look forward to breaking this out at future game nights.

Cursed was provided free for review by World Wide Chaos Incorporated