The Joy of Gaming: 25 Days Until International Tabletop Day - Gloom

My husband gave me some flack for the last entry where I sounded all down on my game club. Sometimes when you're in the thick of the stressful environment of a middle school classroom it's hard to see the forest for the trees. I really do love my club. I wish it was an after school thing instead of a lunchtime get together. I think that's truly at the heart of things, because in reality when we go to Cons or now started the Lock-Ins, these kids truly show up as gamers and I love it. My husband's Overnight Lock-In save the club for me, I think.

At this point, you're probably wondering why I would even bring this up in this entry? Well, because Gloom is another game club game!

When I first played Gloom, I loved the transparent cards. They were like nothing I had every seen people! And the layering was great! The story made it even better. I liked this strangely Addams Family style game. Granted, the Addams Family embrace the Gothic, whereas here we're just all dying or trying to die and, somewhat morbidly, existing. The storeytelling and hand management styles of the game really intrigued me, since it was so early in our development as gamers.

This game I can't remember if we bought it before or after Tabletop started, but I remember using Wheaton's run-through of the game play with my students in club when I first introduced the game. Gloom used to get a good bit of play, but something about my group made it fall by the wayside a bit. Maybe it's how disorganized the box is and that I'm suspicious of a few cards having gotten lost over the years. I'm thinking, though, of hosting a reteaching of it to see if it ignites any excitement for incoming students. I have a feeling it might. But I did introduce this game, because of how unique and quirky it is.

Either way, this game really impressed me and now the transparent card thing is IN with the release of Mystic Vale, which uses a similar transparent card mechanic in game. Gloom doesn't need a comeback, but with the release of Mystic Vale I've heard it mentioned a great deal lately.