Chez Geek

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Chez Geek
Game situation with a few cards
Game situation with a few cards
Game data
author Jon Darbro , Alain H. Dawson
graphic John Kovalic
publishing company Steve Jackson Games (English)
Pegasus Games (German)
Publishing year 1999 (English), 2004 (German)
Art Card game
Teammates 2 to 5
Duration 30 minutes to 1 hour
Age from 12 years

Awards

Origins Award : Best Card Game 2000

Chez Geek is a card game that humorously living in a shared apartment treated (WG). By playing as many positive cards as possible, the players try to collect points that represent the achievement of a particularly relaxed life. The English-language original comes from Steve Jackson Games and was first published in 1999, a German edition has been published by Pegasus Spiele since 2004 . Translations have also appeared in some other language areas. In addition, some expansions and variants that can be played alone have been released, which retain the gameplay except for small changes, but relocate it to a different environment.

In 2000 Chez Geek won the Origins Award in the “Best Traditional Card Game” category, and in 2003 there was the Origins Award for “Best Graphic Representation of a Card Game Product” for the “Chez Greek ".

The main developers of Chez Geek were Jon Darbro and Alain H. Dawson , Steve Jackson and Russell Godwin were also involved in the development. A few other game designers also worked on the expansions. The maps for the main game and most of the expansions were drawn by John Kovalic .

Gameplay

At Chez Geek, every player takes on the role of a roommate in a shared apartment. The characters are geeks who pursue a profession defined by cards, but who are mainly concerned with leading a leisurely and fun life. This is reflected in the goal of the game, to collect as many so-called slack points as possible , which function as victory points .

It is the turn of the players to turn. In your turn you draw cards from a face-down pile. These cards can be “People”, “Things”, and “Activities”. If the player plays these, many of them earn him slack points. Others allow special actions or have other side effects. The job that the character is currently doing determines how many things and activities a player can play per round. Most cards remain in front of the player for the remainder of the game unless they are removed by some other action. There are also so-called “anytime cards” with which special actions can be carried out and which can also harm opponents. Cards with negative effects can also be played on opposing characters to damage them. The player who is the first to reach a certain amount of Slack points wins.

A six-sided die is used for some events in the game . Keeping track of the slack points can become confusing due to random values ​​and modifiers in the course of the game, so the developers recommend using tokens, glass beads or other small objects as counters.

The only playable variants of the game series essentially adopt this basic concept, but modify it with additional rules. With the exception of “Chez Guevara”, these variants are all compatible with each other and with the basic game, so that all cards can be mixed up and used as a game in which the additional rules then complement each other.

The playing cards each show the game variant information, a cartoon-style drawing and a humorous comment or quote. The main game has 110 cards.

English extensions and variants

  • Chez Geek 2 - Slack Attack : released in 2000; Development Darbro, Dawson, Jackson and Godwin, illustrations by Kovalic, cover by Philip Reed; 56 cards

Expansion with additional cards for the basic game.

  • Chez Geek 3 - Block Party : Released 2001; Development Darbro, Dawson, Jackson and Godwin, illustrations by Kovalic, cover by Philip Reed; 56 cards

Expansion with additional cards for the basic game.

  • Chez Greek : published in 2002; Development Jackson and Andrew Hackard , illustrations by Kovalic; 112 cards

Standalone game. The fraternities and sororities at American universities serve as the background . The "Greek" in the title is an allusion to their Greek names and related customs.

  • Chez Grunt : published in 2003; Development of Dawson and Jackson, illustrations by Kovalic; 112 cards

Standalone game. The US Army serves as the background , the "Grunt" in the title is a slang expression for an infantryman .

  • Chez Goth : published in 2004; Development Jackson, illustrations by Kovalic; 112 cards

Standalone game. The Goth subculture serves as the background .

Standalone game. Communist revolutionaries in the Latin American jungle serve as the background ; the title alludes to Che Guevara . As the first variant, Chez Guevara is not suitable for combination with the other variants due to major rule changes, but individual cards can be exchanged.

  • Chez Cthulhu : released in 2010; Development Jackson, illustrations by Kovalic; 112 cards

Standalone game. The background is the Cthulhu myth based on the works of HP Lovecraft .

Furthermore, the game Chez Dork was released in 2001 , which was developed by Steve Jackson and illustrated by John Kovalic. It is based on Kovalic's webcomic Dork Tower , but despite the similarity of its name, it has a game concept that differs from the rest of the Chez series.

German extensions and variants

Pegasus Spiele publishes essentially direct translations of the original games. However, the two expansions of the main game were combined in one issue. The publication order of the variants also differs. Some publications contain additional cards that did not exist in the English original.

  • "Chez Geek 2: Block Party": published in 2005; German summary of "Slack Attack" and "Block Party"; 112 cards
  • "Chez Goth": published in 2006; German version of the corresponding English variant; 112 cards
  • “Chez Genius: The Student WG”: published in 2007; German version of “Chez Greek”; 118 cards
  • “Chez Guevara”: published in 2009; German version of the corresponding English variant; 112 cards
  • “Chez Cthulhu”: published in 2010; German version of the corresponding English variant; 112 cards

Promotional items

As with the related Munchkin series, the Chez Geek publishers distribute promotional items such as additional cards and bookmarks that can be used in the games at game fairs , conventions and other events .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ BGG profile of the game , accessed on October 9, 2014.