Game Review: The Walking Dead: Surrounded by Button Shy Games

The Walking Dead: Surrounded designed by Jason Tagmire and published by Button Shy Games

The publisher Button Shy Games is famous for its unique design model. All the games are eighteen cards with an instruction booklet and a small wallet. Some games require other materials provided by the player (like tokens or something to write notes or scores on) but typically the whole game is just the small deck of cards. Occasional expansions add more cards or substitute some cards. In The Walking Dead: Surrounded, players build a tableau of eighteen cards alternating locations and character cards, hoping to set up many locations with more humans than zombies adjacent. 

The cards are two-sided with the fronts showing locations and the backs four different characters on each edge.

Sample locations

Some locations have a special rule at the bottom, a person or a walker already there, and/or an end-game scoring symbol (a number or an item in the top right corner). 

The character cards are a mixture of walkers and humans, with the humans divided into leaders (with a star next to their picture) and survivors (with a head and shoulders next to their picture). Some humans have special abilities which will be described below.

Sample characters

To start the game, the cards are shuffled location-side up. The first location is put on the table and the second card is flipped to the character side. One of the zombie sides must be placed next to the location. The game then proceeds with playing cards from the deck, building a checkboard pattern of alternating location and character cards. The player has two choices with the next card on the deck.

First, the top deck card can be played to Explore, using the location and putting it next to one of the characters already in play. After the location is played the next card is flipped and a zombie-side of the card must be placed next to this new location. In some cases, that may not be possible (the location has two or one open sides available). Then the player is free to place the card next to some other location without having to match a zombie to any location. 

The second choice is to flip the top deck card and play it to Occupy an open location. The card can go to any legal spot (i.e. a location with an open side) with no restriction on placing a zombie next to a place. If the card has a Walker on the location side, then it can only be played as an Explore.

Some humans have an Ability, so when they are played to a new location (through either the Occupy action or the zombie-spawn after the Explore action) the special power may be used. Move lets the player move a card at the location to another side (if available). Look lets the player examine both sides of the top or bottom card of the deck. Burn lets the player take any card from the tableau and put it on the top or bottom of the draw deck. The only restriction on Burn is that the map has to remain contiguous, i.e. no cards only adjacent diagonally to other cards.

The game ends when the deck runs out of cards. Then the score is totaled. At each location, subtract the number of zombies from the number of people. If the number is negative, that's a negative score and the location is overrun (some locations have penalties for being overrun--additional negative points!). If there are an equal number of people and zombies, the location is empty. If there are more people, the player scores one point for each survivor. Leaders score a little differently. If there is more than one leader, they eliminate each other. Any leader left scores one point and additional points for any other survivors still at the location. The player can strategically use the Walkers to take out an extra leader or two if necessary. Any location that is surrounded by cards scores if it has a symbol on it (a number or an item). 

A high-scoring final situation

The game says one to four players play cooperatively, but this is basically a solo game because there is only one goal and people would just group-think the play (or an alpha player might take over). Players don't have individual hands, they just play off the top of the deck.

The rules come with special scenarios that add achievements in order to win. For example, Fuel Up requires locations with gas cans to be surrounded in order to win. Each scenario has levels. For Fuel Up, Standard level requires two gas-can locations to be surrounded; hard level requires the two locations not to be overrun (i.e., more humans than zombies); expert level requires the two locations to also have a leader and at least one survivor. Other scenarios involve other resources or limit the number of special actions or require specific leader/follower configurations. My favorite scenario is Betrayer, where the player works against humanity and tries to make a very low score--less than -10 for standard, -15 for hard, or -20 for expert!

The game creates a nice puzzle with a bunch of variations. After I mastered the basic game, I had fun trying to accomplish the various scenarios. The game involves a small amount of "luck of the draw" which can be mitigated by using the abilities to recover or move needed cards. It's similar in feel to Sprawlopolis but a little easier.

The cards use art from the comic books (which I have read), so it's nice for fans to see familiar faces and locations (even when I don't quite remember everyone). The theme is well suited to the game, trying to manage a very difficult situation.

An expansion, Under Siege, adds six new cards with new abilities and bonuses. The mercenary ability lets that character kill all Walkers at the location but doesn't count as a survivor or leader. A new bonus item, Dynamite, is added and must be surrounded or else the player loses a point at the end of the game (surrounding it gains a point, so a two-point swing is involved). The expansion adds some more challenge and variety to an already interesting game.

Recommended, highly for fans of The Walking Dead.

The game and expansion is available from the publisher's web store. 

Game Review: Dungeon Pages Core Set (2023)

Dungeon Pages: Core Set (2023) designed by Jason Greeno and Jason Tagmire, art by Vittoria Pompolani, and published by PNP Arcade Publishing

A page who wants to move up in their world has to do something special to impress others, especially others in power. What better way to improve skills, increase wealth, and impress the boss than going on an epic quest? 

In Dungeon Pages, a solo player takes on the role of a hero-in-potency searching for some actuality. The game is a dungeon-crawl using roll-and-write mechanics. For each game, the player picks a hero and a set of mini-dungeons (four regular dungeons and a boss dungeon) for the quest. The game comes as print-and-play documents (one document is the rules; the other is the character/dungeon sheets).

Zafinn and a set of unexplored dungeons (click to enlarge)

The regular dungeons must be completed before the boss dungeon, which is good because the player collects items, levels up, and acquires new equipment in the other dungeons. The player sees how many "evil dice" are listed at the top (in The Sewers below, two evil dice at the top right) and rolls them with their good dice. The player starts with one good die but can unlock others with experience points.

Sample dungeon (it prints better than it looks here)

Each turn, the player rolls the dice and then the monsters attack. If two (or three in the boss dungeon) evil dice are rolled, any doubles on those dice trigger a wandering monster attack, causing one point of damage. Then, the regular monsters attack, though the player can alter the dice numbers with special abilities or by spending coins found in dungeons. Once the monsters are dealt with, the player marks the die numbers in the white spaces of the dungeon, starting from the door. To obtain an item, the hero must put two identical numbers orthogonally adjacent to the item. Items include coins that can change die numbers, potions for special abilities (like increasing health), and keys to use on locked doors. Monsters can be defeated by putting numbers adjacent to them that match or exceed their defense value. The dungeon is completed when an orthogonal path is made from the door to the treasure chest. Otherwise, the dice are rolled again and everything is repeated.

If the numbers along the completed path are each within one number of the previous number (so a path like: 1-1-2-3-4-4-3-2), the player scores experience points for columns filled and monsters defeated. Those experience points unlock abilities on the top of the sheet. They also allow the player to acquire a new weapon (which gives greater range or direction for placing numbers) or get a relic with special abilities (like reducing damage or altering die numbers). If the path is not sequential, the player still gets to keep any items (coins, keys, etc.) collected from the dungeon. The player than picks a new dungeon to explore, hoping to get powerful enough to beat the boss monster in its larger, deadlier dungeon. 

Zafinn's finished adventure--he's a page no more!

The game play is more tactical than a typical roll-and-write game. Once a few weapons and powers are unlocked, the player has to consider many different options for number placement in the dungeon. Branching out in different directions is key. Some dungeons only have one path from door to chest; others have multiple paths, letting the player have more options if dice run high or low. Often, I would stall by writing numbers in spaces that aren't on the path or for acquiring an item. The dungeons are not laid out from easiest to hardest on the sheet, so the player needs to be tactical about that choice too. The one-black-die dungeons are generally easier and a good way to get some leveling up before facing tougher or more numerous monsters. 

I enjoy the challenge of using the dice to the best of my character's abilities, mulling over changing numbers, trying to slow down and to maximize the amount of stuff acquired in the dungeon. As more dice are used, the options grow. Each character has an ability to "sacrifice" a good die for an effect, which lets the player change the game state and use one less die (which might be helpful). Since this is a solo game, any Analysis Paralysis is okay since you are the only one being held up by over-thinking a move.

The biggest challenge I found was failing to get the XP from a dungeon by not completing a sequential path. Unlocking extra abilities and weapons or relics is critical to success in harder dungeons. Missing one dungeon is still doable; missing two dungeons virtually guarantees failure in the boss dungeon. At least, that's been my experience. Unlucky die rolls can be frustrating, especially at the beginning when the player has minimal options for changing numbers.

The game is print-and-play, which means the player needs to provide dice (three black and three white, or at least three of one color and three of another) along with a writing implement.

Using the fancy d12s that have one through six twice on the faces!

For ease of replayability, either laminating or using sheet protectors (a poor man's lamination) will save on printing costs. Just have some dry-erase markers handy!

Poor man's lamination

The other nice thing that enhances replayability is not immediately obvious (so they mention it in the rules). A player can cut between the character part of the sheet and the dungeon part, then mix and match the dungeons with the characters. The core set comes with six characters and six dungeons, so 36 possible combinations. The designers also provided (at a separate low cost) additional dungeons each week of 2023 with variations on the heroes (they have different weapons and relics).

The Core Set game is available for purchase here.

I did by an inexpensive laminator, so I guess I like the game a lot. Thanks Nick Martinelli for the recommendation!