Dangerous Games: Vampire Werewolf Fairies

The chair creaks as you settle onto it. The candlelight flickers. All around you the ravenous faces of your so-called friends twist in delight as you slowly open the box laid out on the table. Welcome to Dangerous Games! Each week, we'll feature a horror/thriller/monster tabletop game you should be playing. Don't be scared… roll the dice… what's the worst that could happen?

 

 

Do you love mischievous monsters? If so, Vampire Werewolf Fairies may be the game for you. Players each play a series of cards that will transform them into Vampires, Werewolves, Fairies, and Witches (witches, for some reason, didn't make the title). The game cards feature illustrious, evocative artwork from board game and comic mainstays like John Kovalic (Dork Tower) and Terry Moore (Strangers in Paradise). Here's another easy-to-learn, fast-paced game for adults and kids alike. Come on, admit it, you've always kind of wanted to be a Werewolf-Fairy-Witch.

 

 

Vampire Werewolf Fairies tasks players with the goal of accumulating and keeping control of various types of point cards. The game features three different types of cards: Type cards, Action cards, and Object cards. Type cards allow the player to become a type of creature (like a Werewolf or a Fairy). The title of the game refers to a player who would collect multiple Type cards. They would be a Vampire Werewolf Fairy. 

 

Action cards interrupt and effect gameplay as it happens, sometimes boosting your board-state or wrecking your opponents' board. Object cards represent static items that will boost or detract from your point total. As an object example, the card Bucket of Water gives you +3 points if you are a Fairy and -3 points if you are a Witch.

 

The game plays out with each player becoming different types of creatures, gaining objects to boost their points, and playing action cards. The deck is split into thirds at the start of the game and the "End Game" card is shuffled into the bottom third of the deck. Once the "End Game" card is drawn, the game enters a lightening round where players have one last turn to complete their hands. The player with the most points is victorious! And everyone else can curse their poor fortune.

 

 

There's often times a trade-off in board games. If the game is easy to learn (which Vampire Werewolf Fairies is), then it often loses some of it's replay value. This is unfortunately the case with this game. It's a lot of fun, and a great spontaneous party game, but if you're playing with the same playgroup over and over again it could get a bit repetitive. So save this game for your guests, it's the perfect game to play during a marathon viewing of the entire Halloween franchise (slip it in right between 2 and Season of the Witch).

 

 

This game tries to sell itself on too many things it doesn't have to sell itself on. They obviously hired big name artists to illustrate a single card each and had the charming artwork of Neko Pilarcik fill out the rest of the game. I say who needs the big name artists! They should have spent the money on marketing this game. Because it's a quick and fun game that hasn't gotten enough attention. Check it out! You may just end up a blood sucking, moon howling, fairy dust sprinkling, cauldron stirrer!