Help Rate Game Prototypes? Ooh-ooh-ooh! Me! Me!

or "And a Very Crappy Birthday to Us All!"

No, it's not my birthday. But any chance to help behind the scenes with a board game's production is as good as any birthday. It turns out the game makers over at North Star Games are in the process of creating a humorous new party game called Crappy Birthday. If you take a looky-loo over at BGG, you'll find out that Crappy Birthday is an Apples-to-Apples-type game where players submit "gift" cards to the birthday judge. This judge picks the crappiest gift, and the giver receives a point. Now, contrary to my general snobbery and elitist attitudes about thinking games, I actually really do enjoy a good party game sometimes. As you've read here on this blog, I'm an Apples to Apples fan, and I thoroughly enjoy games like Taboo, Pictionary, and Balderdash. When I first heard about Crappy Birthday, I could instantly see the tables full of friends, I could smell the green apple tartinis, I could taste the M&Ms, and I could hear the slurred speech of rowdy gamers. This game has some serious potential. But will it work?

Well, that's what North Star Games is working on right now. They just advertised on BGG that they were in need of gamers to help rate the various "gift cards" according to how desirable (or crappy) each gift is, and whether or not it's likely to get people talking and debating. Specifically, they needed women (Hey! That's me!) to provide a balanced perspective.

One reply email later, and I'm now spending my evening scrolling through PDFs of card mock-ups and giving them a snarky rating...and a bit of proofreading advice. Hey, I can't help it. And for my [cough] work, my reward is a mention in the game's credits and maaaybe even a free copy of the game (breath not held). Man, I love projects like this. Now whenever I see that game on store shelves, I'll smile because I was a small cog in helping the game to launch. For us game nerds, it doesn't get much better.

So how are the cards?

Sorry, mum's the word. You'll just have to wait for the game's release in August to see. But if you find any misspellings, don't come crying to me. I was a total bitch about it. Promise.