Game Daze Tucson Mall Employee Recommendation, November 2009

Tim-

"But Master! He's the one who dropped the golden scepter!"
"No Master! I promise! The scepter was broken on the way back sire! By that goblin there!"

Truly Aye, Dark Overlord is a game that will end with obscure looks and awesome memories. In A.D.O. you play the role of a lowly goblin who has failed in fulfilling his masters task in some way. Using picture cards you draw you must "Pass the Buck" (pass the blame) to another "goblin" next to you. All the while telling a story of epic hilarity. One person plays as the dark overlord. His role is to ask the goblins what went wrong. And at any time if his evilness decides that an answer isn't good enough he then gives the goblin a withering look. Once a goblin receives three looks he dies. Game over. All in all this game is great for those with an active imagination and uses a ton of improv. Really easy to learn and it has amazing amounts of replay value.

Park Place Mall Game Daze Manager Recommendation, 4/2009

Drew-

Aye Dark Overlord is one of the funniest games I’ve played in a long time. If you’re looking for a game with lots of laughs and a great use of imagination, with a little “take that!” vibe, this is the game for you.

The concept of the game is that one player is the Dark Overlord, Rigor Mortis and the others players are his Goblin Servants. The Dark Overlord starts the game by asking his servants a question about the results of the last mission he sent them on, after which the servants need to make up a story to excuse any failures on their parts and to avoid angering the Dark Overlord.

A player’s turn begins when the Dark Overlord addresses them or when they have been played a “Pass the Buck” Card. The player then will start to construct his story using a series of Hint cards and end the turn when they play a “Pass the Buck” card on someone else or when they get a Withering Look from the Overlord.

The Hint cards have various different object and action on them; anything from “Fashionable Shoes” and “The Impossible Artifact” to “The Desperate Situation” and “A Window onto the World”. Players need to include the things on their cards in their story. They will end their round by playing a “Pass the Buck” card along with one of their Hint cards on another player. That player then needs to include whatever is on that card into their story and continue on. The stories start to get rather crazy and outlandish as the game goes on, with rounds ending with things like, “and after making the peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwich, I heard a noise and saw a mummy standing behind Karen! And you won’t believe what she did! Karen, tell our Overlord what you did!”, as a card with “Mummy!” on it is played on Karen.

As the Overlord listens to the story, he can, at any time, play a “Withering Look” card on the player or players in question. The really fun part about this is that the Overlord can play these cards for any reason he wishes to: if he doesn’t like the direction the story is going, if a player pauses to long, if The Overlord doesn’t like the tone of the players voice, if he’s bored; any reason at all. Once a player receives his third “Withering Look”, he must then make a plea for mercy. If he is successful, the Overlord may spare his life; if he is not successful, then he is to blame for whatever occurred and loses the game.

The game is fast and funny, rarely losing pace, unless one of the players is slow. Although if they are, they risk a Withering Look, so that doesn’t happen often. The cards in the game have a nice feel, with cute pictures. The new Fantasy Flight version of the game comes with variant rules that make the game more strategic. I highly recommend this game for any imaginative group of 4 or more.