Beer Money: Manufacturer defect?

Games Discussion ARCHIVE: Card Games & Board Games
1

okay so i wanted to purchase the Lunch Money card game, but it wasn't available at my FLGS (friendly local gaming store). Beer Money, a stand-alone expansion, however was available.

so $20.00 lighter and 110-cards heavier, i left my FLGS...

not knowing exactly what to expect, i read the rules and examined the cards. after a few practice games and a few late nighters mastering the art of the smack down i have come to the following conclusion about Beer Money.

THE GOOD: Addictively fun. Nothing like laying the smack down on your friends and family, pulling off a devestating combination of attacks and or defending against a hellacious fury of blows from a cocky, trash-talking opponent!

THE BAD: The cards are not colored as the rules state they should be. I'm not sure if it's a manufacturer defect with the Beer Money set, but it would help identify the cards better if they were. Why didn't they just print each card's effect/rules on the card itself? Referring to the rules reference sheet everytime you get a specialty card gets really annoying.

THE UGLY: The pictures and quotes have very little or nothing to do with the theme. From what I understand (I could be wrong), the original theme was psychologically dark images of catholic school girls brutilizing eachother for lunch money. Beer Money, I would figure, would probably be psychologically dark images of drunk college frat boys, homeless bums, or alcoholics fighting desperately for beer money and quoting the most humilating and vulgar insults and put-downs... Nope. It's all images of the one homely teen-age chick in a white gown/dress in various "artistic" poses in a dark gothic setting background. Most of the quotes are just bad poetry lines.

Overall, it's a great game to play but needs a lot of improvement. The cards should be colored as mentioned in the rules, perhaps a card type symbol added to the corner. The cards should have more theme related pictures and quotes. The cards should have the rules printed on the cards even if it means reducing the pictures to a thumbnail size...

I lost my Beer Money rules and was shit-out-of-luck until I located Atlas online and thankfully was able to download a free copy of the rules. I noticed that Atlas offers a free Beer Money Playmat that has the card rules on it, and it's quite nice but it shouldn't be necessary...

I've actually considered purchasing some blank playing cards and re-doing the entire set (for personal use ofcourse).

-Mav

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2

Here's my two cents:

Yep, it's a damn good game. The rules are more consistant than the original, which had a few cards that you sometimes just took out of the deck.

Agreed, the coloring just didn't work with Beer Money. I was flipping through Sticks-n-Stones just yesterday (which is a Lunch/Beer Money expansion) and was reminded of what card coloring is supposed to look like.

It would take away from the feel of the game (especially from the original which had a juxtoposition of innocent school girls in a gothic setting with violent/disturbing text). They had to stick with the theme, and I think it was a good decision.

If you look on this board I've said the same thing. There is a quick-reference sheet for download to help out.

Actually, it's the SAME girl from the original game, which adds a level of continuity to it. Especially since I started with the original, I have no problem with them following the theme. And Sticks-and-stones is again the same girl, but at an age between the two stand-alone games.

I'll have to see if that playmat you mentioned is the same download I was directed to a month ago.

Tom

3

Actually, this is worth asking seperately...are there any plans for a reprint of Beer Money in which the colors punch as they do in Sticks-n-Stones for example?

I wonder if a highlighter-colored cotton ball rubbed over the card would just totally ruin cards?

Tom

4

There are no plans for that right now, as far as I know. John would be the one to lobby for a change like that, if you felt strongly about it.

5

Well for what it's worth, I would buy a second copy if the card coloring was addressed. Now all we need is 10,000 more...any takers :wink:

Tom

6

My FLGS finally got Lunch Money and the Sticks and Stones expansion which I both purchased.

I went to Kinko's and was going to have the Beer Money playmat printed out and laminated until the sales clerk told me it would cast $65.00. Sorry, but no sale...

I found a magic the gathering template card maker on the internet and did a Magic style version of all the cards.

I assigned the different colored backgrounds to the different types of cards and also labeled the type of card under the picture window.

The name of the card is at the top left of the picture window and if the card does counter damage I used the colorless mana cost symbol to represent that number.

I drew some poorly looking stick figures re-enacting the combat moves the card's described for the art window. I'm too cheap to hire an artist to do sketches for me, lol.

I put the card's rules in the text box.

End result?

Granted the cards don't look "pretty" but the stick figures give it a comical/humerous twist. Having the rules on the cards increased the enjoyment factor of the game x10 fold. Actually, in my opinion, I beleive the same amount of fun was there as in previous games, it' just that because the annoying stress of searching and double checking quick reference notes/sheets was no longer a factor, the group could focus on enjoying the game....

BTW are anymore expansions planned?

-Mav

7

Too bad about the lamination cost...how big is the play mat? You can get lamination machines from places like Staples and once you get one Id bet you'd be surprised how many things you can find that need a little laminating :slight_smile:

I know I've got several gaming-type things that are just crying out for some laminating. Hmmm, maybe today I'll take a long long break to see what they've got.

If you like humorous stick-figures you should check out "Let's Kill" from Atlas.

Same kind of contrasting themes as Lunch Money actually. At first glance they are childlike stick figures...then you double-take and see what is actually there.

Tom

8

definitely need to check out that game.

the play mat is oversized which requires it to be special printed... i have laminating machines at my job, but none that would be big enough.

thanks for the suggestion!

-mav

9

By the way, where exactly is the link to the "playmat"?

Thanks,
Tom

10

atlas-games.com/retailer.php

-Mav

11

Wow, I hadn't seen that. OK, now I understand the expense at laminating.

Have you seen this cheat-sheet?

atlas-games.com/pdf_storage/BMCheatSheet.pdf

Just laminate 4 of these and you'll be good to go, I think.

Tom