I bought this game just last weekend, and my girlfriend and I have been playing it every day since - we love this game! But I wanted to provide some feedback on the quality of the game cards themselves.
Text hard to read: The red text on the black modifier cards are really difficult to read, even in good lighting. This also holds true for the Event cards. The red-on-white isn't much easier to decipher than the red-on-black of the modifier cards and the descriptive text of the character cards.
Bleed-Through: Our cards got a lot of ink bleed-through on them, especially the modifier cards with the two -5 values. Not only is the red on the front of the card patchy and difficult to read, but the black on the back of the card doesn't cover fully, leaving a black/red swirl type of pattern on those dots. It's very easy to tell when an opponent has one of these cards in their hand.
Text Faded: Especially on the black modifier cards. The white and red text are faded on several cards, making it hard to read and understand the actions of the cards.
I'm sure that printing on transparent plastic has got to be difficult, and we're honestly enjoying the game so much that these don't prevent us from playing the game at all. But we were wondering if we picked up an earlier printing of the cards, and if perhaps these problems have been addressed.
Hi there. Thanks for your comments. We've been working with out printer to address these problems, and the second printing did improve significantly. But there are still some things for us to work on.
As Michelle says, we made some improvements in the second printing (such as a solid black circle behind the pathos points, which makes it much harder to read from the other side; and changing the typeface on the rules/color text portion of the cards, making that easier to read), but it's still not working terribly well. (And I have to admit, I've spent a lot of time filling requests for replacements of cards that are really bad.) You can e-mail me a list of the cards that are illegible, and I can find replacements to mail you. (Be sure to include your mailing address, and tell me if you have 1st or 2nd printing, so I can find cards that match your set.)
You can tell the printings apart because 2nd printing has a $21.95 price instead of $19.95. There are other differences, as I mentioned, but that's the fastest way to tell.
We're very glad that you're enjoying the game in spite of the production problems.
I'll go through my deck and make a list of the really bad cards... I'll have to check on which printing I have, just to make sure.
But despite the issues with cards, we are thoroughly enjoying the strategy and quirky personality of this game. It's quite fun and has brought out the competitive side of my girlfriend!
Her favorite card is "Died Without Cares"... usually because she draws it and plays it on my family!
I wanted to chime in as well. My wife and I finally played this for the first time. WE loved it and introduced it to a few of our friends. The cards have the same general issues/defects mentioned above, but the game is a definite winner.
We have been playing Gloom after work and it is a very enjoyable game. It is sometimes hard to determine who really had the worst day so we can start. We have really enjoyed the expansion. It makes the game go a little longer, but some of the cards are just downright mean. It definitely lets you get out some aggression--in apositive way.
I must have the 2nd printing of the game because it has 21.95 as the price and the cards are still very hard to read. The biggest problem we are having is when people play a card you can't tell what the white text says on the Modifiers and the Events. Most of the time we end up passing the card around so that everyone can read it. Also, now that we have played it a while the cards are getting scratched. The text gets scratched up making it harder to read and the cards get more opaque making it dificult to see what is underneath.
The claer cards are really an ingenious idea. I hope you can get some of the printing bugs worked out.
First off, I'd love to say that my wife and I LOVE Gloom. We got it as a wedding gift, and thought that was a little odd, but we're big fans of Chez Geek, and we've been playing the heck out of it. I've also got a few friends interested as well, but they have their reservations about buying a set.
Basically, I have the same gripes as everyone else. The Event cards are near impossible to read with the thin white text on red background. Have you considered black text for Events, or maybe bold white?
Also, the cards in both the base set and the Unhappy homes set had big production problems - streaked ink, cards that were stuck together, scratches on the cards. Quality control seems to be missing in the production of these cards.
The clear cards really are novel, however, and I'm sure printing on the clear cards is a massive pain. Hopefully production can be improved, because I've got a bunch of interested friends - they're just a little leery of the quality.
I just bought the game, and there are printing problems. The printing is a bit spotty in places, but the cards are legible with some effort. The bigger problem is that the cards have a lot of ink dust on them, and they are sticking together because of this.
Is there a reasonable way to clean the cards without ruining them? I fear that anything that can remove the ink dust will remove the ink of the printing. Perhaps if I am careful I might be able to clean them with a cotton swab and isopropyl alcohol?
Hi there. Again, you can e-mail John a list of the cards that are illegible (john@atlas-games.com), and we can find replacements to mail you. Be sure to include your mailing address, and tell us if you have the 1st or 2nd printing, so we can find cards that match your set. (2nd printing has a $21.95 price instead of $19.95.)