Growing up I've had a few sketchy moments on the playground during recess. That stereotypical "gimme your lunch money!" interaction never happened to me (we all had free lunch growing up in the Cleveland Public School system, not to mention I was always the tallest/biggest kid in class). I've definitely had more than my fair share of scuffles though. Lunch Money is a game that simulates the unforgettable experience of a playground brawl.

A fight simulating card game? Really?! Yes, and Atlas Games does a good job of it. Lunch Money is a game for two or more players; I find that it plays best with at least three people —but a one-on-one brawl can be fun too. The objective of the game is to take your opponent's life counters down from 15 to 0. A player who runs out of counters is considered unconscious and out of the game. The last player standing wins!

The gameplay is a standard shuffle-up and deal style. Within your hand of 5 cards, you'll have options to defend, attack, or heal. A typical turn revolves around choosing another player to attack, pairing cards into combos, or meeting prerequisites to play more complex cards (some cards might require you to play a grab card before you can use it, etc). The defending player then gets to decide what cards they can/want to defend themselves with, or better yet return the favor with an attack of their own. The damage gets resolved after that back and forth and then we move on to the next kid on the playground.

There are a wide range of basic attack cards, defense cards, weapon cards, and specialty cards.

A favorite of mine would be "Humiliation". It can be played at any time, at any point, on any player's turn to humiliate the player and ruin their strategy. The concept behind the card is that the player describes a sequence of events that will humiliate them to the point where they are so ashamed that whatever they were trying to do fails.

A few other favorites:

Pimp Slap
Poke in the Eye
Spinning Backfist

There are even weapon cards like:

Chain
Pipe
Knife
Hammer

(Side note: the weapons we had on the playground when I was a kid were broken hula hoops, popped kickballs, jump ropes, and bricks—yea, these kids literally DID NOT PLAY)

The greatest draw of this game, for me, is the artwork and witty card lingo.

For example, the flavor text on the Humiliation card reads "Jesus hates you; and so do I". Another great one is Chain, it reads "What's black and blue and red all over? You are, silly!".

The images on the cards are eerie (photos by Andrew Yates). A little girl posed in threatening positions—ready to pounce on a would-be defender. The photos are artistically shot, often out of focus in strategic areas to add effect, high contrast with dense blacks and washed out highlights. The mood is truly set through the imagery on the cards.

Lunch Money won the Origins Award for Best Card Game of 1997 (tied with three other games). It's a great game for non-gamers and a light-strategic experience for seasoned tabletop players.

One thing I don't normally embrace with tabletop games are house rules. Lunch Money lends itself to creating house rules that can enhance the experience for any given playgroup. When it comes to customizing the experience, I do enjoy spicing up the components of the game by using pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters for the life point counters. I've also appropriated an amazing lunch box to store my cards and coins in—seemed like a must.

Table talk is one of the most enjoyable parts of this game, it's even in the rule book:

"Colorful banter is an important part of Lunch Money, so don't be afraid to get into the game by describing in vivid detail the insults you perform upon your opponents. Don't be surprised by the imaginative things they do to you in return, and remember: it's just a game."

If I'm being honest, the game isn't objectively good—but the memories I have revolving around this game are what keep me coming back. I spent more hours than I can count shuffling up the Lunch Money deck and pimp slapping my friends while sipping on a hazelnut coffee at whatever coffee shop was still open at 2am.

Download the rulebook and see if its for you!

Support my blog by snagging a copy of Lunch Money from Amazon.