Ferox: a game of cannibals and invaders

So, this Valentine's day I surprised Aaron with two presents: an indie card game and the fact that I finally found a game that I would play with him.

Ferox is published by Craft Fair Games, based in Denton, TX. I love finding Texas based indie brands. It makes that gland that all Texans are born with swell with pride and bile.

Ferox is a two person, turn based card game where you play as either a stranded documentary crew or a group of native tribes banded together by a shared goal of expelling/eating the perceived intruders. The game is not over until you make it to the rescue 'chopper or all the crew members are dead.

It's based on early 80's cannibal "exploitation" films and is not for anyone who finds cannibalism, rude language, really terrific gore art, or drug use objectionable. I think it's a great game. Game play is really simple. It says on the box it takes 60-90 mins to play, but it took us about 3 hours to play the first time; it was my very first time playing any sort of social card/dice game. It's very easy to pick up on, speaking as a first time player.

*The game consists of a linear "board" made of six cards and a deck of action cards for each player. Each board card has several spaces that need to be filled with defeated cannibal pieces. When you fill a board card with dead cannibals, this marks the end of the encounter, and each player gets to draft another two cards into their deck from a card pool. Cards are paid for with "rage", a fairly unique mechanic that involves paying the other player "rage pieces" to use your cards, thus giving your opponent more rage to play their own cards. This makes the turns go past fairly quickly.*

*Aaron wrote this for me.

Aaron's only (slight) criticism is that turns can pass without anything happening - there will be turns where the players take turns drawing cards without any story propulsion and the sense of moving forward can be lost. I don't share the same sentiment - I view it as more of a choose your own adventure visual novel. Overall, I would say that he likes it both as a gift and a game and I do as well. If you're a fan of 80's cannibal movies, gory and explicit illustrations, or horror themed card games I highly recommend Ferox.

(As an added bonus for me, each box is screenprinted by hand and ships fairly quickly.)

The artist for Ferox is Ryan Sheffield and I'll be doing a short artist post on him as soon as my last order from him comes in.

Stay Fanatic,
Megh