This article originally appeared in Pyramid #23

Pyramid Pick

XXXenophile: The Adults Only Trading Card Game

Published by Slag-Blah Entertainment
Created by Phil Foglio.
Starter Deck $9.95, Expansion Pack $2.25

History tells us that a model once did two laps of a bridge tournament naked to see if any of the players noticed her. None of them did. Now you know why I've never learned to play bridge.

Taking XXXenophile that seriously would be difficult, as well as perverse; the instructions and most of the rules are actually printed in mini-comic form to prevent this, and you can learn the basics during your coffee break. Most cards are "Characters" (Blue Opal, Geodetic Dame, Hung Jury); others are "Gizmos" (Sex Drive, 'Zilla Suit, Babe Magnet), or "Settings." (Nicely Curved Space, Roman Bvbble Bath, The Hatchback of Notre Dame). The players lay out 12 cards in a particular pattern, face down, and one by one, turn them face-up and flip them 180 degrees. If the colored symbols around the edges of any two adjacent cards match up, the one with the most symbols "pops," and the player adds the point value of the card to his score. If both cards have the same number of the same symbol, they both pop simultaneously; if flipping a card causes the symbols on more than one side to match up with adjacent cards, they may also be popped. The winner is the first player to score 100 (50 for a short game); the endgame determines how those cards left on the board are split between the players. So far, so simple; the complications come from . . .

This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.



Article publication date: January 1, 1997

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