Pyramid Review
Top Dogs
Published by Playroom Entertainment
Designed by Maureen Hiron
Art by Randy Martinez
Boxed set with 115 full-color cards and instruction booklet (in English, Spanish, & French); $12
Huskies, as it turns out, are among the most willful of canine companions. You have to keep on top of them, or they'll try to establish dominance in your household . . . just ask Cuba Gooding, Jr.* But they are an invaluable part of any successful sled team, so make judicious use of them as you compete in Top Dogs from Playroom Entertainment.
The object of the game is to score the most points by the end of two full hands.
Each player takes a Musher Card showing his racer -- which one doesn't matter, they're simply a fun way to identify who's who. Of course, the same can be said of the car in Monopoly, so there very well may be arguments here about who gets to play the yeti or the polar bear. All players have an identical hand of 20 cards showing the dogs they have to choose from for each race.
The Trophy Deck consists of 10 Trophy Cards, each representing one of the races you'll run (or the Iditarod in general, depending on which back story you like the most). The decks are shuffled, the top Trophy Card is flipped over, and everyone draws the first seven cards from their deck. Different kinds of dogs are worth different numbers, so the lowly Chihuahua is only printed with a two while the Huskies, very much in their element, are worth a full . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: August 11, 2006
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