"What do you get when you pour boiling water down a rabbit hole?
Hot cross bunnies!"
This was one of my favourite jokes when I was a kid (look, I was very young and I hadn't gotten out much yet)...anyway, this game is full of some very cross bunnies. It is one of the stupidest games you may ever play (wait til I describe the win condition) but it is a lot of fun.
In short, you're trying to raise your crop of bunnies (what is the plural for bunnies?) while you erase everyone else's. At your disposal are a vast array of weapons ranging from kitchen scissors, kitchen blenders, lawn mowers (a personal favourite), nuclear warheads, and rabbit-stealing aliens to name a few.
Hot cross bunnies!"
This was one of my favourite jokes when I was a kid (look, I was very young and I hadn't gotten out much yet)...anyway, this game is full of some very cross bunnies. It is one of the stupidest games you may ever play (wait til I describe the win condition) but it is a lot of fun.
In short, you're trying to raise your crop of bunnies (what is the plural for bunnies?) while you erase everyone else's. At your disposal are a vast array of weapons ranging from kitchen scissors, kitchen blenders, lawn mowers (a personal favourite), nuclear warheads, and rabbit-stealing aliens to name a few.
There is nothing quite so fulfilling as watching your buddies gleefully farming their precious bunnies, nurturing them as they grow and just when they're about to flourish you mow them down with some boiling tar, a butcher's cleaver, and the ebola virus for good measure. That sort of fantastic obliteration is why boardgames were invented!
The aim of growing your bunnies (apart from sending them out to create a colourful trail of mass destruction), is to send them to the shop to buy carrots. At the end of the game, one of these carrots will turn out to be the fabled magic carrot (the full title of the game is actually Killer Bunnies & The Quest For The Magic Carrot) and whoever owns the magic carrot at the end wins. Quite simple really...which is where our game fell completely apart and became all the more memorable for it. First though, how does it work?
You begin with a hand of five cards. In addition to your hand of cards, you have a two cards face down on the table in front of you - this is known as your 'run'. Each turn you reveal the top card from your run and that card comes into play and takes effect...it may be a new bunny that is hatched and becomes active on your farm, or it may be a weapon or some other special power card that is then unleashed on your foes.
After the top card is revealed, you move the bottom card up to the top position (that card will be revealed and come into play next turn) and you choose a card from your hand and play that as a new card at the bottom of the 'run.' Basically, to bring cards into play they have to mature through your 'run' over two turns - this creates a lot of the tension in the game as you never quite know what's being revealed each round. In addition, kill off an opponents rabbits and they can't use any weapons that come through their run this turn - that nuclear warhead they planted two turns ago will simply go to waste.
After the top card is revealed, you move the bottom card up to the top position (that card will be revealed and come into play next turn) and you choose a card from your hand and play that as a new card at the bottom of the 'run.' Basically, to bring cards into play they have to mature through your 'run' over two turns - this creates a lot of the tension in the game as you never quite know what's being revealed each round. In addition, kill off an opponents rabbits and they can't use any weapons that come through their run this turn - that nuclear warhead they planted two turns ago will simply go to waste.
The game was a blast. Absolute mayhem left and right. We had bunnies growing everywhere, with many being mauled and cut down before they could even lift a finger in defence. Alien abductions were far from uncommon and, at one particularly bizarre point in the game, a cybernetic robo-bunny was unleashed who travelled from player to player killing off one rabbit each turn. That was bad enough and then someone played a heavenly-halo card on him, making this robotic nightmare invincible (a move we are still debating the legality of, but it's narrative value was agreed by all). Somehow, between all this death and mayhem we managed to buy up all the carrots at the market and the game was over. Time to see who won.
Each of the carrot cards you buy in the game have a corresponding set of mini-cards that are used to determine the winner. These are shuffled at the start of the game and the card that ends up on the bottom is the magic carrot - to be revealed at the end.
All well and good...yes, it is essentially a lottery and total random luck, but in theory every extra carrot you buy increases your chances. However, in a shrewd marketing move, the game includes a four additional carrot cards corresponding to future expansions (Carrots 16-20). The base game has 12 carrots.
So the net effect of this was that, while my gaming buddies and I had 16 carrots to choose from at the shop, only 12 of these carrots even stood a chance of winning. As we did the countdown at the end revealing all the mini-carrot cards from top to bottom, progressively ruling out the non-winning carrots, you can imagine what happened.
All well and good...yes, it is essentially a lottery and total random luck, but in theory every extra carrot you buy increases your chances. However, in a shrewd marketing move, the game includes a four additional carrot cards corresponding to future expansions (Carrots 16-20). The base game has 12 carrots.
So the net effect of this was that, while my gaming buddies and I had 16 carrots to choose from at the shop, only 12 of these carrots even stood a chance of winning. As we did the countdown at the end revealing all the mini-carrot cards from top to bottom, progressively ruling out the non-winning carrots, you can imagine what happened.
As carrots ranging between 1-12 were being ruled out, those who had unknowingly brought carrots numbered from 16-20 for future expansions all got their hopes up...only to find that not only did they not win, they never had a chance of winning because the corresponding mini-cards for those carrots are out there in a future expansion somewhere!!
The final cherry on the cake was that the final card to be revealed as the magic carrot happened to be carrot #11...a carrot I happened to hold.
The final cherry on the cake was that the final card to be revealed as the magic carrot happened to be carrot #11...a carrot I happened to hold.
Take some open wounds...add salt...
My colleagues felt cheated, ripped off, swindled and then backstabbed. Exactly what you want in a good game experience I say. I congratulated myself on a well-deserved victory and quickly moved us on to the next game of the evening. The salt in the wounds still lingers.
My colleagues felt cheated, ripped off, swindled and then backstabbed. Exactly what you want in a good game experience I say. I congratulated myself on a well-deserved victory and quickly moved us on to the next game of the evening. The salt in the wounds still lingers.
I think Killer Bunnies is a blast. Next time I'll concede to only including carrot cards that actually have a chance of victory, but in actual fact what you'll remember about this game is not who actually won, but all the epic moments you brought painful, terrifying destruction to those cute little bunnies. And if that isn't a great way to end a working week I don't know what is!