Wanted Wombats
Designed by: Kaya Miyano
Wanted Wombats is an extremely silly game of not just pushing your luck, but having any at all, as you speculate to accumulate in the most optimistic of ways.
The game consists of a deck of cards that get shuffled before play begins. In the deck are multiple $1k cards, a few less $3k cards, a smattering of $5k and a mere two of the saliva-inducing $10k. The goal is to gather $15k in total – and instantly win – but this is done largely in hope. On your turn you simply predict – or guess – what the top card will be, and flip it over. If you’re wrong, your turn is over!
If you’re right, you keep the card and choose whether to stick or twist: the catch being that if you guess again and guess wrong, you’ll lose all cards you gathered on the current turn. If a $10k card is revealed (and not predicted), or if the deck ever reaches the last card, all the discarded cash gets shuffled into a new draw deck, and play continues until someone hits the magic $15k mark – which usually takes less than ten minutes.
The only other rule that if you successfully claim three $1k cards on the same turn, they collectively become worth $5k instead. That’s it!
Sam says
Except that’s not it, because although calling Wanted Wombats a lottery would feel largely accurate, keeping a vague tally of what higher value cards have come out also makes it something of a memory game – still a determinedly silly one, but it plays a part. If there are only a few cards left it pays (or can pay) to know one of them is a $5, for example. If there’s a $10k in there, you can almost guarantee that everyone will be hopefully calling $10k on their turn, and therefore the game feels like a bit of a dumb idea. But it is deliberately dumb, and absolutely aimed at folks who enjoy the ten minutes of silliness it produces. It might not be elegant, strategic, or tactical, but I’ve heard a lot of wombat-related laughter when it gets played.
Note that the Check Availability button here leads to the publisher’s website.
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Take That!
There’s no stealing, only absurd gambles.
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Fidget Factor!
It’s a fast-moving game, and anyone pondering excessively should be reminded of that!
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Brain Burn!
There is barely a brain.
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Again Again!
Maybe not repeatedly within a 24 hour timespan, but WW certainly merits the odd visit to the table, when people just want some card-flipping fun.
