Awkward Arms & Armor Preview: Bizarre Weapons and Quirky Monsters

Which would you choose to defeat the cow king: a perky trident of prodding? Or a never-ending boomerang of poking?

Currently on Kickstarter, the self-dubbed "(im)mature party game" Awkward Arms & Armor brings a little something new to the game table with a cross of dungeon crawler and party game.

Gameplay

There are four decks of cards: prefixes, weapons, suffixes, and monsters. Each player draws three cards from each deck except the monster deck. Each player then rolls a die to see which of the six weak spots (such as arm or head) is theirs for the game.

Each round, one player is the combatant and draws a monster card. The monster card shows hit points, the number of points it is worth if defeated, and its weak spot. The remaining players all craft a weapon using one weapon, prefix, and suffix card.

The combatant will then read the created weapons and choose which one he finds the most amusing. The player who crafted the weapon will receive the number of points shown on the monster card (which can sometimes be negative points if it is a monster you don’t want to defeat).

Next, the combatant chooses which weapon he will be taking into battle against the monster (this can be the weapon that was chosen to be the most amusing but does not have to be). Each weapon card shows how many dice are rolled if it is taken into combat. The combatant rolls these dice. If he rolls equal or more of the monster’s weak spot as the monster has hit points, the monster is defeated. Each weapon also awards a bonus for two types of weak spots if either matches the monster’s. If you rolled at least one of the monster’s weak spot, you add the bonus, and if the result equals or exceeds the monster’s hit points, the monster is defeated. However, if you do not roll any of the monster’s weak spot, the combatant loses.

If the monster is defeated, the combatant and the player who created the weapon earns the points shown on the monster card. Otherwise, the monster rolls all six dice and the combatant loses one hit point for each result of his own personal weak spot that is rolled.

There are also boss monster cards. When drawn, each player creates their own weapon to use and begins to take turns attacking the boss monster once. If the monster is defeated, the player who dealt the most damage earns points while any player who dealt no damage loses them. If the boss monster is not defeated, it attacks all players.

At the end of each round, players draw back up to their full hand size. Play continues until someone reaches an agreed upon number of points and wins the game.

Review

Awkward Arms & Armor is a unique blend. There are plenty of party games where one player is the judge each round, and the remaining players select one or more cards to submit anonymously to meet some kind of criteria in hopes of being judged the funniest or the cleverest. But Awkward Arms & Armor takes this a step further with a dungeon crawl theme.

The combatant doesn't merely pick the one they consider the funniest, but actually has to choose a weapon to do battle with, as well. Since different weapons are good against different weaknesses, you don't only have to consider the silliest combination of cards when creating a weapon to submit to the combatant, you also have to consider which weapon card is most effective against the monster in question, and this in turn can affect which suffix and prefix cards will actually create something amusing with said weapon. But if you have the bad luck not to have any weapon card that is particularly effective against the monster, you can still make a push to win points with the most humorous weapon.

There are a lot of cards and a great deal of variety in them. After we finished our game, we went through the remaining monsters and weapons, just because we enjoyed seeing all the things the designer had come up with. The monsters in particular get extremely creative, ranging from clever puns to adorable and cute creature (some of the monsters worth negative points for defeating include a sleeping baby penguin and defenseless newborn puppies).

The game is rated for ages 14+ and some of the humor definitely lands in the PG-13 realm, which mostly consists of bathroom and crude humor rather than mature adult themes. Still, the game may not be for everyone, particularly younger kids.

A clever blend of standard party game and feather light combat, Awkward Arms & Armor feels like it brings something new to the genre and nicely combines its fantasy theme with party game mechanics. Check it out on Kickstarter and judge the combination for yourself.

Pros: Artwork and cards are creative, the combat is a great addition to standard party game mechanics

Cons: Some of the humor in the game will not be for everyone

Disclosure: this preview is based on our evaluation of an unpublished prototype of the game, which is subject to change prior to publication. While a modest payment was received to expedite the review process, our thoughts and opinions expressed here are honest and accurate.