Jungle Speed

[jducoeur]

[Pardon the burblage -- I'm snowed-in for now, and not having her here to talk to is one of the harder bits.]

One of the rather scary highlights of Birkacon this year was accidentally discovering the game Jungle Speed. It's rather delightful in a violent sort of way: a party game for when everyone is keyed up. (And possibly somewhat drunk.) I commend the rules to you: it's quick and easy to learn, and is almost how we played it. (Except that, this being Birka, the civilized rules about how to conduct duels went out the window -- we had people conducting tickle fights, pulling each other across the table, and pretty much any other underhanded approach we could think of to win. Ryan McWhyte wound up particularly battered by the end of the evening.)

Anyway, I've ordered a copy, and will likely bring it to some appropriate gaming occasions. It's a fine addition to the set of "games that can be played by more than six people" collection...

Comments

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

Oh! We played that at KWCS! There were bruises involved! (No blood by the point I left, but bruises and I think I remember evilnicola being pulled completely across the table...)

[mermaidlady]

So this had northing to do with you losing Yevsha's peerage?

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

Not a thing. That was in the bar, with Duchess Anna. There was beer for me, and tequila for her. She found cards while digging through her basket looking for a pony for me.

[evilnicola.livejournal.com]

I played with that crew once. Konrad, who was king at the time, dragged me across a table, flipped me over onto my back, and then, when I finally let go of the totem, went to help me up while standing on my hair. It was a fun time.

The civilized rules never apply when this game is played in the SCA, as far as I can tell.

[jducoeur]

Yeah, Konrad came in for a little while. But as it turned out, the greater arm and upper-body strength of the guys was more than made up for by the cunning and sheer bloodthirstiness of the ladies. (And reflexes: some of the women playing that game are *damned* fast...)

[janeelliot.livejournal.com]

Emeline (the lady at Birka who kept winning almost every game) introduced me to this game. It's vicious, sometimes bloody, and a great deal of fun. I bought a set when I moved to Maine so I can introduce it to the North.

[rocksryan.livejournal.com]

i didn't end up TOO beaten... even though EMILINE BIT ME! nails scratching, hips rolling, pulling people across the tables... I love that game. I had heard the stories from Nikki and was initially quite wary of playing, but too fun not to play

heheheheheheheee..

Also I was the only person able to out-wrestle Emeline for the totem.

Huzzah for upper body stength, 300 lbs of inertia, and forearms built to throw heavy wrap shots.

[mewilliamson.livejournal.com]

that game is vicious, even with the civilized duel rules in effect. I've played it with a different crowd, and had people end up with bloody fingernail shaped stab wounds in hands. not quite my cup of tea (mostly from the beating your hand tends to take) but a pretty good game.

[mikekn]

Love Jungle Speed. We usually enforce the one-hand rule by requiring a drink to be in the other hand...

Wait until you try it with the expansion cards - they are evil :)

[liamstliam.livejournal.com]

Justin: I watched the whole thing so joyously.

You came into the room, I said hello, and you said "Are they playing a game?"

I said yes, and you said. "What game is this?"

It was like a kitten finding a ball of yarn.

Next thing I knew, you were at the end of the table playing.

[jducoeur]

To be fair, it took a good 20 minutes before I started playing. (Partly because one of the rules is unobvious enough that it confused me for most of that time, and partly because it seemed inappropriate to start playing until I'd had a full beer...)

[liamstliam.livejournal.com]

I had left the room and come back. ;)

[nomadmwe.livejournal.com]

So I'm sitting on the couch watching people play the game, and I notice Justin is standing there, too. He's maybe a foot back from the table, and he has this look on his face as he's watching the gameplay. It was a great look. I know that look.

He wasn't just watching, or trying to figure out how to play, it looked like he was trying to learn to game the game.

It was hysterical to see on someone else. :D

[jducoeur]

I wouldn't quite call it gaming the game. But I'm usually not going to start until I at least feel like I have *some* understanding of how to win.

(As it happens, the main lesson from playing is that I need to play more: I'd bet that doing really well requires enough practice to be able to recognize the fine nuances of the shapes more quickly...)

[nomadmwe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it seems that a very specific pattern recognition is key for this game. Also, wrestling. That seemed to be important as well.

Maybe not gaming the game to a huge extent, but there was concentration there, and more than just, "hey, how does this work here" going on. :D

[jducoeur]

It's a very special form of wrestling, though. Reminds me a lot of spear-wrestling, albeit with an Eensy Weensy and Very Squishy spear. (And a lack of rules that would make the average Viking blush...)

[dulcinbradbury.livejournal.com]

Man I missed the fun stuff at Birka.

[dervishspin.livejournal.com]

This.

[jducoeur]

To be fair, the party in question was significantly louder, drunker and more crowded than is usually my preference. But having a game to play is always a fine way to get me into the swing of things...

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

You were outside the hall of this party, but I didn't see you come in, after I arrived. I figured you'd gone to bed.

I have to tell jducoeur where all the good parties are. It is explicitly written in our contract.

[jducoeur]

It is, and for good reason -- you are *way* better connected than I in such things...

[rocksryan.livejournal.com]

BAD protege!

hmmm... let me make a note to add that to Raffaella's duties for the next year...

[jducoeur]

No, no -- that's the good-protege part. (No, really -- I *did* write it into the contract...)

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

Why am I a bad protege? I got him to the party! It's dervishspin that didn't get dragged in.

We also have an unspoken agreement that I can neglect to tell him about the bad parties, like the one where I ended up drinking fermented goat's milk with a glow stick floating in it.

[jducoeur]

... let me make that more spoken then. You absolutely have permission to not tell me about those parties...

[laurion]

I enjoyed it the first few times, but found it broke down after a while. I suspect it is indeed an excellent game with a group of somewhat drunk/sugar high/sleep deprived people though!

I'll be picking up a copy of 7 Wonders soon which admirably plays with 3-7 people.

[jducoeur]

I'm curious: what did you find broke down? For me (and most of the table I was playing at), it was very much a potato-chips game -- very hard to stop playing game after game of it...

[laurion]

Partly it broke down because the penalties seemed wildly disproportionate at times, partly that it stopped being an interesting challenge. A bit like playing set with the person who has been playing it already for 15 years. It seemed to have a very heavy luck element, especially when given the fact that not grabbing on a match is a far better option than accidentally grabbing when it isn't a match. And it might be the case that playing with only 3 players is a degenerate case, and that it works much better with a fuller table.

[jducoeur]

I suspect the latter. We were playing with six, which seemed about the right size, and it didn't get even remotely dull for a couple of hours...