Theme: Improve your Goth status amongst friends!
Company: Savant Guard
Type: Card Game
# of Players: 2 - 5
Avg. Game Time: 30 minutes
Rating: 

   Ken Says: The subtitle says it all, "The Most Pretentious Card Game Ever!".  Gother Than Thou is a simple game with a humorous concept.  The objective is simple, be the first player to reach twenty goth points so you can declare yourself "Gother Than Thou!".
   The single deck of cards contains up to three values in positive or negative numbers:
Goth Points -  The more you have, the more likely you are to win.
Sickness - Each negative sickness point reduces your hand by one.  If you reach five, you "Swoon" and loose all the cards in your fate area.
Money - A player with a positive cash flow (at least zero) may draw cards from the discard pile, as well as the deck.
   Each player begins with five cards.  The first player removes a card from his or her "Fate Area" (located in front of each player), then places one card from their hand into each players' fate area, including their own.  Then, the player draws until they have five cards in their hand, minus one for each sickness point.
   The real humor of this game is in the card photos.  From his look of disdain in "Up Before Noon",  or the Fedora wearing goth who unfortunately has a "Disturbing Southern Accent",  each photo is very funny and nicely done.  One particularly hilarious card is called "Genital Piercing",  in which we see a man showing off his new wares (from behind, thank goodness) to his hysterical friends.  While we cannot see much, it does appear that he's sporting a new tow chain.

Pros: Light, easy to learn.  This is the kind of game you can play on your lunch break or at the club.  The photos on the cards are nicely done and it shows how much fun the producers of this game had in making it.  If anything else, I'm sure that the concept alone will keep you chuckling for a while.

Cons: After you're done chuckling, this game will probably sit on the shelf.  The game mechanics do not allow for any long term strategy and the luck of the draw will oftentimes decide the winner.

Addendum: For an independent production, this game has sold well enough for a second edition.

Ken Says: