Captain Anorak's Guide to Gaming
The Hills Rise Wild!
The Hills Rise Wild! is a boardgame by Pagan Publishing. Ech player plays one 'clan' of murderous magic-using hillbillies or other inbred backwater degenerates, who are competing to lay ahold of the dreaded Necronomicon in order to summon their own eldritch extramundane god to this plane of existence. Four such clans exist in the game, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, such that overall they are balanced in power.

The game system works on rolling 1D20, adding various stats, and comparing the result to a table. High numbers are generally good for the player performing the action. In the most important roll (the combat roll) a natural 20 counts as a critical hit (you automatically inflict Brutal Damage) and a natural 1 counts as a critical failure (you injure yourself).

I first played this game with my business partner the Baron von Scott, who brought it over to my flat one day. We played a game of it, and to cut a long story short, I got thrashed. This was because the Baron kept on rolling 20 and I kept on rolling 1. This was happening a lot - not just once or twice. It reached a stages where every time it happened, we were chortling 'Oh fuck - it's happened again.' It just turned into a big joke because it happened so much.