Although I have played many fun, silly card games since, notably Chez Geek and Munchkin, my favorite is still Hilary’s Toy Box/Flying Buffalo’s Plague & Pestilence, vintage 1993. It is a simple game–alas, no expansions–for 2-6 players. The set doesn’t have any age guidelines but our teens played it in elementary school. As the name implies, it is inspired by the Black Plague (bubonic plague, Yersinia pestis) epidemics that devastated medieval Europe. The object of P&P is to be the last player with surviving population. So it’s a ghoulish theme. How is that a problem today when you can find Zombie Apocalypse ANYthing–from parody motivational posters to inspirational/religious books?
The game consists of 2 Death Dice (six-siders with the 1 replaced by a death’s head, but you can use regular ones), 64 Population cards and 70 game cards of various types. Each player gets 50 Population Points’ worth of cards plus a reference card to start and is dealt 5 playing cards. The remaining playing cards will be drawn from as part of turns. The game has 2 phases, Prosperity and Plague. During the first, dice rolls increase everyone’s population; in the second phase–starting when a player draws the Death Ship card–it decreases it. Many playing cards decrease or increase population regardless of phase.
Turns in both phases follow the same routine: Make a dice roll to increase/decrease population, draw enough cards to have 6 in hand, play or discard 1 playing card. Playing cards offer Improvements (aqueducts, city walls, etc.); Action cards, good & bad, to play on yourself or another character; and Counter, to affect certain just-played cards. There aren’t really any tactics for P&P beyond “Team up, if you must, in the early Plague Phase to kill off frontrunner, but near endgame, it’s everyone for him or herself.” This tactic is a lot of fun. Most games we play everyone is either laughing or snarking the whole time. “Die, darn you!” “Boo hoo, you started a war with me!” “If only you knew what I have in my hand to play against you next turn!”
Now the bad news. This gem has been out of print for years. Chessex, best known for dice, has been saying for years that they were reprinting P&P. The Games page of their website says “Project on hold.” I have also found a number of games discussion forums with posts speculating the company is no longer in business and their site looks out of date to me. It isn’t even easy to find used copies. I found a few listings online but most noted “Sold Out” and one had a list price of $100. Posters on some forums reported lucking out and finding copies at thrift shops or yard sales. I guess the moral of the story is Keep ALL Your Games No Matter How Many Times You Move–Or How Many New Games You Just Bought!
Now I feel very lucky we kept our set. Which we do bring to cons. So you can still play–just bring beer/soda and pretzels. Or chocolate.
Linda Whitson
Latest posts by Linda Whitson (see all)
- Astral Projections – The Ripperdoc Is In - May 8, 2023
