1982 Review
This review of GHOULASH™ appeared in the "Short Takes and First Impressions" column of the now-defunct ADVENTURE GAMING magazine (Vol. II, No. 3, Copyright 1982 by Manzakk Publishing Inc.). It was written by Timothy J. Kask, editor and publisher.
The first game you ought to know about and look into is called GHOULASH™. Subtitled "The Last Game on Earth," it is innovative, clever, and exciting fun.
The
game arrived last fall, in a rather unprepossessing white envelope
with simple graphics done in black of a shaggy "beastie" of some
sort. The designer, Michael A. Suchcicki, had enclosed an introducory
note declaring it to be "... an adventure-strategy game played entirely
on paper, without use of dice, spinners or moveable pieces of any
kind. It is a race between players to be the first to locate and
return with enough food to survive another day in a barren desolate
city. Lots of fun." "Sure..." I said to myself, and forgot about
it for a while, which proved to be my mistake.
I ran across it again almost a month later while rooting through a pile of "stuff" in the office, and stuck it in my briefcase. Well, it took a couple of weeks more before it worked its way to the top os my "stuff" pile at home. (I would say now that this proved that you can't keep a good game down.)
GHOULASH™ is deceptively simple and a lot of fun. It should get a "Sleeper of the Year" award from somebody, and desrves serious consideration for a Charlie for best amateur design. Trouble is, not enough people have seen it yet, as it appears to be strictly amateur, "basement company" operation at this point. Mr. Suchcicki's game deserves better, but might not get it because of the packaging, and poor distribution.
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This ad appeared in the same issue as the review. |
The game itself is great fun and simple to play. Each player is a survivor of some unnamed holocaust of the future. Our urban persona must find food and stash it away in his hidey-hole, while somehow avoiding scavengers and ghouls (now do you get the title?).
Both players start with two copies of the map of the playing area, which is a portion of the city on graph-ruled paper (sound familiar yet?); one of them is "his" map, the other is for the other player's layout. Each player takes the caches of food, ammo, flares, and first-aid kits that are in the game and distributes/hides them on the other player's map, in secret. He then spriinkles the map with holes to fall into, and spreads ghouls all over, usually near the food and supply caches. Once this has been done, the real fun begins.
Each player alternates as the exploring player. On his turn, the exploring player calls out his direction of movement, referring to his own (beginning) blank map. The other player, referring to his prepared map, informs the exploring player what he has or hasn't found. The players alternate turns. The first player to return 30 pounds of food to his hidey-hole wins.(Remember that introduction? I wonder what its like to have to eat thirty pounds of food each day?)
In my games, the discovery of a ghoul was always announced dramatially with something like "Aaaarrrghhhh!" or "Gggggrrrrr", or the like. Then the fight was on. Each ghoul is composed of six areas -- head, torso, two arms and two legs. The non-exploring player secretly designates some area as the vital zone of that particular ghoul prior to combat. In his turn, the exploring player announces a target area that he will shoot (if he has ammo, otherwise it's hand to hand with only a knife); if he hits the vital zone, the ghoul croaks, if not, the player takes a wound and selects another target area, and so on, until the ghoul dies. (In hand to hand, the player gets two wounds every time he guesses wrong.)
The element that makes this game so great has not been present in any game I've played in some time -- tense excitement (or exciting tension.) Remember those first few times you played TSR's D&D? The tension and excitement of discovery? The exhilaration of stumbling aroung in the dark (literally or figuratively) and somehow still surviving? The delicious thrill of having beaten both your own ignorance as well as the odds? Well, GHOULASH™ recaptures the wonder and excitement all over again.
Amazingly enough in this age of $20.00 (and more) games, GHOULASH™ is a real bargain. Each game comes with enough sheets and charts for ten two-player games. It is available from Mr. Suchcicki for $6.00, plus $2 for postage and handling, at (address). We can expect to see it in stores sometime because this game is too good to go away, nor should we let it.