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Our once great Empire was struck by a devastating plague… will you answer the call to save it?
Once standing tall and great, we now need to rediscover and rebuild our fallen cities. There are still survivors among the ruins – we must take them in our care and cure them. In order to stay ahead of the plague, we must implement new inventions and technologies. Our influence will expand as we rebuild, but the plague will still lurk in the shadows, ready to strike when we least expect it. Once it does, it will be difficult to adapt, but we will survive. In addition to the procurement of important resources, our imperative will be to get the plague under control.
In Pest, players slip into the roles of leaders of the ruling houses of a once great empire that was struck by a cataclysmic plague. The plague has left much of the empire in ruins, so now it is up to the players to restore it to its former glory.
Pest is played in 6 rounds. Each round before players take their turn, a plague card will be revealed which shows how the plague will spread in that round. On their turn, players will be able to select among many actions on their player board using a unique action selection system. Thus, players will be able to move their containment team on the board, quarantine and cure infected people, rebuild, assign workers, harvest for resources, and more.
As their house influence grows, players will be able to play more actions, generate more resources, and house more people. This will bring forth new technological advancements which are much needed to get the plague under control.
The game ends after the 6 round is over and players count their final amount of Renown (victory points). The player with the most Renown is the winner and declared the savior of the empire!
—description from the publisher
Typeset
- Magnetic box and compact, accessible packaging
- Clear, quick rules booklet for fast setup and play
- Letter distribution mat helps players see available letters and plan ahead
- Supports up to six players, good for group play
- Solo mode with a defined goal (more than 40 points) and a fixed usage of abilities
- Presents as a low-friction, coffee-table word game suitable for mornings
- Would benefit from a drawstring bag for tiles (current draw method is less convenient)
- Word construction and letter manipulation with a focus on vocabulary and quick strategic decisions.
- Casual in-home word game with a shared board and drawn letter tiles, played in rounds.
- Abstract, puzzle/word-building emphasis with light thematic framing.
- Wordle
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Ability cards — Each player picks one ability card for the game; it can be used up to three times and can grant bonuses or advantages.
- bonus tokens — Dots on the board and other conditions grant bonus letters or extra benefits as players progress.
- Compound Scoring — Ending with incomplete words or making placement errors can incur negative points; penalties encourage careful planning.
- end game bonuses — Dots on the board and other conditions grant bonus letters or extra benefits as players progress.
- round-based progression — After each round, players can stop to score or continue to the next round, with the rule that all five new letters must be placed if continuing.
- scoring penalties — Ending with incomplete words or making placement errors can incur negative points; penalties encourage careful planning.
- tile-drawing — Five letters are drawn each round from a predefined distribution; rare letters appear less frequently.
- vowel management — Vowel tiles can be used anytime but cross off when used; completing each vowel yields potential bonuses.
- wild letters — Using certain rare letters can contribute toward earning a wild tile; wild letters must be placed immediately when drawn.
- Word building — Placed letters must go into the leftmost available slot of the row being formed.
- word-placement — Placed letters must go into the leftmost available slot of the row being formed.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Yes, I absolutely want to try that.
- I love a magnetic box and I like that then this is like the quick rules so you can just have that laid out for everyone to see.
- the only drawback is I wish that these letters came in like a bag so I could pull them out.
References (from this video)
- Interesting theme
- Quest-based gameplay
- Potential design flaws
- Can get stuck due to random luck
- Plague doctor adventure
- Plague-era world
- Solo dungeon crawl
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Quest Completion — Fight monsters, complete missions, gain abilities
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I want to make sure the games I own actually get played more often and that means letting some of them go, even if it hurts.
- In each episode of the series, I'll show you four games for my to sell pile.