As of late, Erin and I have been digging more and more into board games such as Throw Throw Burrito, Pie Rats of the Carob Bean and many more. We’ve picked up so many lately, that we had to go out and purchase more shelves for our ever-growing inventory of tabletop games. Recently I’ve been seeing more and more awesome tabletop games go through my social media; one that really caught my eye was the card game Shady Pets, created by FireStorm Labs. Of course me being me, I reached out to Brian over at FireStorm Labs to learn more about the game leading up to its Kickstarter.
What is Shady Pets, you ask? It’s is game for ages 7 and up, with each game lasting around 20-25 minutes per game. On top of this, Shady Pets can be played with 2-5 players. This is a major plus when it comes to couples such as Erin and me that enjoy having time playing games meant for two people. Shady Pets itself is a highly strategic card game that will require you to play shady against other players, which we all know we’re all being shady during most games. This means you the player will need to correctly guess the identity of the mystery pets in each of the colored cardholder titled Shady Dog, Shady Cat, Shady Hamster, and Shady Reptile. The game itself, features 54 Action Cards, 32 Pet Cards, Score Sheets, and cardholders.
Now to give you a picture of how Shady Pets is, take the plotting and planning in Clue, and mix in the craziness of being able to betray and cause issues like Exploding Kittens. You’ll have to steal, take, show, sneak peek, expose, ambush, stop other players, grab and even throw an occasional octopus at an opponent on your way to victory. The instructions itself happen to be quite simple. Depending on how many players playing, you’ll start off by separating the Pet Cards from the Action Cards, and then separate the Pet Cards into the four groups: Dogs, Cats, Hamsters, and Reptiles. After doing so, you will shuffle each group by itself, pull one card without looking, and place it within the colored cardholder. You will then show players the remaining Pet Cards face-up on the table for all to view, but this depends on how many players are playing. For 2 players, 10 cards will be shown, 3 players see 8 cards, 4 players view 7 cards, and finally 5 players will only see 5 Pet Cards. The Pet Cards are all individually numbered, which will help you on your score sheet figure out which pet might be within the cardholder.
The game itself progresses clockwise around the table with the Youngest player going first. A turn in Shady Pets commences as a Player draws one card from the Draw Pile and then plays an Action Card face up and redeems its power or by Exposing one Pet Card on the table then draws one additional Action Card to end their turn. When it comes to Scoring, for any player ready to guess any of the Mystery Cards, they must start by revealing their intention at the start of the turn and announce the guess. After the player announces what one of the cards are, others will check their cards. Now may come the major plot twist to the game, that I did enjoy. This will grant another place a chance to expose the player to see if another player has the card you just announced might be in the Mystery Cardholder. If exposed that another player has the card the mistaken player will subtract the card’s point value from their score and lose the next turn. If no one reveals they have the card in question, you the player reveal the card within the cardholder. This will grant you points to help you win the game. The player can then guess the next card or pass the turn soon after.
As you can see, the game is quite simple, which is a major plus for families, couples or those with kids looking for a game to play. Shady Pets will be one game that Erin and I will bring with us to local conventions such as PAX, WV Popcon, and more to play, in addition to playing at home. We did enjoy our time as a two-player game, figuring out what pets are within the cardholders and plotting against each other. Pretty sure during our time, our cats kept exploring and wanted to join in. Adding more players into the mix is a major plus as it’ll provide even more fun and laughs and betrayal as everyone plays. Personally, if you’re looking for a fun game that will bring a smile to your face, then the price itself on Kickstarter will be well worth backing once live. On top of just the regular version of the game, Firestorm Labs will also have a NSFW version of the game. So if you’re an adult looking for something even funnier, you’ll want to back the level that includes the NSFW version and let your kids have the friendlier version.
Overall, for those of you with pets or even kids, Shady Pets will be one game you’ll want to back over at its Kickstarter located here. While my girl and I have played tons of card games, Shady Pets takes the cake for those with pets. Shady Pets offers a unique way of playing that makes a twist between Exploding Kittens and Clue ideas and makes it fun between two players and more. You can follow the games Twitter page here and its Facebook page here. Shady Pets goal is only $15,000, which is totally worth it and it has set marks to include early build specials of $20 for the base game, $40 if you’d like the NSFW version as well as one tier if you want to have your pet added to the game along with other bonuses. Soon as the Kickstarter goes live, you can expect us to back the game as well.
Disclaimer: A prototype of Shady Pets was provided for this preview by Firestorm Labs, you can check out its Kickstarter on Oct 1st, 2019!
