Arcane Wonders, Goodcritters - A Game of Animals, Heists, and Loot - for 4 to 8 Players, Ages 12+

(to see explanation of picture diagram for augmenting the game box, scroll down to the next section)First off, this is a fun little bluffing game you can play with 4 to 8 players. You are all part of a gang of thieves that just pulled off a heist, now it's time to decide how to split the loot. One player is chosen to be "The Boss". The Boss begins by revealing "Loot" cards. Each Loot card has a cash value $ on it showing how much it's worth. The Boss then decides how to split up those Loot cards among all the players. They aren't obligated to give everyone a Loot card, they could try and split it as evenly as possible, take it all for themselves, the choice is entirely up to them.Once they've made their choices, the next phase begins. Players must now decide how they feel about this Loot distribution using "Action" cards.*They can play the "Yes" action card if they approve of the Boss' decision, and want the Loot promised to them.*They can play the "No" action card if they don't approve of the Boss' decision, and want the current Boss fired and the Loot to be redistributed.*They can play the "Skim" action card to try and be sneaky and snag a free Loot card from the top of the Loot Deck. The catch is that only the first player to play this action each round gets that Loot card, the rest get nothing for their trouble.*They may play the "Rob" action card to try and Rob the player they are threatening. At any time you may move your character's Threat Marker to someone else's area, this means you're threatening them, and may possibly be playing the Rob card to steal from them. You may place your Threat Marker without having to play the Rob card, it's a threat that may be hollow. If you do successfully Rob someone, you steal 1 Loot card from them randomly.*They may play the "Guard" action card if they feel like a player that is threatening them may Rob them. If they would be Robbed, they turn the tables by stealing a Loot card from the person attempting to Rob them instead.During this phase, players can place an Action card facedown in front of them based on what they want to do. At any time before this phase ends they can change their mind and swap what Action card they want to play. Players can also make Bribes to others using Loot and/or bribe cash to try and get them to vote a certain way. When all players agree that they've made up their minds, starting with The Boss, they flip over their Action card and resolve it's effects.Once all players are done, Yes and No votes are tallied. If there are more Yes than No, the players collect their Loot distributed to them by the Boss, and the Boss remains the Boss. If there is a tie, Loot is distributed, but the Boss loses their position to the first player (clockwise from the Boss) to play a No card. If there are more No than Yes, the Loot is NOT distributed and is withheld into the next Round, where a new Boss is chosen (first player to play a No going clockwise from the Boss). The next Boss draws 2 Loot cards to add to the withheld Loot from the previous Round, and then begins distributing.These Rounds continue until "The Fuzz" card is drawn from the Loot Deck. The "Fuzz" being police that have come to break up your party. All players flee, and then count up their total Loot. When this happens the game is over. The player with the highest cash value in Loot wins!This is a very social game where talking to your fellow players is crucial to success. Will you form mutually beneficial alliances? Will you punk another player by threatening them into guarding when you never intended to Rob them in the first place? Will you make honorable or hollow promises in exchange for favors?(the next section is about the box design and how to potentially fix it)I almost took a Star off for how poorly designed the inside of the box is. Once you have all the tokens punched out of their sheets, you'll find there is no room to store everything in the box. Luckily, we had an X-ACTO knife handy and my wife made some thoughtful incisions. Shown in the picture: A) Rectangular Incision for holding Character Threat Markers and stands. B)Two different square incisions to place fingers in for ease of removing cards from their holding spaces. C) Another rectangular incision for holding Payoff Tokens. D) Rectangular incision for holding Bribe Cash.

This is a great game!! It works well with small and larger groups. The rules are easy and not difficult to understand. This is now our "go to" games at parties and game nights! tons of fun! highly recommend!!

Very simple party game which fun is based on the group's ability to roleplay their characters.

Our family loves games for family time. This one has been a huge hit. At first glance, it seems simple and you wonder why it would be fun but then as you play you see how the dynamics come together to create some really hilarious scenarios. I also love that it can play up to 8.

Excellent game! Quick to learn, and super fun to play. In my opinion, the best social game I've found thus far.

Between this and Histrio, I've been playing a lot of animal themed games with cutthroat mechanics. Goodcritters is a great bluffing and negotiation game with a lot of heart, fairly simple mechanics, and a high player capacity. It plays pretty quick, making it a good in between game. I played it with my family at a birthday party and had a lot of fun trying to out-guess them. Definitely recommend this one.

This game is great! Its easy to set up, teach, and play. You play a team of thieves (who look like unused characters from a Sly Cooper game) who have hustle pulled off a very lucrative heist. Now you're all at your hideout trying to divvy up the loot between you all, and well, thieves aren't known for being team players...You're trying to get a "bigger piece of the pie" then your opponents do, and you do this by being the sneakiest of the sneakies. This game is bluffing and negotiating all the way. Each round, a player plays the Big Boss, and its his/her job to divvy the available loot cards between the different players and themselves. Then the players in secret decide whether their happy with their cut (keeping their given loot cards), or think that they can do a better job themselves (reject their respective loot cards and elect a new boss). Also, players can try to steal loot from each other and from the unguarded loot pile.The game goes on until the cops bust in, which ends the game and final scores are tallied. Whichever thief has the highest total value out is the winner!This a great party and family game that really brings out the sneaky SOB in all of us. My only complaints is that you need at least 4 people to play. Also, this game forces you to be pretty mean to your opponents (you are crooks after all), but just keep reminding them its in good fun!This game comes with an "expansion" that allows you to bribe other players in the game. I haven't tried it yet, but I heard it's excellent). This game is easily affordable, can be played with anyone, and can be transported easily. Do you really need anymore reasons to check it out!

So far it's been great fun with a group of 6-7. It's fun to play the roles and start accusing others of mistrust to try and bump your share of the earnings. Like their other game Sheriff of Nottingham (which is also immensely fun) it's a bit of a social game where you have to talk the other players into giving you more money, or seeding mistrust towards other players. Great fun!