I don't where to even start with this. The Name Trevor comes from a number of sources. In Welsh it derives from the words
Homestead or
Settlement (tre) and Big (fawr). So technically Bad Trevor means Bad Big House. It's ridiculous, silly and make no sense whatsoever.
I've known a few Trevor's in my time. My dad had a work colleague called Trevor who was one of those people who I remember having pile and pile of pirated spectrum games. Whatever you wanted, he could get it for you. They didn't always work and often the tapes lasted all of ten goes before they refused to load at all, or were chewed up by the tape machine. When games cost you a huge amount of your pocket money, then Trevor was your man. He wasn't being bad, he was kind of sticking it to the man. Nine times out of ten, you ended up having to buy the games anyway, but it gave you the chance to try before you buy. Like Chuckie Egg 2.
Similarly, I used to work with a Trevor, and we even did a car share thing and acted like grown up man children, cracking jokes and doing phone jacker impressions. He even had a film podcast for a bit which was incredibly funny, except for the parts where he made fun of my podcast by insinuating that playing board games somehow put you at arms length of being able to be in a relationship with someone. But that wasn't bad, that was more like just jokes. See, no badness here.
So when I'm sent an email telling me about a game all about being a Bad Trevor. then I'm like, first of all, you're wrong. Secondly, was Bad Steve not available? Or Evil Martin or Scheming Darren? Trevor is just so not Bad. Even if the cover art suggests red glowing eyes with malevolent intent. Merely just trying to keep the room lit with ambient light.
Gameplay itself is luckily not as disappointing as naming conventions. Bad Steve is like a version of Scabby Queen where players are trying to get rid their own hand of cards, and they do this through an 'I deal - you choose' mechanic. You deal three cards towards your opponent and they will select one to action. Your hand will be a mixture of hero, villain and civilian bystander cards. Civilians offer a pairing up opportunity when matching them with an identical card, you can remove them from your hand and add them to the central discard pile or reverse the flow of play. Those feeling lucky can even try to demand a match civilian card from another player to try to thin their deck further. Hero cards do helpful things and villain cards will do their best to scupper opponents plans. The catch being that at some point you'll have to be offering all types of cards as a choice whether you want to or not. Somewhere in the deck is the glowing visage of Bad Trevor and if you end up holding this card at the end of the game then you are the loser, but only in the mind of the game designers. Yes, I'm going to keep banging this drum.
At some point you'll decide to spice things up and can make an accusation using Kamikaze Kevin, where you will proclaim loudly to 'Take That Bad Trevor' and guess if one of the cards played is indeed the named protagonist. It's usually a bit of a shot in the dark and can mean you allow other players to leave the game early if you have guessed incorrectly. Adding the odds of only guessing one card often tips the risk reward in the wrong direction. Luckily it is more of a gimmick that a needed part of the game. Guessing correctly does give one of those moments of triumph regardless whether you win the game in the long run or not.
Bad Douglas shines when played in a noisy group where players are trying to persuade others to take particular cards and there is some attempt at player manipulation. The card art is unique and impressive thanks to Steve Penfold and it's tricky to draw your own versions of superpowered people when there is so much reference material out there and not accidently borrow from existing characters. I'm reminded a bit of the Marshall Law series of comic books which to me is no real bad thing. In that respect Bad Ethan nails what it is aiming for providing a theme that works and suits the overall mechanics of the game.
It's not a game that is going to spend years at the table and is suited to those wanting something to start the game evening off with a big of smack talking and loud noises, regardless of the game having the completely wrong name. Luckily there are only three Bad Trevor cards in the deck, and you only ever use one at a time, so nothing stopping you from doing some much needed renaming in order to give the game some much needed class. Such a shame because the glaring error, what you've got here is a solid casual card game with a theme that works well for what is on offer.
I'm hoping the designers have the time to reflect on their next project and at least try to spend some money on a big more imagination when it comes to the naming of the big bad. Bad Balthazar anyone?
Bad Trevor will be launching on Kickstarter in the future. Plenty of time to get that name sorted out.
This preview is based on the prototype version of the game provided to us by the designer and publisher. We were not paid for this preview. We give a general overview of the gameplay and so not all of the mechanical aspects of the game may be mentioned. Quotations from this preview may possibly appear in relation to any marketing associated with this game.
The majority of the games that we are play are going to take a reasonable number of sessions and playthroughs to fully understand every possibility that they offer. We hope this write up gives you an idea of whether or not this game is something that you will consider playing or even add to your collection.
Even if we don't like something, hopefully it helps you to decide if it is something that you should find out more about. We always suggest you check out a gameplay video to give you a better understanding of the game as it is played.
If you would like to support more content on the blog then please consider backing us on Patreon. www.patreon.com/werenotwizards
