#17/52. A Game a Friend Recommended: Nefarious

Nefarious is a game where each of the participants is a Mad Scientist whose clever inventions have been snubbed by society and is left with no other recourse but to take over the world (of course!). Naturally, you are in a race to take over the world before your other Mad Scientists do, but why not make a bit of cash off of what they are doing while you're at it?


I bought this game from a casual gaming acquaintaince, Jason, at ConQuest Avalon 2015's Flea Market. He has sold us a few of his games and thought this one might be right up our alley. He was right. Mark and I have played this several times since getting it, both together and with friends, and it's been a hit each time.


For the 2016 52 Game Challenge, Mark and I played this at our Tuesday night game group with our friend, Dwayne, and game group members Erik, and Dee on Tuesday, January 5th, 2016.


In each turn you make a decision about what you are going to do:

1. Speculate
2. Invent
3. Research
4. Work

Speculate allows you to place your minions on one of the four areas of the of the board. This allows you to collect money when either of your neighbors does that task on future turns. As long as you have a minion meeple on that area, you get paid for your neighbor's actions.


Invent allows you to launch an invention card from the cards in your hand out into the world. These are your ingenious ideas that will help you to take over the world. Not only do these inventions get you victory points (by proving your masterful genius of course), but they can also gain you benefits and hurt your competition...sometimes. They can also sometimes benefit your competition. For example, the Mind Control Satellite costs 3 bags of money to build (more on getting money soon), gives 3 victory points (VPs) (first one to 20 VPs wins), allows you to place a minion on your game board for free, and requires your competition to remove one of their minions from their boards. On the other side, the Re-Animator costs 19 bags of money to build, gives you 7 VP, gives you no additional benefits, and gives your competition 2 bags of money each.


Research allows you to collect two bags of money and pull an Invention card from the draw pile. This is where you and your minions are trying to come up with your clever ideas and are drawing up the blue prints. It's also one way to earn money.


Work earns you 4 bags of money. This is where you and your minions are turning your blue prints into reality.

Nefarious Player Board

The theme of this game permeates the components. The secret lair is a cave on the bottom of the player's board. The minions are hunchbacked meeples. The cards use a brightly colored mid-century modern design motiff which harkens back to the B-movie serials of the 1950s.


Additionally, I think this would make a great gateway game for those that are not into board gaming, but would like to play something different from the usual mass market games. It's easy to both teach and learn.


Side Note: It looks like this game got sold to USAopoly who has changed the artwork and some of the cards. In my opinion, and just from looking at it online, this is NOT an improvement. My copy appears to have been published by Ascora Games. It's too bad that USAopoly did not stick with the original artwork and vision of Donald X. Vaccarino, the creator of the game. It really looks like it's lost something. If you can pick up a copy with a box top that looks like the picture above, I highly recommend it.