Gloom is the game of death, despair and depression. In this innovative card game, you assume control of a family of hard-luck individuals with the aim to make their lives more miserable. Each turn, you play cards on your family members to decrease their self-esteem while your opponent attempts to raise them with fruitful, life fulfilling events like true love. At the end, you need to make sure your characters have the most untimely, miserable death to gain points.In Gloom, players pick a family of 5 miserable individuals whose lives need to be made worst. With a card hand of 5, each turn players play 2 cards onto their or their opponents family member, making their lives more miserable or providing a ray of sunshine. Most cards have a number of pathos points available, pathos points being available in common, uncommon and rare amounts. The goal is to pile on as many negative pathos points as possible, being careful not to block out points of earlier cards (thus the 3 levels) while playing happy instances on your opponents family members. Gloom is printed on transparent plastic cards that may be laid on top of one another, quickly allowing you to sum up Pathos points at any time in the game. The winner is whoever has the most number of pathos points - but only dead family members count!
