Title: Pugs in Mugs
Created By: Laurie Blake and Stuart Lawrence
Art By: Rob Ingle
Published By: Stop, Drop and Roll Games
Released: on Kickstarter now (August 2020)
Player Count: 2-5
Time to Play: 20-45 Minutes
Pugs, pugs and more pugs. So many pugs that there is no way for you to reasonably take them all home with you. Do you leave some behind? No, they are all too cute; that wouldn't do. How can you possibly take home all their cuteness with only two hands? There is only one plausible solution to your predicament : put your pugs in mugs! It's much easier to carry them that way of course!
Pugs in Mugs is a light-weight, very easy to learn game for 2-5 players. The goal of Pugs in Mugs is to collect one pug in each of the 5 colored mugs.The rules are easy to understand and can be learned in a matter of minutes. To start, simply separate the Draw Deck from the Mug Deck and give each player two cards. On their turn, players take two of the following actions:
Draw a card - pick one card from the draw pile
Play a Mischief card - there are three types of Mischief cards: Gimme, Dig and Surprise. Gimme lets you ask a player for a card of a certain color or a mischief card and if the person has it they have to give it to you. Dig lets you name a color or Mischief card and search through the discard pile for it. If found, you add it to your hand. Surprise let's you disrupt another player. You can play the surprise card at any time and that player must discard a random card from their hand. As Surprise cards never count as one of your two actions, you can use them on your turn as a bonus action or even play them on another players turn to really mess things up!
Exchange pugs for a Mug - discard three of the same color pug cards and collect a matching Mug card
Steal a Mug - discard one card of each color and steal a Mug card from an opponent of your choice.
Pugs in Mugs is that simple! Players continue taking turns completing actions until one player has one mug of each color. That person is the luckiest of winners, with all their new pugs!
We had a blast playing Pugs in Mugs. For starters the artworks is phenomenal. Every pug card has it's own art, and then each pug has it's own Mug card too. The art cover a wide variety of different looking pups in all colors, wearing adorable outfits and doing fun things. Some of our personal favorites were the pug who just wanted to eat a pickle, the pug living their best life as a mermaid (merpug?!), the superhero pug with wheels and the pug enjoying some time on a sled. Visually, the game is really appealing and add to the enjoyment of playing it. We cannot stress enough how wonderful the art is. The fact that every single card contains a different pug, and we aren't just talking the same pug in different colors, we mean totally different art, enhances the game a lot.
Another great thing about Pugs in Mugs is that it has limited language dependence. The only cards with text are the Mischief cards, which makes it easy to play for families with young children or for English language learners. The cards also have symbol icons to help people who are color blind differentiate between the different color pug cards. We love when creators focus on accessibility in games, so this was awesome!
While we are on the subject of Mischief cards, we need to talk about how much fun the "Surprise" cards are. As a reminder, Surprise cards allow the player using the card to randomly discard a card from another players hand. Surprise cards add a "Take That" element to Pugs in Mugs, and gives players a chance to mess with each other in a lighthearted manner. As these cards can be played at any point in the game (even if it is not your turn), we had too much fun playing them just as someone was about to do something big on their turn. Our whole group would crack up anytime someone shouted "Surprise" and slapped down the card. They truly add something hysterical to Pugs in Mugs and are sure to lead to lots of laughs during your game nights.
Overall, we really enjoyed playing Pugs in Mugs and think it is a great game for people looking for a simple, fun game that has awesome art, minimal downtime between turns, and just the right amount of friendly competition built in. It is also small and easy to carry on the go, making it the perfect game for picnics, vacations or to play while at Grandma's! Our recommendation is that Pugs in Mugs would be great for players who like Uno, Skipbo, or Go Fish. Pugs in Mugs will easily become a family favorite and go to game, especially for animal lovers.
At the time this review is being published (8.18.2020), Pugs in Mugs is live on Kickstarter. You an go to their page and help the creators bring these little pugs to life! If you want to try out Pugs in Mugs before backing, you can play for FREE on Tabletopia right now!
Our Pudgy Cat even had thoughts on Pugs in Mugs. She was so intrigued by the game that she hopped right up into the light box to play with the cards. This was the face she made when we asked her to remove herself so we could continue taking photos. Clearly, someone was not done with her own playtesting.
Comments