It's called Gloom and the point of the game is to kill off all the members of your family (each player gets 5 family members) with the most total "pathos" points.
The dastardly means to do away with your miserable family are hilarious, but the best part of the game is that the rules encourage you to make up a story for the disasters that befall each character on the way to the grave. By the end of the game you've got yourself a short comic, horror tale on your hands.
I had so much fun with this game, which had the unexpected bonus of making me flex writerly muscles, that I began to wonder:
What types of activities tap into our writer identities but aren't actually writing?
Any favorites you'd like to share?
