Should We Talk About Friendslop?
Its been a long day, after a long week, after a month that's felt like a very long year. You don't have a ton of bandwidth and neither do your friends, who have managed to gather despite the weather and the transit outages. None of you can stomach the thought of Root, as cute as it is complex, and the setup for Catan feels daunting even though you've done it dozens of times... Maybe tonight's the night for the game equivalent of popcorn: something low effort, but generally crowd pleasing. Enter the weird and wonderful genre of Friendslop.
Although the term is of relatively recent minting, Friendslop has appeared throughout the history of tabletop and virtual gaming, ready and willing to bridge the gap between those of us who are hardcore, and those who are not in fact hardcore. They're light enough in both the literal and cognitive load senses, and don't take too long to learn or play, so you can get your reps in and have some convo around the game. Recently, we redoubled our efforts on getting those very titles on our shelves, so if you're looking to do something active in the most passive sense of the word, maybe tune in. It could be worth your while.
Straight up, I'm not sure anyone actually knows how to play Monopoly, because the games never end and everyone's miserable by the end of it. What if the game ended in fifteen minutes, and the luck elements were actual rng that you could build choices out of. Why it took 73 years to make the game playable and fun is beyond me, but hey, at least they got around to it eventually.
Sometimes you need Uno, but want to feel like one of the mice from Flushed Away, swirling down the drain alongside other early aughts finger cross "gosh I hope we're a franchise someday" kids movies. Its like reverse Uno, but with more schadenfreude and art that makes you nostalgic for the early dot com boom.
"How do we boil down trick taking for the peasants?" she said neckily while eating her Marie Antoinette cake, "but we play with turn order and card draw to keep things interesting."
Have you ever wanted "theme + mechanic your mom will understand until she doesn't because there are too many bells and whistles and stomping feet on the frankensteinian game turn you've made by playing too many cards," but don't want to play Magic the Gathering? That's right! Fluxx is just the ticket with
Push your luck with dice shaped like pigs?! Its been a hit since the Ford administration, but now you can get it in inflatable, multi, bespoke, or big.
This and competitive cup stacking was all the rage in my fourth grade classroom. Turns out pattern recognition is super hype, and is a skill that loves being reinforced with the zen of eye and hand coordination.
Its SET but you roleplay as a wine mom the whole time. Remember, that's roleplay, not cosplay, (I mean, you can if you want to, I'm not the fun police, but also the average American has .2 Argyle sweaters, which is probably not enough for a decent Wine Mom cosplay, and I'm trying to spare your feelings. I don't want the other cosplayers to laugh at you again. Its embarrassing.)
Now I know what you're thinking: none of that sounded like endorsement. Why would you make a listicle trash-talking all of these games if they're things you aim to sell? Because sometimes dumb things are better, and funnier when you accept that you're an adult who's brain is cooked, and that you're taking shelter with your pals around a game designed for ages 6+. Its the same joy you get while watching bad movies, heckling them in the dark with strangers, elevating a simple thing by filling in its negative space with your laughter. You're allowed to have fun with whatever you want, and engage with media and activities on axis that bring you joy, especially when the universe tries to dump heavy everything on your heads in every waking second.
Have fun. Be dumb. Bone a petit. Until next time, French Fry <3<3<3
xxx
Ben Doane has been a member of the Pandemonium Team since 2019, and has been playing wargames, rpgs, and tcgs since 2004 and earlier. When not blogging, Ben runs the wargames and mailing departments, and also puts together the store's newsletters. Her current favorite game is Knight Forlorn.