BAD MEDICINE

There is a type of game where players have to pitch an idea or product to the other players, getting them to select what they pitch as the best.  Bad Medicine from Formal Ferret Games is such a game, for 3-8 players, and it's all about promoting the best, funniest pharmaceuticals to one's opponents to score the most points.

The person who most recently swallowed a pill goes first.  Players get a hand of seven cards, and at the top of the card is a one- or two- syllable word.  Underneath that is the Descriptor, a generally positive word or phrase.  And underneath that is a Side Effect.  For the first turn, a random card is placed under a Malady card so the Side Effect is showing.  Side Effects can be devastating, bizarre and humorous -- conviction that wood tastes good, permanently crossed eyes, inability to turn left -- and this Malady is the problem each player is trying to cure with their drug.

Each player (or team of players, with 5-8 players) uses the cards in their had to create a wonder drug to cure the Malady.  Three cards are used simply to give the drug a pseudo-scientific name.  The player/team then uses two more cards' Descriptors, explaining to all the other players how those benefits will take care of the problem.  This is the really fun part of the game, as logic and reasoning is often stretched pretty far to explain the benefits of, say, enamel, nerve endings, or articulation.

But the turn isn't done yet.  After the pitch, every other player/team passes a card to the current player/team -- and that player/team has to incorporate the Side Effect from one of those cards into their pitch, usually minimizing its bad effects or even explaining why it's a good thing.  And the player/team whose Side Effect was used gets a point.

When the pitch is done, players draw back up to seven cards, the next player/team clockwise makes their pitch, and this repeats until everyone has gone.  Then everyone votes for their favorite drug -- they can't vote for their own -- earning two points for each vote.  The Side Effect for the winning drug becomes the new Malady (if two or more drugs tie, all their Side Effects are used) and the next turn begins.  After three turns, whoever has the most points wins!

Bad Medicine is a simple party game that's also a lot of fun.  Anyone who's dealt with numerous medicines can relate to the long, often nonsensical names players will come up with for their drugs.  (It is hard not to hear "Cthuh" and think of "Cthulhu" or "Nyuk" and be reminded of the Three Stooges.)  The different Side Effects are varied, weird, and funny, providing plenty of fodder for treatment.  And those treatments vary from the far-fetched to actually curing the Malady.

This game does require a certain charisma and persuasiveness among its players (one poor player had little energy and never scored a single point), and cutthroat players can keep track of points to not vote for whoever's ahead and deny them the win.  But for those who get in the spirit of the game, Bad Medicine will prove a lot of fun, with silliness and and a good deal of replayability.

Overall grade: B+
Reviewed by James Lynch