Villainous (card/board game)

[Unorthodox]

I saw this on clearance after the C word and picked it up. 

You take the role of a Disney villain and try to accomplish your goal before the other villains. 

Each villain is unique, and the pre-made boards and decks (fate deck (hinders) and villain deck (your powers)) for each villain are unique and stay in character. 

Every villain also plays very differently.  We were playing Prince John, Maleficent, Cpt Hook, and Ursula last night. 

PJ was all about amassing power tokens, and while the other players playing heroes against John might slow him down or make him spend power, he also had many ways to capitalize on the heroes and gain extra/more power. 

Meanwhile Captain Hook is actively LOOKING for Peter, and stumbling over the other heroes in his fate deck in his path. 

Ursula is similarly looking for King trident, but gaining more and more power based on heroes she has binding contracts on.

And Maleficent is trying to curse her whole kingdom whilst being thwarted by various heroes. 

Not an easy game for younger kids, and it got confusing at times with a couple rules I'm not entirely sure how to interpret since the book is somewhat unclear.  (the answers were eventually found in an unorganized faq section instead of explained in the rules for a particular action...wtf) 

Fun and surprisingly deep.  I haven't played enough to know if there's a balance issue, however.  I hear there's an expansion/stand alone that adds 3 more characters as well, so I'm sure more such expansions are on the way.