Steve Jackson Games: Chez Geek – House Party Edition

Publisher	Steve Jackson Games
Genre	Card
Number of Players	2 to 5
Play Time	1 hr
Initial Review Date	8/17/11
Last Updated	11/30/11
FAQ	Official FAQ
Files/Tools	Official Rules Glossary Card List

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This is a humorous card game that simulates living with roommates.  Your goal of course is to slack off the most before your roommates do.

Gameplay

So, in this game each player receives a job card which specifies how much income and free time you have each turn. Some jobs (like the drummer for example) have one or both of these as varible each turn (sometimes the drummer has a gig which eats up his free time). Additionally, the card specifies what your slack goal is. That is this is how many slack points you need in order to win.

Characters which receive more free time and/or income often have higher slack goals. So while it’s easier to play cards you need more of them to win.

In the game there are several types of cards you can play.

• Activities
• Purchasables
• People Cards
• Whenever Cards

Each of these cards is played in front of you and is considered to be “in your room”. Cards that are in your room affect you.

Activities

These cards can only be played during your turn (with the exception of TV cards). Each one takes up 1 free time and have a cost (many activities have a cost of 0). Each card is worth a certain amount of slack once played.

Activity cards however can always be replaced with TV cards played by other players. In this case the activity card you played is discarded and instead you receive the TV card. TV cards are always 1 slack and 0 cost. So, in this way a high slack activity can be replaced with one that gives very little.

Purchasables

These cards are an assortment of various items. Things like frozen dinners, microwaves, beer and smokes. All of these have a cost associated with them. You may go on a shopping trip, which takes only 1 free time and then play as many of these cards as you like provided that you have sufficient income to play them all.

People Cards

These cards are various people and animals that you can have come visit.  Like activity cards they can only be played on your turn.

Animals show up right away but Other people must be “called over”. This is done by rolling a six sided die. On a 3 or better they come over.  Otherwise they are discarded.

Now, there are some people who give slack and there are other people who give some kind of penalty while they are in your room.  The former you call into your room, whereas the latter you can call into other player’s rooms. The cards that give penalties often have some method of getting rid of that person or at least moving them to a different player’s room,
described on them.

Whenever Cards

These cards are exactly as they sound. Unlike the previous cards these can be played at any time and immediately take effect.

Winning

As previously mentioned you win by having cards in your room that add up to your slack goal. As soon as this occurs you win the game.

Conclusion

As the name suggests much of the activities and items are “geeky” in nature and so much of the humor is best appreciated by geeks. It is a fun quick little game though which doesn’t take long to play. If you enjoy the brand of humor found in other Steve Jackson games (like munchkin) then you’ll enjoy this one as well.