This is a modded version of Palace, also known as Karma.

We made it more intuitive so kids can pick it up easily. We also made it more vengeful by introducing mechanics to get back at the person on your right (the one who’s usually bullying you).

Here are some of the changes:

Redesigned and simplified the card hierarchy: 1 to 10. No suits, no color, no faces, no aces.

Special cards now have unique designs instead of numbers (BURN, RESET, GHOST).

New special cards were added to get back at the person on your right: SKIP, MIRROR. This increases the deck size from 52 to 58 cards.

Rules were modified to speed up gameplay. If you lose with a face-up card, you take it with the pile.

If the 1st place player is out of the game, they can decide that 3 cards make a BURN, instead of 4.

Expansion includes spell cards. These cards can reveal game information or cast spells on other players. For example, if they don’t address you with a silly name, they have to pick up the pile.

Card sizes are increased to 7 cm by 10 cm.

Game modes have been added to introduce gambling and drinking mechanics.

Roulette mode: All the cards are placed face-down in a giant circle.

The art was drawn in MS Paint and features bold, flashy graphics, with big influences from Keith Haring and Justice, the band.

Disclaimer: The publisher provided the prototype copy of PAYBACK. The opinions expressed in the review are completely my own.

Review:

This game is designed by a group of friends spanning the world. This is their first design. That is currently on Kickstarter at time of writing.

For more information follow the link to Publisher Page.

Do you like Card Games, are you a fan of chaos, do you long for the sweet release of revenge? Then I have a game for you. The game I am speaking of is called Payback, a quick light weight card game that will bring you and your game table many moments of laughter, moaning in anguish or moments of screaming “take that!” across the table. The publishers of Payback liken it to Uno and Mario Kart having a baby and I can tell you, I can see where that tag line comes from.

When you first open the box for payback and check out the cards inside, your mind will instantly go to classic card games like Uno, Phase 10 or Skip-BO. However, Payback does not entirely play like those games. It borrows little ideas from each to create something different. Along with those 3 games it also takes some mechanical ideas from the card game Palace. You blend all these ideas and birth is given to payback.

You might be asking why I would play Payback instead of one of the other mentioned games. Well if you have ever been stuck in a never ending game of Uno, then you know the anguish that comes from playing that game, along with the 5 million different house rule versions of Uno, same can be said for Phase 10 and Skip-BO with some games lasting hours and becoming a drawn out trudge to the finish line. With Payback you can get the fun of a Chaotic card game, with the perfect mix of randomness and strategy with the average game length at around 20 minutes. Games are so fast and fun that you will find yourself saying lets reshuffle and go again. When it comes to Palace it is a rather fun game, but playing with a standard deck makes the game seem dated, when playing with Payback it brings a modern look and feel to some classic mechanics.

Speaking of the looks of the game, it’s marvelous. The publishers brag that all the art was created in Microsoft Paint which I find to be spectacular. So much of the current board and card game landscape is predicated on using complex art and graphics, or having an absurd amount of plastic miniatures in your game. It is refreshing to see a publisher lean into artwork like this. Looking at the cards, you can see a beauty in the art design that perfectly matches the game play of Payback. I think games like Payback open the door to other designers and publishers to maybe pull back on their art budget and focus more on game play. Good game play for me trumps art any day, that is not saying I am not a fan of fancy art, it’s just not required for every game. 

I know what you are thinking. I can see how they get Uno, but where does the Mario Kart reference come in? Well, let me tell you, have you ever been leading the race on the last lap of Rainbow Road only to get blue shelled off the track and end up in last place? If you have, then you are mentally prepared to play Payback, one minute you seem to be cruising to an easy win, only to find yourself sitting in last place wondering how you got there and how you can Payback the person who put you there. I can’t count the number of games where I am on my last card about to win then find myself holding half the deck, watching the person I was just laughing at go out for the win. But that is ok, the games are so short that a loss like that doesn’t prevent you from wanting to play again. In fact a loss like that makes you want to play again to avenge your defeat. 

I feel that one good thing with Payback is that you have your ultimate winner but the game doesn’t end with the first winner. It continues until there is only one person holding cards, so the ultimate loser. Making it where even if you do not win you can still fight not to be the ultimate loser. It is a great time around the table with everyone laughing at the ultimate loser.

I know this review has been one giant wall of praise and honestly it is deserved, there are a couple of negatives that I have however, and both are not from a game play stand point. The first is that the game utilizes oversized cards, which look good but can be cumbersome especially with larger counts of cards in smaller hands. Plus they do not fit in shufflers or standard card sleeves. The other is the lack of a physical rule book, although the publishers updated the Kickstarter to advise that a rule book will be included with the final production of the game. The rules are written on the game box but you have to turn and rotate the box to read them. There is also a QR code leading to the rules.

If you are looking for raucous chaotic time around the table slinging cards and laughing and maybe a little crying, then I wholeheartedly suggest Payback for your game table. I play with 2 different groups of players, one of mainly casual light weight gamers and another that plays mainly heavy weight Euros and both have found hours of enjoyment in playing Payback.

To play a game of Payback you will shuffle the deck of cards then deal each player, up to six players, 9 cards. The player will take the cards without looking at them and deal 3 face down in front of them, they will then deal 3 cards face up in front of them. The last 3 cards will make their hand of cards. At this time players can swap cards in their hands with cards that are face up in front of them, putting higher numbers down in the face up area. Then starting with the first player you will play cards out of your hand. With each player they must play a higher value card, if they can not play a higher card they can elect to play a special card, like a skip, ghost or reset. However the special cards don’t automatically reset the value. Obviously the reset will reset the value but if you play the other special cards the value remains the same for the next player. The only other way to reset the value is to play a burn card, this will get rid of the pile of cards removing them from the game. There are other ways to burn the pile but those can be located in the rule book. After you play a card you will draw back up to 3 cards in hand. Once the draw pile is empty play will continue until your hand is empty. You then start playing your face up cards and after that you will play the face down cards blindly. At any time you can find yourself picking up the pile. Victory can be sweet or painfully ripped from your grasp. This is just a rough summary for a complete list of the rules please check out the publishers web page.

I want to thank the publishers for providing a review copy of Payback, the review is unpaid and I have complete freedom to express my opinions of Payback!

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