Eleanor introduces

May 4.

Table and title/image insertionshots	Ellie speech and action
	turning from musical instrument ???? Hello – I’m EB, and I’d like to introduce you to a good fun game for two players – Jekyll versus Hyde.
	May 4 In preparation for a board game convention in Korea, designer Guhn-Eel (that’s pronunciation) was thinking deeply – trying to devise a new two-player game with a tug of war style. When he by chance overheard students complaining about their teacher by comparing him to Jekyll and Hyde, it fixed the theme in his mind, and he set to work, devising a delightful one-on-one competitive game that cleverly included Jekyll’s potions, too.
	The game’s theme derives from the novella by Robert Louis Stevenson, which was written in the late 1800’s. It describes how the sociable and much liked Doctor Jekyll begins to investigate the effects of a potion he developed, hoping that it would help him find some relief from a weight of guilty feelings on his shoulders. He’s guilty about the fact that, surprisingly, he’s harboured ‘not pleasant’ thoughts for much of his life. He finds that it changes him from a personable and mild mannered man with into one totally devoid of any feelings of guilt: he transforms into Mr Hyde, who goes on to do some especially evil things. As time goes by, Jekyll’s repeated transformations, using the potion to escape his ever increasing sense of guilt, lead to the character of Hyde beginning to gain the upper hand. It’s awful – Hyde begins to control Jekyll, as Jekyll once was able to control Hyde. So … we end up with two different characters. One’s basically good, and one’s utterly evil.
	J vs. H is a very good, competitive two player game that’s within reach of most casual players. The rules, and the way it’s played are not complex, even for someone who’s a bit of a newcomer to trick taking card games.
	But – and this is important – beware! As in all good games, there’s always a bit of a difference between being able to understand how it works and being able to play your cards well enough to win.
	Though even beginners could manage it, Jekyl vs Hyde has got enough about it to appeal to those who enjoy playing trick taking cards games like whist, spades, or even bridge. Those who are more experienced in card playing may be pleasantly surprised by the opportunities to play a game of attack, or one of defence.
Game-vid 1	Being a card game, Jekyll vs Hyde doesn’t use a board. But scores are displayed on an uncomplicated board, across which Hyde seeks to progress. Jekyll stays at home, trying to resist the pull of evil: and he wants Hyde to do so as well. But the player in charge of Hyde wants to traverse the ten steps and get to the other side of the board – to the pit of evil.
	To do this, the player who’s Hyde tries to play in such a way as to achieve the greatest gap between the tricks they win, and those won by Dr Jekyll. Note the word ‘gap’.
	In most trick taking games, each player seeks to win the most tricks: or the number they’ve bid to win. In Jekyll vs Hyde, though, the two players have diametrically opposed aims, where the issue of either winning or losing tricks becomes a little different to usual. Hyde’s best outcome when playing the ten available tricks would be for either him to win all ten, or for Jekyll to do so – it’s the gap that counts! Jekyll’s best outcome would be a perfect balance in tricks taken.
Game-vid 2	Every time a trick-gap occurs, Hyde takes a number of steps, moving from Jekyll’s civilised side towards the depths of pure evil. If Hyde can get all the way across the ten steps, evil wins. Jekyll, on the other hand, would dearly like to see each of them win five tricks – no gap, so no sidling off by Hyde.
Game-vid 3	The game’s designed around three card suits. One’s purple – the colour of pride. Then there’s red – wrath, and green for greed. There are just seven of each, all with Hydeish evil images aboard.
Game-vid 4	Each of the three suits is respresented by a small coloured token, which shows which is most potent at the moment. A unique feature of the game is that these three suits vary during play in terms of their ‘potency’. The strength of pride, wrath, and greed might shift several times.
	For example, at one stage it may be any purple pride card will be beaten by any red wrath card: even a three of wrath can sometimes beat a nine of pride, because pride is weaker. The next minute, it may turn our that wrath is the weaker suit, with pride more potent. Ooooh !
Game-vid 5	There also are four cards that display phials of the potion that Jekyll devised and so unwisely employed. Playing potions just at the right time can be very powerful, considerably changing the lie of the land.
	When played, these potions have three different effects. For example, one potion causes the potency of the card suits to change, which can be advantageous to the player who made it happen.
Mandoo games logo used here. Titles will scroll with bullet points (abbreviated)	May 5th So Jekyll vs Hyde has but few rules, but Mandoo Games have brought us a very challenging and good fun game by the way these aspects meld together … • each hand’s played with just 10 cards each – nothing special about that • there are three suits, or colours – again, nothing special • the suits may vary in strength during a single turn – ohhh! That’s interesting! • there are potions, which have impacts upon the way the play goes – ohhh! Are there? • it’s not just a case of winning tricks, but a case of trying to get either the biggest or the smallest gap between tricks won – ohhh! That’s different!.
	Some summary points.
Titles will scroll with bullet points (abbreviated)	► the setup time is just a few seconds ► some luck is involved of course, as in all card games … but canny (?) play is called for ► Jekyll vs Hyde is definitely replayable … and it’s quietly exciting ► because suits can change their powerfulness, and because of the other potion effects, even seasoned cards players can find challenge in Jekyll vs Hyde ► when players change roles, each plays an entirely different style of game ► on the whole, it’s a surprisingly big game, given the few components that it has
FG4CP logo and site address – titles.	You can buy Jekyll vs Hyde at Fun Games for Casual Players .com, whcih comes with the rules in English and a nice little record sheet onto which you can keep your scores. That way, you can see how well you, Jekyll, and the horrid Hyde fare over coming weeks, months, or years of play.