Hold the crown, win the game! Power, glory, and wealth await the ‘righteous’ Goblin Ruler, the one to have a hold on the crooked crown by the end of the squabble.
The Crooked Crown is a somewhat nasty take-that card game where players will be spying, feasting, bluffing, stealing, and sabotaging each other for eight rounds, at the end of which one of them will be crowned king, the one holding onto The Crooked Crown.
Disclosure: Thanks to Outset Media for giving us a review copy of this quick, silly, card game. Some links below are affiliate links. Using these links costs you nothing extra and helps us offset the cost of producing this show. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
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What’s all this about a Crooked Crown?
The Crooked Crown is a take that card game from Kedric Winks and Ken Boyter which is being published in North America by Canadian publisher Outset Media. We actually got to learn the game from Kedric himself when we met with him at Origins, which was pretty cool. He even signed our copy of the game.
This easy to learn card game plays three to six players with games being very quick. Most games we’ve been part of have lasted under half an hour. The game is easy to teach and quick to pick up. The lack of text makes it a great game for kids as well as adults, and suitable for groups whose first language isn’t English.
In The Crooked Crown the players are playing a bunch of goblins fighting over a beaten and battered crown. All that matters in this game is that you are the one holding The Crooked Crown Card at the end of eight chaotic rounds of card stealing, card peeking, and hand manipulation.
This goblin themed card game comes in a small box that’s designed to hold the cards and keep them safe, the cards themselves are of good quality.
One bonus I really liked is that they give you a bonus Crooked Crown Card just in case that one very important card gets damaged. There’s even a special place in the box insert to hold it.
Along with all of those cards you also get a set of colourful goblin standees (for some reason the chef goblin is always the first to get picked). There’s also a board for tracking everyone’s hand size and a golden coloured wood crown token for tracking what round it is.
The Crooked Crown rulebook is fold out style and great for learning the game, with lots of colourful artwork and examples. You are probably going to want to unfold this and leave it out on the table for your first couple of games while everyone learns the different card types.
Alberto S. Ballesteros’ rather silly card art fits the game well and this art, combined with clear iconography, makes the cards very easy to read during play, and as I mentioned earlier, there’s no text to worry about. You can see all of this in our The Crooked Crown unboxing video on YouTube.
We originally reviewed The Crooked Crown on Episode 252 of The Tabletop Bellhop Gaming Podcast, Game Time.
I can’t think of a month that has gone by since that review that we haven’t gotten The Crooked Crown to the table at least once. Both kids dig it, it’s been a big hit at our Walkerville Brewery Brews & Board Games Game Nights, and we break it out now and then ourselves when we want something silly and light to play.
Keep reading to find out why we keep coming back to this take-that card game.
Battling for The Crooked Crown
You start a game of The Crooked Crown with everyone picking a goblin and placing their standee on the five spot on the game’s board. The wooden crown marker is placed at the bottom of the steps on the one spot and everyone gets a hand of five cards, making sure that The Crooked Crown Card is one of the cards dealt out.
Each turn, the active player will play a single card or a set of matching cards, do the action for those cards, and then draw up to their current hand limit.
Then the next player clockwise will go and do the same. Once play gets back to the start player the golden crown round marker is moved up one step. At the end of the eighth round, when the crown marker is on the throne, the player who has The Crooked Crown Card in their hand wins the game.
What makes this game so interesting, fun, and quite nasty, is what each of the cards in the game does. While one card helps you by making your hand bigger, the rest are all about messing with your opponents and getting to see what cards the other players have.
Playing a set of Spy Cards lets you look at the hand of one player per spy card you played. Note you get to see their entire hand, not just one card per card you played.
Each Ambush Card played reduces the hand size of one of your opponents and you get to pick which one for each card you play. Hand size is tracked using the standees on the board. Anyone hit by an Ambush Card must immediately discard down to their new hand size. Note: you can never discard The Crooked Crown Card, and everyone’s minimum hand size is two.
When you play Tasty Pie Cards you increase your personal hand size by one for each card played. You then draw cards until you have your new hand size. The maximum hand size in The Crooked Crown is seven cards.
Steal Cards, as you would expect, lets you steal one card from an opponent for each you play. This is done blindly and you can mix and match who you are taking from if you play more than one card.
Finally there are Wild Cards, featuring a goblin in dragon cosplay, that must be played along with a non-wild card and counts as whatever type that non-wild card is.
If, during all of this drawing and discarding the draw deck ever runs out you just reshuffle the discards back in the deck and keep going.
It’s probably worth mentioning that the actual Crooked Crown card doesn’t do anything and can’t be played, and as I just mentioned, can’t be discarded.
That’s it,. That’s all there is to The Crooked Crown. Go around the table playing cards to modify people’s hand size, steal cards, and peek at other players hands, with the only thing that really matters being who’s holding The Crooked Crown Card at the end of the game.
We have been having a lot of fun battling for The Crooked Crown
One of the best things about The Crooked Crown from Outset is just how simple it is. This is a fast and furious, take-that card game that’s quick to learn, and easy to play. There’s pretty much no setup time and clean up is even easier. The win condition is dead simple and there are only five card types you need to learn (and one of those is a wild card so really there are only four different ‘actions’ to grok).
That said, there is something about this game people don’t quite get until they finish the first round, going around the table once. One of the key things to remember is that right at the start of the game one of the players has The Crooked Crown Card. You aren’t hunting in the deck for it, either you have it or another player does.
This is so minor that I wouldn’t even call it a learning curve, there just this small step where you need to see each card action be used once and watch the effects of things like your hand size changing to really understand what you are trying to do here.
I find The Crooked Crown interesting as this is the kind of game we probably would have completely missed if it wasn’t for Kedric, one of the game’s designers, insisting we give it a shot after he taught us another of his games Shadow Ninjas (As a side note, we really enjoyed that it, and you should check out our Shadow Ninjas Review for more info on that cat themed themed one vs many game).
I’m not a big beer and pretzels, party game, fan and a game in that genre has to really stick out to win me over. Kedric managed to do that with The Crooked Crown. He had an even easier time winning over my podcast co-host Sean, who loves these kinds of games. Sean loves anything where you can play while chatting and hanging out and where the game isn’t the entire focus. He found this one perfect for his tastes. (And in case you were wondering, Deanna,, who tends to like heavier games, would rather be playing something less light and silly).
What I like the most about The Crooked Crown is it’s narrow focus. There is just one goal, you need to have one specific card in your hand and that’s it. If you already have it you need to keep it, and if you don’t have it you need to figure out where it is and get it.
This involves playing the right cards, of course, but another thing it usually requires is bluffing. When you know who has the crown, not only do you want to try to get it, you also want to mislead the other players into thinking that someone else has it, maybe even you. When you do have The Crown you better be trying to bluff people into thinking someone else has it.
In this game you get to do fun things like claiming someone stole The Crown from you after they stole from you, even if they didn’t actually get it or you never had it in the first place. You also want to make sure your own steals always fail. A clever trick I like is continuing to play steal cards like you are still hunting, even if you have The Crown.
I know bluffing isn’t for everyone, and that could be a big turn off for some groups. That said, you don’t have to play this way. If your group doesn’t enjoy bluffing games you can just have a no bluffing table rule or you could forbid lying, or ban talking about your cards and the game at all. Note that’s not the intention of the game and we found it to be much more fun leaving these things in, but it’s your game do what you want with it.
In addition to being best when people are bluffing, this is also a take-that game. You will be doing mean things to the other players, and The Crooked Crown has a ton of player interaction. Only one of the card types doesn’t impact the other players. If you don’t like that style of game this isn’t going to somehow magically win you over.
Overall I found The Crooked Crown to be a great filler game, a good game for a relaxed social game night, and great for parties that include drinks and games. It reminds me of The Deadlies another great, quick playing, card game. Specifically, it reminds me of the part in The Deadlies that happens when someone has picked up The Halo card and everyone else is doing their darndest to try and get that card.
Check out our The Deadlies Review if you don’t know what I’m talking about. The difference here is that’s this chasing of one card is only a small part of The Deadlies whereas in The Crooked Crown it’s the entire game .
Over time The Crooked Crown has proven to be a huge hit with all kinds of gamers and groups. Both of our kids dig it and play it with their friends and at their school board game clubs. It’s been a spectacular hit at our brewery game nights, being particularly popular with groups who have had a few drinks. Even my card game loving relatives up north had fun with it.
The Crooked Crown is a really solid, light, quick-playing, casual game that’s going to appeal to anyone who enjoys lighter games. It’s great for gatherings and parties and does seem to be more fun once the adult beverages are flowing but is also a great game for kids who enjoy take that card games like UNO, and can work good for a family game night.
FAQs
Why are there two Crooked Crown Cards in The Crooked Crown?
This is because The Crooked Crown is all about holding onto a single card, and trying to figure out who has that card. If people can spot that card due to a bend, scuff, scratch or other damage the game becomes unplayable.
Because of this, Outset has provided a back up card that should be kept in its special spot in the box, only to be used if needed. That way if your card does get damaged your game is still playable.
Even with this backup I do suggest also sleeving your cards for ever better protection.
What other games should I check out if I like The Crooked Crown?
My number one recommendation would be The Deadlies from Smirk & Dagger (though it sadly seems to be out of print)
After that I would suggest checking out other games from Ken and Kedric like Cadaver and Shadow Ninjas, or other fun take that style games like Saboteur, Munchkin, Bang!, and Survive The Island. Or Flip 7 by the Op, which is another great very quick playing, easy to learn card game great for parties and casual game nights.
Is The Crooked Crown based on a specific fantasy world?
As far as I know the setting for The Crooked Crown isn’t based on a specific fantasy world. No setting is mentioned and the rules and the goblins featured in the artwork look to be generic comical goblins and not based on say Tolkien or Dungeons & Dragons.
Take-that games are very hit or miss with us. Some we absolutely adore, like The Deadlies, others not so much. The Crooked Crown was one that hit right. I was surprised by just how popular this game has been with our family and everyone else we’ve shown it to.
What’s a take-that board gamegame that you really enjoy? Let us know about it in the comments below or post something over on The Tabletop Bellhop Discord.
- CROOKED CROWN: This 1 versus all game features playful art of the goblin kingdom. Learn to play in under 5 minutes.
- GAME NIGHT MADNESS: The Goblin King is dead and the Crooked Crown is up for grabs! Use the card abilities to commit dastardly deeds by spying on or stealing from other players.
- QUICK GAME: It’s a game of bluff, tension and treachery. Complete a 4-player session in under 10 minutes.
- WINNING: If you still have the crown in your gruby little hands at the end of the game, you are the rightful ruler of all goblins. This game is for three to six players Ages 8 and up.
