June 14, 2023: Hide Your Cheese Dip! Groo Is Coming To Kickstarter!

The long-awaited Second Edition of Groo: The Game launches on Kickstarter this Thursday!

 

Groo: The Game first came out in 1997, and in the intervening two decades, the original game and its expansion set have both become collector's items. The new edition combines both into a single box, with development and tweaks by Steve Jackson. We've also upgraded the components; a printed dice bag and tuck box make the game super-portable, and the new dice are a truly Groo-sized handful at 25mm!

 

For the uninitiated, Groo hails from the Groo The Wanderer comic by Sergio Aragones, first published in Mad Magazine in the early 80s. Groo the Barbarian is a comic take on the classic fantasy hero – he's brave, daring, and completely brainless. When he comes to town, armies melt away and buildings fall. He doesn't MEAN it . . . it just happens.

 

In Groo: The Game, players are scrambling to build their towns before our hapless hero smashes everything to bits. Between sending the well-meaning Groo to lay waste to neighboring towns and marching troops over to knock down any buildings he may have missed, Groo is a fast, zany, take-that game that fits right in to any game collection featuring at least one version of Munchkin.

 

Groo The Wanderer is a little before my time, so my first introduction to this lovable buffoon was at GAMA Expo in April, where our team ran countless demos of Groo: The Game for industry attendees at the game nights. I immediately fell in love with the bumbling barbarian and his adorable pup, Rufferto, and it was an absolute blast to see how much enthusiasm and nostalgia so many people had for the comic and game!

 

I'll leave you with a couple of quotes from folks who are closer to this than I am:

"I played this game a lot when it first came out, and the comic Groo is just awesome. So I went to great lengths to get the right to republish it, and I think it was time well spent. Enjoy, and may Groo leave you something besides rubble when he visits your town." 

– Steve Jackson

"What you mean, 'slow of reprint'?"

– Groo

 

 

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