Stats:
No. of players: 2-4
Amount of time to play: 90 min
Age requirements: 13+
Set-up time: 5-10 minutes

Those Pesky Humans Rules Description:

Those Pesky Humans is a lighthearted dungeon crawl. You are either the monsters trying to protect your loot or the humans trying to loot and escape the dungeon.

The goal in Those Pesky Humans is to either escape with the three gems (if you are playing the humans) or kill off the humans (if you are the monsters). To start the game the monster player creates the dungeon by randomly selecting 10 room tiles, adding doors and resources to each room. The monster player also places the three gems, secret passage and other treasures (one per room).

As the humans player you get to choose three characters to play with. Your choices are the paladin, priestess, wizard or rogue. Each class brings some unique abilities and you further customize them by selecting three one-time abilities for each character. Not to be left out the monster player gets to choose three one-time abilities for the ogre.

Both players take five cards from their event decks and you are ready to play. The humans go first and each turn they will draw one card move the humans and then attack if able. Play is similar for the monster player except that they will draw two cards every turn.

Each character or minion has four stats (movement, attack, defense and health) listed on their card.

The humans can turn over treasures or collect resources by stopping their movement next to them. Moving through doors costs an extra point of movement (or 2 if the door is locked). Some doors may be trapped which will inflict damage onto humans. The monster player can ignore doors and spends no movement points to go through them.

Combat is fairly simple each player will roll one six-sided die and add to their attack or defense stat. If the total attack is equal to or greater than the total defense it hits.

Cards can be played at any time and will usually add buffs to your characters and monsters. Minions come from the monster player’s event deck and help to slay the humans.

A Quick Review of Those Pesky Humans:

Those Pesky Humans is a fun, light dungeon romp with some good variety from the character abilities and dungeon tiles.

The art is awesome. There are caricature-like renditions of all your standard fantasy themed characters and monsters. The heroes and monsters are represented by small cardboard stand-ups and are just fantastic the detail and care taken in these is really great.

Unfortunately the cards are not as well-made. First they seem pretty flimsy and might just have to be sleeved. The printing is also off center on some cards. Not to the point they are unreadable but it is annoying none the less.

The gameplay is good and fits the light-hearted theme perfectly. The game can feel a little long and might feel drawn out after the first hour. But the game might move faster if the players are experienced.

All in all I have to say I really like Those Pesky Humans and think it is awesome as an introduction to dungeoncrawl games. It is easy to teach and play and the light-hearted art helps add to its approachabiltly. So even though the game says 13+ you could have an 8 year old playing (and enjoying) this in no time.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 3 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 5 out of 6
Replay Value 5 out of 6
Complexity 3 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 4 out of 6