Lunch Money (game)

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Lunch Money is an elimination-style card game designed by C.E. Wiedman and released in 1996 by Atlas Games. In 1997, Lunch Money jointly won the Origins Award for Best Card Game of 1996 in a three-way tie with Legend of the Five Rings: Battle of Beiden Pass and Mythos.^[1]

The art on the cards are dark, somewhat Gothic photographic images by Andrew Yates, usually accompanied by humorous quotes pertaining to the card's name. In the game, players control a character (originally all females) with fifteen "health" points, and draw a hand of five cards. The players take turns playing cards to "attack" other players, who try to block, dodge, and counterattack the attacker. When the defender is done responding, he or she takes any applicable damage, and both players then redraw their hands to five cards, passing the turn to the next player. When a player loses her health points she passes out. The last one "conscious" wins the game.

The game's name derives from its theme, that of children involved in a schoolyard fight. There is also a small expansion set called Sticks and Stones, and a larger sequel/expansion called Beer Money.

In 1999 Pyramid magazine named Lunch Money as one of The Millennium's Best Card Games.^[2] Editor Scott Haring said that "what puts it on this list is the twisted sensibility of using arty photographs of innocent young girls in spooky settings, juxtaposed with the cruel whimsy on the card text."^[2]