Propuh
- Board's Eye View
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
Just when you thought you'd seen every possible theme or game setting, along comes Propuh from InterHuman. Designed by Damir Debanic, with art and graphics from Endi Oblak and Zdravko Lovric, Propuh is a trick-taking card game for two players (plus it has a solo play option), but the theme is the tussle between an elderly granny trying to complete her household chores and the evil draught that comes in through the windows and doors - believed, in Slavic superstition, to bring disease and death. The game's strapline is 'Face the Wind of Woe'.
The game is played with a deck of 28 cards numbered 1-4 in three suits that correspond to the three rooms of granny's house. One room has a window and one has a door; the other has a stove. There are 11 window, 11 door and 6 stove cards. Tokens are placed out at the locations as tricks are won. There is also a granny standee that the granny player positions at the start of their turn; it will have the effect of removing a Propuh token at the end of a round.
Players start with a hand of four cards and they are dealt two cards in subsequent rounds. The granny plays a card to one of the locations. Where a card matches the location to which it has been played, it is treated as trump. The Propuh responds with a card, either to counter the granny's card or to another location. On the granny's next turn they will likewise either counter the Propuh's card or play to another location. Countered or not, cards are discarded, and tokens are placed out according to the resolution of the trick. The Propuh wins if, at the end of a round, they have two tokens on both the door and the window. They also win if the deck runs out. Granny wins if there are two of her tokens at the location with the window, two where there's a door and three on the stove, with no Propuh tokens at the stove location.
Tho' you're playing cards to the table, there is a to-and-fro tug-of-war feel to the gameplay, particularly on the part of the granny player, who may well have to engage in some firefighting to remove Propuh tokens. The deck is also something of a timer for the granny player because they have to secure their win before the deck runs dry.
Propuh is a light filler-length game that is unlikely to run more than 5-10 minutes, so that in most of our plays at Board's Eye View we immediately swapped roles for a replay. Its main appeal is its novel theme - tho' doubtless others will point out that, unbeknown to us, there are scores of other games themed about elderly grandmothers pottering around their home completing household chores while bemoaning the poor quality of their home insulation.