My First Time with "Clobberin' Time"

**First published March 31, 2014**

In other news, I tried out a game with my daughter. It's called Clobberin' Time and is being developed by Kaptain Kobold of the blog Stronghold Rebuilt. It's a fairly simple game of super hero/villain combat. To paraphrase the introduction: Forget the back stories and personal internal struggles of the characters, this game is all about the battles they have with each other!

My daughter is four. More than anything, this was probably a test of attention span. I greatly simplified the game while playing, having chosen special abilities for the characters, but ignoring them most of the time.

We built a city. In this city was the Strawberry Shortcake Smoothie Blender of Happiness and Good-will (SSSmoBloHaGoo), which in her words "helped people to be happy and nice to everyone." Somehow, the villain, Spud (some kind of pointy-toothed tuber with a hat and tie) was able to get to the machine and change it around so that it made people mean. He had two helpers, whose names I now forget but who were realized in the forms of a bi-pedal dinosaur and the Pokemon, Ivysaur.

She chose two heroes, a ninja named Inja Turtle (even though he is not a turtle; for some reason she leaves that first 'N' off when she says 'ninja', +1 cuteness) and a green army dude with a Sten machine gun and a grenade named Army Guy. The heroes were tasked with getting to the SSSmoBloHaGoo and restoring it to its original purpose (switch the polarity?). The action was quick. I let her choose most of the moves and roll the dice.

Turn 1
Inja came up the right side of the city. Spud wanted to deal with Inja alone and headed out to meet him. The dinosaur spotted Army Guy and moved toward him. Army Guy advanced, firing his Sten, but missing. Ivysaur moved to guard the SSSmoBloHaGoo.

Turn 2
Inja and Spud meet and exchange blows neither one gaining the upper hand. Army advances to shoot from a closer position, gaining on hit on the dinosaur. Dinosaur tries to bite Army, but is blocked. Ivysaur reaches the SSSmoBloHaGoo.

Turn 3
Inja gets away from Spud and runs for the SSSmoBloHaGoo. Spud decides to help dinosaur and heads off to try and trap Army between them. Army runs from dinosaur and turns back to fire, but dinosaur must have picked up a man hole cover to block the shots with. Ivysaur gets ready to take Inja.

Turn 4
Inja sneaks around Ivysaur to get to the SSSmoBloHaGoo and attempts to switch the polarity (roll double 5s), but fails. He is attacked by Ivysaur, but blocks the blows. Spud decides that leaving Ivysaur to deal with Inja was a bad idea and runs toward the SSSmoBloHaGoo. Army runs at spud, firing and missing. Dinosaur tries again to eat Army, but his teeth glance off Army's helmet.

Turn 5
Spud and Ivysaur both try to land a blow on Inja, but Inja is able to defend himself, then evade to run to the other side of the SSSmoBloHaGoo. While Army is still trying to put down dinosaur, Inja succeeds in restoring the SSSmoBloHaGoo to its original settings, immediately diffusing the anger and frustration levels of the villains to the point of their apologizing for the inconvenience they caused and agreeing to undergo anger management therapy.