There was a small Friendly Local Gaming Store next to a place that sells Panzarottis (If you’ve never had one, think Hot Pocket but much bigger) and I used to frequent it quite a bit. They’ve moved…and when I saw where they moved to, I visited only once. It’s bigger, it’s nicer, it’s not packed so tight you can’t breathe, however, it’s out of my way now.
Since they moved out a place moved in and I noticed it was called Button Shy, a place that specializes in board and card games but does have it’s small share of player dice, RPG accessories and a few D&D books and some Warhammer 40K gear in there but what it specializes in is board and card games.
Most of the games in there are small things. Games in little tins that look like Altoid Tins, little boxes or…the wallets I showed in the picture above.
I won’t lie, when I saw these, my first thought was that this was something I hadn’t seen before and I wondered what it was.
Here’s what I found out.
Button Shy publishes these games. You read that right. They’re the publisher of these small games.
All of these games are mine, I bought them and with good reason. They’re fun. “But Raven,” I hear you say, “What ARE These Things?!”
Each wallet has a pamphlet with rules for the game and 18 cards. That’s it. That’s the entire game. There’s really nothing more to it.
Each of these games are themed (as you can probably tell) and many of them are solo games. Need something to kill some boredom? Pull one of these from your fanny pack and start playing. Cleanup is simple and it packs away small.
They’re inexpensive! About $10 - $12 per game and the expansions are even less expensive. There are also expansion collections that are sold so you don’t have to buy each of the expansions.
Initially, I only bought Shades of Ink and The Last Lighthouse and out of those two, I only played The Last Lighthouse as of yet. I bought the next four, Space Shipped, Revolver Noir, R.O.V.E. & The Walking Dead: Surrounded a day or two ago. In that time, I’ve played The Last Lighthouse & The Walking Dead: Surrounded but let me tell you why I selected some of the others after I tell you my thoughts on the two I played.
First, The Last Lighthouse (Solo Game) is a game of Lovecraftian Horror. I can’t tell you anything about the Robert Eggers movie The Lighthouse, starring Willem DaFoe and Robert Pattinson but I do think that perhaps this took some inspiration from it. You are the custodian of a lighthouse and the nightmares from the sea are looking to bring the titular lighthouse into the darkness. You have traps to use to battle these nightmares and keep them at bay until the sun comes up, thus winning the game. If the darkness consumes the lighthouse, you lose. It’s a simple game with a simple premise and my first time playing it, I lost pretty miserably but I did have fun playing it. I’m gonna be trying it again in order to see where it was I went wrong but this is a game I do recommend picking up, I think you’ll have a blast with it. The artwork is amazing, the rules seem pretty simple and it only took me a few minutes to really learn and play.
Second, The Walking Dead: Surrounded (1 - 4 Players)…where do I start? This has two different game styles. There’s the base game which I’ve played twice. You alternate laying down location cards and occupation cards. You don’t just lay them down rapidly alternating, you have to think about what it is you’re doing. Survivors can be turned into Walkers, leaders battle each other and kill each other over locations, some survivors have certain abilities that can give you a real edge in game play. Once all location and occupation cards are laid out and the deck has run out, the battles begin. The more survivors and leaders you have, the better because there is a points system. The more points you have, the better you’ll do. My first time playing, I scored pretty high but the second time, I didn’t score anywhere near as well. Still had a lot of fun. Now, giving you a bit of caution here, this particular game follows the art style and the story of the graphic novels which differed pretty greatly from the show itself. While I’m not big on games that feature killing wave after wave of zombies, this is one exception I’ll happily make because of the use of practicality in trying to get survivors supplies. The second mode of game play is scenarios where points and walkers can be doubled, increasing the difficulty and giving players new objectives to make the game more focused and provide a bit of nuance. I haven’t tried those modes yet but I’m sure I will pretty soon.
Now, onto the games I haven’t played yet and why I picked them.
Space Shipped is just what it says on the wallet. You run cargo through space on a ship you bought secondhand and you’re trying to make cash through a series of runs through space bringing cargo from point A to point B. You’ll have Orbital and Terrestrial encounters and experience marketplaces. A wealthy merchant has offered you the deal of getting some rare crystals and she’ll put you in charge of her trading fleet and it’s the biggest one in the quadrant. There’s a catch. Isn’t there always? You have to get these crystals before her enemy does…so get out there and get shipping. The artwork on this is really something great and does evoke the space/sci-fi feel of something like Titan A.E. (that’s just what it brought to mind for me) and I love some sci-fi.
Shades of Ink is a solo journaling game. I’ve been getting a bit more into these, primarily because of the Against All Odds Blog that I have on Blogger that I haven’t updated in some time …but I will. You weren’t supposed to notice the strange ink blots on the cards but you did and now that you’ve seen them, they can see you too. These are the Shades. They’re real. Now, you have to deal with them. So far, just looking through it, this game really instills some psychological horror and a deep sense of dread for whomever you’re playing. There’s only one minor complaint that I have with this game. It’s not as simple as running down to the dollar store and getting a notebook and playing. There’s a special character sheet needed to play it where The Final Shape takes form and then you have to defeat it. Hopefully you have a good printer near you that you can use. If not run to the library and have some copies run off cheap. Everything else about the game is looking pretty good so far. The Character sheet will be on a QR code on the inside of the rules pamphlet.
Revolver Noir is a game that’s made for two players and the premise is simple. You were supposed to investigate an abandoned mansion when suddenly, a shot rings out and shatters the plaster behind you. Someone else is here and only one of you is leaving alive. The entire point of the game is to hit your opponent twice. First one to do so wins and the artwork on the cards and booklets is reminiscent of the 1920s & 1930s pulp noir films. If you need a more modern take, Sin City will serve best but only in aesthetics. This is one you don’t play alone, making it a game you could play with someone else.
Finally, we have R.O.V.E. (Results-Oriented Versatile Explorer) where you play a small robot rover whom has crash-landed on an unfamiliar planet and now you need to use all of your skills and efforts to reconfigure any reusable modules you have to get to safety. This basically means completing seven missions in order to get to safety and win but if you run out of movement points, cards in your hand and active abilities, you’re cooked. This is another single-player game that can go much longer time durations than the previous solo games mentioned.
Of course, there are plenty more games that Button Shy has in their library but if you don’t live in the area or the area in the UK where another location exists, there is a website where you can browse the huge library of wallet games and expansions. What makes these great is that you don’t have to have another player, it can just be something to kill your boredom. Is one of your games getting a little stale? Grab an expansion or expansion collection.
These are games that, in my opinion are a breath of fresh air. Small, simple, lots of replayability and cost-effective, that’s what intrigued me and the concept alone was enough to grab my attention. Even going in, I remained a touch skeptical on how these games would fare but I was pleasantly surprised that these games lived up to the hype and then some. Best of all, these games can be taken anywhere and played anywhere. They’re small enough that you could slip them into a shirt pocket and break it out in times where you have time to spare. The cards are the same quality as the deck of Bicycle playing cards that you purchase at any store and, personally, I can’t wait to get into the other games and tell you what I think of those. I might actually do some videos strictly for this Substack where you can watch me bungle my way through learning some of these games and the ones I’ve already played, I’ll play them again to show you how it is I play and what my thought processes are when I do play them.
In the meantime, go browse Button Shy Games’ selection and see if there’s one that appeals to you. Give these a serious try. They’re a nice relief from the systems we have that are books upon books of rules.
Most importantly, have some fun on your own! The staff at Button Shy have been nothing short of friendly and awesome each time I’ve gone in. Show them some love and tell ‘em Raven sent ya.