Family Business

Cost:$12.00
From: Mayfair Games, P.O. Box 48539, Niles IL, 60648
Players: 2-6 (the more, the merrier)
Playing Time: 30 minutes
Type of game: Card
Complexity: 7
Skill level: 2
Chance Level: 8
Overall: 7
Reviewed by: Peter Sarrett, Issue 1.1, June 1992

(Reviewed in the Aug/Sep 1989 issue of Games Magazine) If you're looking for a light-hearted, fast-paced card game that can be played in about a half hour, Family Business might be for you. Each player is the boss of one of 6 Mob organizations, all of whom are trying to eliminate each other while keeping themselves alive. On each turn, players draw a card from the deck and play one or discard one from their hand. Cards let you take out contracts on enemy mobsters, putting them "up against the wall." When 6 or more mobsters are up against the wall, a mob war starts and one mobster is killed from the wall, in order, at the start of every turn until the wall is empty. Other cards protect your mobsters from having contracts taken out on them, save mobsters from the wall, switch the order of mobsters up against the wall, start or stop mob wars, etc. If all of your nine mobsters are rubbed out, you're out of the game. The game ends when only one mob is left with living members. Family Business is a great game as long as you don't take it seriously. The nature of the game is such that players can easily gang up on each other-- the target of a contract is entirely up to each player. Typically, when one player has more living mobsters than everyone else, the other players start taking out contracts on that player. It is also common for vendettas to spring up: "You dirty rat, you killed my brudda. I'm taking a contract out on you." As a result, the outcome of the game is almost entirely arbitrary, decided by the whims of players as they choose who to attack. The luck of the draw plays a role, since having good cards can save your mobsters lives, but there is very little skill involved. Unless you count smooth-talking-- convincing an opponent to attack someone else can be crucial. The lack of skill involved makes Family Business a great beer-and-pretzels game. It might also appeal to people who don't usually play games, since they have just as much chance of winning as hard-core gamers do. It does take a while to familiarize yourself with what each of the cards does, and until you get it down you'll be passing the rule book back and forth a lot. Family Business is particularly fun if you role-play a bit, getting into the spirit of Prohibition-era Chicago. In this game, it's important to have a good time even when you're mob is being annihilated. Just remember to pull everyone else down with you when you go.