So You’ve Been Cursed is a competitive, asymmetric game for 0-2 players where one player is the Wizard and the other player is… also the Wizard. Well, not quite… let me explain.
Full moon rising
You are a Wizard battling a curse that turns you into a rampaging Monster at night. One player moves the Wizard around during the day, buying ingredients for the cure (or for useful spells) and occasionally helping themselves to the petty cash. The other player takes over as night falls and you transform into the Monster; running through the village, eating any villager or livestock that crosses your path, and using these snacks to grow in power.
So You’ve Been Cursed is a competitive, asymmetric game for 0-2 players where one player is the Wizard and the other player is… also the Wizard. Well, not quite… let me explain.
Full moon rising
You are a Wizard battling a curse that turns you into a rampaging Monster at night. One player moves the Wizard around during the day, buying ingredients for the cure (or for useful spells) and occasionally helping themselves to the petty cash. The other player takes over as night falls and you transform into the Monster; running through the village, eating any villager or livestock that crosses your path, and using these snacks to grow in power.
The game is a race to achieve your goal. The Wizard wants to brew a complicated potion to remove the curse, and the Monster wants to eat enough to gain the strength to take over.
Before we go into the different play styles, let’s have a look at the components.
I have wood for sheep
The components in So You’ve Been Cursed are excellent, even in the standard edition. There are a number of good quality, thick card tokens, the map is a decent size but folds up small, and the cards are good quality. The highlights, however, are the wooden pieces. All the villagers, the sheep, and the player token are screen-printed wooden pieces, with the player token having the Wizard on one side and the Monster on the other. It’s a nice effect that when sat opposite each other, each player sees the player token as themself.
The pieces and artwork are great
Another little extra, the villagers get drawn randomly from a bag, but some may be concerned that the Wizard will feel for the shape of the villager they want. Personally, I would see that as a symptom of a far bigger problem, but still. To fix this they’ve included an optional deck of villager cards. Instead of pulling out a villager from the bag, you can draw a card and add that colour villager to the board.
Overall the artwork is colourful and great to look at. My one complaint is that it relies on some iconography whose clarity borders on hieroglyphics. The spells/powers in particular are sometimes a complete mystery to decipher, although they do include a really good cheat sheet for each side with a breakdown of exactly what they do. It does eventually start to make more sense after a few games, but keep those sheets nearby and don’t let it scare you off this fun game.
Okay, so it costs whatever is on the left, and you need to go to the location on the bottom left if there’s one there, and then it means I can use this to… um… nope, get the cheat sheet.
Hedge wizardry and petty theft
Playing as the Wizard is a juggling act to weigh up priorities and optimise action efficiency. You get 3 actions per turn, in which you can do any of the following:
1. Travel to a villager and buy an ingredient of the matching colour.
2. Travel to a location and cast a spell.
3. Travel to your laboratory and work on the cure.
4. Travel to a villager and steal money from them.
The main thing you’re going to be juggling on your turn is your money. You can travel anywhere on the map, but if you go to another of the districts on the map, then it costs money to cross the borders. Ingredients cost different amounts based on the house that villager is in, so the right type of villager may cost extra and/or cost money to reach.
You can raise money by casting some spells; however, they often cost an ingredient (so you need to buy that) and/or need to be cast in a particular location (which may cost money for travel). The other way to raise money is to steal it from a villager, although the amount of luck required to succeed is affected by how rich the villager is and how greedy you are.
You can carry up to 3 ingredients, and you can use them for spells or for the cure. When you work on the cure, you can use them all at the same time if you managed to get the right ingredients. Bear in mind that you need to go back to your laboratory and you may also want to use an ingredient for a spell, so you’ll often have to make do with less progress.
Add to this that the Monster can throw out power cards that weaken you and get in your way. These can mess with action efficiency and force you to adapt your plans. You have more things to do, and each requires its own action, so optimising your turn is vital to win.
Overall, with access to the entire map and every action including a move, the Wizard has the most control over what they can do. This plays best with an analytical player who can weigh up all of the locations to find the most cost-effective way to juggle collecting ingredients, casting spells and working on the cure.
Midnight snacks
Playing as the Monster is, understandably, a lot less subtle. That said, there’s still strategy required, and you have to maintain some self-control.
Strangely enough, as a rampaging Monster you aren’t able to freely wander through the streets. You also get 3 actions per turn; however, those actions are always to move between 0-2 spaces and then feed. If you are at an occupied house, you can eat the villager there; alternatively, if you are near a field, then you can eat a sheep.
The initial purpose of this is that eating gives you energy (the amount of energy depending on which type of figure you ate). This energy can be used to move further, cancel out a Wizard spell, or reduce the panic in the village. It’s also used to play some power cards.
You can also use power cards, which don’t require an action. The requirements for this may be spending energy, or having a particular type of villager in your stomach, or having visited a certain location during this turn. These generally either help you or hinder the Wizard.
When you’ve finished your turn, it’s time to check your diet. You can have up to three figures in your stomach, and in order to progress your curse, you need to collect two or three villagers of the same colour. This increases the curse by one or two but also increases panic by the same.
Panic is the reason to occasionally rein in your feeding frenzy. As panic increases, this makes things easier for the Wizard. Initially, ingredients become cheaper. As panic increases, new villagers are not restocked, cutting off the food supply (the Wizard can still go to the market to buy ingredients if villagers are running low). At high panic, the Wizard now gets 4 actions a turn.
How do you calm things down? You can just eat sheep and unmatched villagers; this lets you collect energy and reduces the panic slightly, but it’s an inefficient turn that reduces the population for little gain. Alternatively, you can skip your usual turn and have a Quiet Night. This decreases the panic two spaces (but also decreases the curse by one), spawns two new villagers and lets you play any power card for free. Definitely worth taking a break at some point and then getting back to the carnage.
Playing as the Monster is far more reactive. You have to adapt to where the Wizard left you, and in doing so you then need to manage your diet. Paying energy to move extra spaces is important to line up a good meal, so sometimes you need to stop off for a snack on the way. You want to try to only eat 2 or 3 matching villagers, unless you need the energy or the villager for something else.
The panic level is important, but far more important is maintaining groups of matching villagers. If you go around munching varied villagers then you can quickly make it impossible to later eat sets to progress the curse. Having a Quiet Night lets you restock villagers, and with luck you can clump villagers together for an all you can eat buffet next turn. Don’t be greedy.
Cards on the table
The game itself would be fun but maybe a bit repetitive if it weren't for the large number of spell cards and power cards in the game. You always have 4 cards in hand, and, while it slows the Wizard down to do so, it’s always worth keeping an eye out for a good time to cast one. They can swing the balance of the action economy, give you a boost, or sometimes it’s worth it just to raise some money.
Do not underestimate the efficacy of a bit of spellcraft...
The Monster probably has the most fun with their power cards. Because it doesn’t take one of their actions, they are more free to play these whenever the opportunity arises. They can’t just do whatever they want though; the criteria are usually either having eaten a certain figure or travelled through a certain location this turn, but if you happen to be near the relevant resource, then go ahead. They get more chances to mess with the Wizard, and they have an ongoing ability to remove the Wizard’s boosts to themself or hindrances to you.
Well, this doesn’t look good for the locals…
Final thoughts
So You’ve Been Eaten is a really fun game that has more strategy going on than it looks. The theme in this game definitely shines when you lean into it, especially when playing as/with a Monster player. Both sides play very differently, and there’s always a dilemma on each side. The Wizard needs to try and build the cure while raising money; the Monster needs to feed as efficiently as possible while managing panic. Both have easy ways to mess with the other player (the Wizard can run to a far corner of the map so the Monster has to hike, and the Monster can eat the villager with the next ingredient the Wizard needs for the cure).
While this is designed as a 2-player game, the solo rules include an AI system for either side. This also boasts a 0-player variant where you play the AI against the AI, a bit of a gimmick, but it can be fun to watch a game play out. All of the AI rules are in a separate rulebook to avoid confusion.
I definitely recommend this game as a two-player game full of interaction. Turns are quick; there’s a little randomness in card draw and how villagers spawn, but otherwise it’s mostly strategy rather than luck. Add to that a good solo mode and a novelty automated game, and you have decent variety.
