13 Days of Halloween: They’ve Invaded Pleasantville
I am a total sucker for 1950s sci-fi alien invasion, giant monsters, and their ilk. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Them!, and The Incredible Shrinking Man are all classics. When I was in middle school the game company TSR (of Dungeons and Dragons fame) created a 2 player mini game that totally had that vibe that I love, They’ve Invaded Pleasantville.
The game is out of print, but you can probably find copies around. It is a fun two player mini-game. One player would control Zebu-lon an alien invader who is slowly turning the town folk into evil minions who will help him complete his nefarious plan to control the world. The other player controls the humans, but only starts with one of the towns folk who has uncovered Zebu-lon and knows his evil plan. This player tries to convince the other towns folk the threat is real and to kill Zebu-lon before it can complete the conquest of the town.
Basically each player is trying to win converts to their side and kill the opponents. A really fun part of the game is as the human player your ability to get folks to your side is predicated on their social standing, so the Mayor or Pastor have a big influence and can rally folks to their side, while the other people, like the town drunk have very low influence. It can make it pretty challenging depending on which of the town people you randomly start with.
All the Pieces 
Some of the game mechanics 
Battle in the church!
I’ve always found it a fun quick game, especially when I play music with lots of theremin in the background.
[…] to yesterday’s post about TSR’s They’ve Invaded Pleasantville, another game in the same genre included Cinemaware’s It Came from the Desert (1989). It is […]