Stupid(er)duels

By DIANA KEOUGH 
The Plain Dealer 
Cleveland, Ohio 

December 12, 2004 

Stupiduel, the hit playing card game (Schmooze Your Weapons, September 19), will become even more exciting in 2005 with "Expansion Packs," additional sets of "items" and "modifiers" that can be used to kill off an opponent. 

The 25-card packs include "Fantasy"(wizards, ogres, potions, spells), "Science Fiction" (ray guns, spaceships, aliens), "Secret Agent" (detectives, forensic evidence, street thugs), "Horror" (monsters, blood and the potential for gore) and "Goofy" (bale of hay, rubber duck, underwear, costume jewelry, mashed potatoes). "How do you knock someone off with mashed potatoes?" asks game creator Hugh Barnes, laughing. 

Players use the two types of cards - items are practical weapons such as a rope, a pin or a knife, while modifiers are adjectives such as "heat-seeking," "flaming" and "electrified" - to tell a story that will trap an opponent in a situation leading to certain death. To survive, the opponent must use his cards to craft a tale of escape. 

After the article was published, Barnes received a number of calls from interested distribution companies. "So far, nothing's worked out because we can't do everything they want us to do because we're so small," says Samantha Carothers, the game's marketing director and Barnes' big sister. 

That hasn't discouraged her or Barnes. The game is available at about a half-dozen independent stores, including Hudson's The Land of Make Believe, which has sold nearly 300 decks ($14.95 each) since September.