Welcome to another edition of Found on TGN Desk. This is our segment where we take a look at a game that’s happened to slide across our desk recently. Just so you know, this week’s installment isn’t kosher. That’s because this week’s game is Hogger Logger by Hogger Logger LLC. Let me just sausage your fears. We promise not to ham it up too much. This look at the game will be a bacon of hope to all who read it. *snort*
Hogger Logger takes very simple mechanics, teams them up with interesting strategy, and what comes out is a guessing game with a twist. The game consists of 75 Number cards (5 copies each of numbers 1 – 15), 25 Action cards, and 7 Victory cards. The cards have a nice thickness and provide a good “snap” when shuffled. They have a high-gloss, almost “waxy” finish on them. They can be a bit slick when shuffling. Not as bad as trying to wrestle a greased pig, but be careful for cards suddenly getting a mind of their own and flying (like pigs) all over the place.
Set-up for Hogger Logger is simple. Separate out the three sets of cards. Shuffle the Action and Numbers decks. Deal out three Numbers cards to each player. Then, place four Numbers cards face-down in the middle of the table. Finally, flip one Numbers card face-up next to the face-down cards. Randomly determine who is to guess first and you’re ready to go.
When it’s your turn, you must try and guess whether one of the face-down cards is hogger (higher) or logger (lower) than the face-up Current card. All players know that the Number cards go from 1-15. So if there’s a 12 as the Current card, there’s a good chance that any of the face-down cards are going to be logger than that 12. That’s the simple part of it. The strategy comes from playing the Number cards in your hand… or your opponent playing theirs. This will change the Current card, and therefore change what card you’re guessing hogger or logger for.
Added mayhem comes from the Action cards. Players can acquire these by either playing an 8 from their hand, or matching the Current card (so playing a 6 when there’s already a 6 as the Current card, for example). Action cards have all sorts of different effects, from forcing the person guessing to specifically guess hogger or logger, to letting you draw extra cards, to having the entire table trade hands with another player. Dirty is the swine that plays the hand-trading card!
Now, the game’s not as “gotcha” as a player making their guess and then someone else changing the Current card. That would make guessing the next card almost impossible. No, you always get a chance to change your guess before you flip over the next card. So on your turn, you can go from guessing hogger to logger and back again several times. When all cards have been played (or players choose to pass) for the turn, the active player makes their final guess and flips over one of the face-down cards. If they were correct, they get to guess again. If they were wrong, play passes to the next player. In either case, the card that was just revealed becomes the new Current card.
But what about those Victory cards mentioned earlier? Well, each round there are four face-down cards that players will play through. If a player is correct on their guess when the fourth card is flipped face-up, they get a Victory card and a new round starts. If they were wrong, well, a new round starts anyway, but they don’t get a Victory card. The number of Victory cards needed to win varies depending on the total number of players.
Hogger Logger is a simple guessing game with extra layers added on top of it. With the easy-to-learn rules and family-friendly premise, you could easily bring this out at any potential get-together and play. The artwork of the “Pork Chopper” character on the Action and Victory cards is pretty cute. Will you go hog wild while playing the game? Maybe.
These guys did.