Believe it or not, the adult entertainment industry is valued at $72 Billion Dollars, assuming Google statistics are to be trusted. This fact doesn’t surprise me as I’ve seen quite a few adult-themed games over the last twenty years. “Work The Strip”, an adult-themed card game for 3-6 players, puts players in the role of a “Madam*” (or Madame) vying to get the most points by the end of the game. Before we begin I’d like to thank Game Creator David Kimlin for reaching out and providing a copy for review purposes. I’m also required by FTC regulations to disclose that I was paid to cover this game, however any and all opinions remain my own. The only thing paid for here was my time and expertise.
*I admittedly had to look this up, but a Madam is typically the owner of a brothel.
WARNING: While I run a family-friendly network, I do on occasion cover adult-themed games. The cards herein mainly feature women in various articles of provocative “nightly apparel”. I will do my best to keep images “classy”, but only those 18 years and older should be reading this article or playing this game. Some of the cards in the game do contain full or partial nudity.
Overview
“Work The Strip” is played over six rounds. At the beginning of a round, someone is chosen to be the dealer and deals out 9 face-down cards to each player from the shuffled deck of cards. The game’s six-sided die is placed nearby for scoring later.
The main goal of each player is to get rid of all the cards in their hand and also build a sizable tableau of cards in front of them.
Cards come in three flavors: Name Cards, Run Cards, and Special Cards.
Name Cards – Feature a white border and are played vertically in front of players. Their values are printed on the top right of the card, along with a number indicating how many their are in the deck. To match these cards, you’ll need to play cards featuring the same woman / name.
Run Cards – Feature a colored border and are played horizontally in front of players. Their values are printed on the top right of the card, along with a number indicating how many their are in the deck. To match these cards, you’ll need to play cards featuring the same run descriptor.
Note: Some cards can be played as either a set of name cards or a set of run cards because they are both card types.
Special Cards – Typically one-off “play then discard” cards, though there are a few with permanent table presence.
Before the round begins, players will take a look at their cards and optionally lay matches in front of them to start their tableau of cards. The first player to begin their turn is the one to the dealer’s left, with turns going clockwise.
On a player’s turn they’ll be able to do all of the below in any order they choose:
1. Play matches that they have in their hand in front of them. They can also build off of / play a card that matches one that another player has in front of them…the played card(s) goes in front of the active player.
2. Play special cards.
3. Begin asking other players for cards (except special cards)…this option will eventually lead to a player ending their turn. To perform this action, the active player will ask another player if they have a particular card type. At that point, one of two things will happen:
A: The asked player will say yes, then proceed to give the active player all the cards they have of that type. The active player can proceed to ask more questions of the other players, though only one at a time as before.
B: The asked player will say no or more correctly “Work The Strip”, prompting the active player to draw a card from the face-down deck and end their turn.
Play continues until one of two round ending scenarios occur:
1. A player runs out of cards – the round ends immediately and scoring occurs.
2. The deck runs out of cards – going clockwise, each player has one final turn to play cards in their hands including the player who took the last card. Scoring then occurs.
To score, each player counts up the value of the cards in front of them and then subtracts 100 for each name / run card and subtracts 1,000 for each special card left in their hand.
In the event a player ran out of cards, that player gets to flip the top card of the deck and roll the die. This top card bonus is equal to the value of the card multiplied by the die value rolled.
Winnings are recorded and the game proceeds to the next round with a new chosen dealer. After 6 rounds, whomever has the most points wins!
Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the rulebook, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.
Review
Let’s get the brutally honest stuff out of the way first:
“Work The Strip” is a combination of “Go-Fish” and “Rummy” with adult-themed cards. “Go Fish” is something you’d tell someone when they ask you for a card you don’t have…in this case, it’s “Work The Strip”. Being able to build off of other player’s cards in their tableau is a mechanic that various variations of “Rummy” have been doing for years. My point is that I often see developers fall into a trap of copying rules from other common games and attempting to call it their own work. It’s why I rated uDog so poorly: a lack of originality.
To be fair, “Work The Strip” isn’t an exact copy and paste. The black bordered special cards do liven things up a bit, and the fact that some cards can be both a name card and a run card keep things interesting. There are so many cards of each name / run title in the deck, so players are often calculating their odds of drawing what they need and deciding whether to play a particular card for its name or as a less lucrative run (runs are only 200 a piece).
The rules sheet was good at covering most of my questions and I especially liked the special cards section as it explains what each card’s ability does. The rulebook also mentions that players can play special cards to other players if it specifically states so. Ditzy Darla gives a 500 point penalty, but I did not see anywhere on the card that I could give it to another player. Is Ditzy Darla simply a card you have to play on yourself because you were unlucky to draw it? That seems like an odd design choice to me, especially if the player were unlucky enough to draw several with no ways to get rid of them (no Freaky Francesca to swap hands, etc).
Moving away from the rules for a moment, I asked the developer if the art was AI generated. The developer was kind enough to reply with the following:
“I hired a graphic artist. We did use some AI but there is heavy photoshop. In order to make sure there was diversity, we gave each card 3 adjectives to describe the character. I do have friends who are in the cards, signed modeling contracts and got to design their own cards. Additionally, my two female cats, Ketta and Natasha are in the game. You can see Kettas face on the models underwear, and we called Natasha “shma” which you can see in the background. Plenty of Easter eggs. We used an excel spreadsheet to make sure we had a wide range of characters.”
I’m glad that the developer hired a graphic artist but am concerned about the AI bit. I’m not a lawyer and I know nothing about selling commercial games using AI-assisted / generated art, but I imagine that different countries regulate AI and IPs differently.
Let’s talk about the nudity. I initially expressed concern over this job because I was worried that the game contained nude images and would not be appropriate for my family-friendly network. David assured me that “playing the game did not involve raunch or sexuality in any way”. This led me to believe that all of the women were clothed. Upon opening the game, I come to find Wild Card Wendy completely nude (unlike the example listed above and on the game’s website). Scarlet, Esther, and all cards from the “tits out” run / group are, you guessed it, topless.
To ensure I hadn’t read David’s statement incorrectly, I showed my fiance’ the cards and in her words, “this is pretty raunchy”. The back of the box does warn the customer of nudity, but that wasn’t communicated well to me prior as I couldn’t initially see the box. I bring this up only to warn potential customers that this game DOES contain nudity. This may or may not be a deal-breaker for some. I personally prefer adult games with a bit more class…some of the cards were just a bit too “raw” for me. Just to be clear, there are no sexual acts depicted, just nudity.
I feel like this game would appeal to a very niche audience: very casual adult gamers…luckily that particular niche is a fairly large one. I’ve asked several people in my neighborhood to name games that they have and it’s always “Monopoly” or “Scrabble” and very rarely “Settlers of Catan” or “Splendor”. .0001 percent of the time, it’s “Twilight Struggle”. So…there IS a market for adult games like this, but as a happily engaged man who has played thousands of games, I am not in said market. It goes without saying that kids should not be playing this game and even with the 18-22 crowd, I recommend parental supervision.
All of that said, if you ask me, “is the game any good?” I’d be compelled to reply that it isn’t bad for an “adult game”. It brings a group together, it’s casual enough for certain gamer types, and it’s easy to pick up and play. Being 3-6 players, it’s better played during some kind of adult party night. The price of $24.99 gives me pause as well, as I can replicate a similar experience with regular playing cards valued at $2.00, minus the suggestive pictures. The components are of good quality, to be fair. The score pad and card quality were much better than I expected.
“Work The Strip” combines common card game rules to make the game accessible to play, but some may take issue with how revealing the art actually is. That said, it’s hard to ignore that this game is essentially “‘Go Fish” & “Rummy” with suggestive women on the cards…I think the game would benefit from something a bit more original.
Website: https://www.workthestrip.com/
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Score: 5/10 (Average)
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