Line #16 TabletopGame/GraveRobbersFromOuterSpace


1	[[quoteright:315:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/grfos_card_game.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:315:''[[RunningGag What's that, Skippy? Grave Robbers From Outer Space has its own TV Tropes page?]]'']]
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4	''Grave Robbers from Outer Space'' is a card game released by Z-Man Games spoofing the making of low-budget horror movies. The idea is to have the highest Defensive Strength when someone plays a ''Roll The Credits'' card or the draw pile is empty. Defensive Strength is increased by playing ''Character'' (such as ''The Prom Queen'' or ''The Aged Vampire Hunter'') cards into your "movie" and giving characters ''Props'' like ''The Chainsaw'' or ''Big-Ass 'Fro'', and from ''Location'' cards (''The Funhouse'', ''Camp Lake Zirconia'', etc.) Other players try to lower each others' defense by killing characters with ''Creatures'' (''Dracula,'' ''Demonic God Up to No Good'', ''Killer Vegetables,'' etc.), negative Locations, and using ''Special Effects'' cards that can be used to perform things like doubling a Creature's strength or destroying another player's Location.
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6	Basically if someone made a card game based on this wiki, [[{{Troperiffic}} this would be it]].
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8	The series is made up of nine games, each covering a different genre of movies:
9	* ''Grave Robbers from Outer Space'' makes fun of horror and sci-fi movies like ''Film/Plan9FromOuterSpace'' ("Grave Robbers from Outer Space" was that film's original title), ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'', ''Film/{{Carrie\|1976}}'', ''Film/KillerKlownsFromOuterSpace'', The Franchise/UniversalHorror series, and ''Film/AttackOfTheKillerTomatoes''. ''Grave Robber's 2: Skippy's Revenge'' is an expansion with more horror/sci-fi. ''Grave Robbers 3: Suburban Slashers of Sunnydale Street'' is another expansion with more horror/sci-fi.
10	* ''Cannibal Pygmies in the Jungle of Doom'' makes fun of pulp-style jungle movies like ''Film/KingKong1933'', ''Franchise/IndianaJones'', ''Literature/KingSolomonsMines'' and ''Franchise/{{Tarzan}}''.
11	* ''Kung Fu Samurai on Giant Robot Island'' covers Asian cinema. Mostly it's kung-fu and Hong Kong action flicks, but there's a bit of {{Kaiju}} and {{Anime}} thrown in too.
12	* ''Bell-Bottomed Badasses on the Mean Streets of Funk'' covers "70's action movies" like ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' and ''Film/EveryWhichWayButLoose,'' but mostly it's exploitation films like ''Film/{{Blacula}}'' and all the movies they were making fun of in ''Film/ImGonnaGitYouSucka''.
13	* ''Berserker Halflings from the Dungeon of Dragons'' spoofs swords and sorcery flicks like ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'', ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'', ''Film/HawkTheSlayer'', ''Film/TheBeastmaster'' and ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}''.
14	* ''Scurvy Musketeers of the Spanish Main'' spoofs {{Swashbuckler}} movies like ''Film/TheAdventuresOfRobinHood'', ''{{Franchise/Zorro}}'', ''Film/ThePrincessBride'', ''Film/{{The Three Musketeers\|1921}}'', ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' and the Creator/RayHarryhausen ''Sinbad'' movies.
15	* ''Bushwhackin' Varmint's Out of Sergio's Butte'' for Westerns.
16	* ''Silent... But Deadly Night'' covers Christmas classics like the ''[[WesternAnimation/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer Rudolph]]'' movies, ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'', ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'', ''Literature/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas'', ''Film/AChristmasStory'', ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'', ''Film/HomeAlone'', and ''Film/{{Gremlins}}'', ''Film/BadSanta'' and ''Film/SantaClausConquersTheMartians''. Really.
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19	A Kickstarter campaign to fund a new run of the game in 2015 sadly failed to meet its goals. A successfull relaunch of the Kickstarter in September of 2023 resulted in a new edition, "Grave Robbers From Outer Space: Director's Cut!", being released in October of 2023.
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22	!!''Grave Robbers From Outer Space'' provides examples of:
23	* ActionGirl: Some examples across the various games include the Jungle Queen from ''Cannibal Pygmies'', the Vengeful Sista from ''Bell-Bottomed Badasses'' and the Heroic Babe from ''Scurvy Musketeers''.
24	* AllAnimeIsNaughtyTentacles: ''Kung-Fu Samurai'' has a "Hentai Tentacle Monster" who has to take a female victim if he makes a successful attack.
25	* AmbiguousGender: The Way Too Pretty Elf from ''Berserker Halfings'' has the Male trait, but his special thing is that cards that normally only work on females also work on him.
26	* AntagonistTitle: All the games are named after the most powerful Creature card they contain.
27	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Subverted with the Re-interpreted Historical Figure Who [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade Probably Wasn't As Evil As All This]] in ''Scurvy Musketeers''. (Which is almost certainly a reference to how ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers'' adaptations treat Cardinal Richelieu.)
28	* CampGay: The Stereotypically Flamboyant Gay Guy from ''Bell-Bottomed Badasses''.
29	* ChainmailBikini: In ''Berserker Halflings''. It actually gives a respectable defensive bonuse AND makes the wearer immune to death by special effects cards. Assuming the wearer is female.
30	--> That's not armor. [[DistractedByTheSexy It's a weapon of mass distraction.]]
31	* ChainPain: An equippable item in ''Bell-Bottomed Badasses'' is "Five Feet o Chain".
32	* ChainsawGood: A chainsaw appears in the original game as an extremely powerful weapon.
33	* TheChiefsDaughter: Subverted in ''Cannibal Pygmies'', where there's a card by that name, but, well...
34	--> That's either a very ugly girl or a very pretty monster.
35	* ChineseVampire: Or "Hopping Vampires".
36	* TheChosenOne: The Predestined Hero from ''Berserker Halflings''.
37	* DastardlyWhiplash: The "Dastardly Villain" from ''Bushwhackin' Varmints'' embodies this.
38	* DeaderThanDead: In a lot of cases a character who's been killed can be brought back by special effects cards. If someone's killed by the title monsters in ''Cannibal Pygmies'', though, they're specifically gone forever except for one specific card (from the same deck).
39	* DamselInDistress: From ''Scurvy Musketeers.''
40	* EldritchAbomination: The Demonic God Up To No Good from ''Berserker Halflings,'' who's about as tough as Creatures get and gets nastier for every magical Character he's attacking.
41	* {{Elfeminate}}: See Ambiguous Gender above.
42	* EvilVizier: The Grand Vizier in ''Berserker Halflings''. Complete with flavor text asking [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter why the King even trusts this guy]].
43	* FinalGirl: The "Bookish Girl With No Boyfriend" was clearly intended to reflect this archetype, as she has an incredible defense score of 5 and is immune to the various SexSignalsDeath cards.
44	* FlavorText: On virtually ''every'' card.
45	* FountainOfYouth: Appears as a treasure in ''Cannibal Pygmies'', and can give characters the "Young" trait.
46	* FurBikini: There's a card in ''Cannibal Pygmies'' that assumes all the women in your movie are wearing these by the end of the game, and they're worth extra points.
47	* GroinAttack: Evidently used to see off the "Big Guy Who Takes it in the Groin" from ''Kung-Fu Samurai.''
48	* HairTriggerExplosive: In just about every game there's an item that's some kind of explosive that gives the character carrying it a defensive penalty, presumably representing them being careful not to drop it and set it off, or some such. Its function is to be sacrificed for a big one-time defensive boost.
49	* HeroicDog: Skippy the Wonder Dog is a character in every single game. He's a Creature in a few, though.
50	* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: In ''Bushwhackin' Varmints''. Even provides the page image.
51	* HumongousMecha: In, where else, ''Kung-Fu Samurai''.
52	* IAmNotLeftHanded: "Why are you smiling?"
53	* KillerRabbit: The Berserker Halflings; who expects halflings to be dangerous, even if they ''are'' from The Dungeon of Dragons? Also "Killer Toys" in the original Grave Robbers From Outer Space.
54	* KingIncognito: Literally the exact name of one of the characters from ''Berserker Halflings''.
55	* TheLoad: The "Feisty Princess" from ''Berserker Halflings'', who has a respectable DS of 4 but lowers the DS of all male characters in the movie she's in. Weirdly her flavor text is a take-off on [[Film/ANewHope Leia's first line to Luke]], so it's unclear what the designers were going for.
56	* TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday: A potential location that appears in the ''Silent But Deadly Night'' deck.
57	* LittleUselessGun: The derringer from ''Bushwhackin' Varmints'' has a negligible +1. Subverted if used in a gunfight with a character from another player's movie, where it jumps up to a +5, the same rating as most other guns from that and other games.
58	* MallSanta: Well, "Department Store Santa."
59	* NeverSayDie: While the other games describe the act of removing characters from play as killing them, the Christmas game just calls them "removed."
60	* NitroExpress: Most games have some kind of explosive item that gives a negative defense bonus, presumably because you're being extra careful not to set them off. Until you decide to, which gives you a giant one-time defensive bonus.
61	* OfCorsetsSexy: ''Scurvy Musketeers'' has a corset item, which actually ''multiplies'' a female wearer's defense strength. Presumably because of how they're providing too much sex appeal to be killed off.
62	* PimpDuds: In ''Bell-Bottomed Badasses''
63	* ThePowerOfActing: Making another player's character a "3rd-Rate Actor" lowers their Defense.
64	* PublicDomainArtifact: Several show up in ''Cannibal Pygmies,'' presumably meant as [[MacGuffin the treasure the heroes of the movies are questing to find]]. With the random nature of the game multiple can end up in the same "movie," for added hilarity.
65	* {{Pun}}: Several cards have them in flavor text. For example, on a Crossbow, "What's a crossbow?" "Like a regular bow, but angrier."
66	* RedShirt: "The Guy Everyone Knows Will Get Killed" from ''Grave Robbers'' and "The Guy Who Dies to Remind Everyone This Isn't a Picnic" from ''Berserker Halflings''. Their card's power is that any attack against their player has to target them first.
67	** The Security Guard will always be killed first if Zombies attack.
68	* RedundantParody: From time to time, perhaps most obviously in the cards from ''Kung-Fu Samurai'' that are obviously taken from ''Film/BigTroubleInLittleChina''; the "Clueless Gaijin" is clearly Jack ("Relax, it's all in the reflexes"), the "Crazy Old Wizard" is clearly Egg ("You will come out no more!"), and the "Magic Potion" is, well, Egg's magic potion. ''Bushwhackin' Varmints'' has a Creature card that just outright is Mongo from ''Film/BlazingSaddles''.
69	** Stealth-Jack's card also reflects the IndecisiveParody nature of the movie itself, since he has the "Dumb" trait, can't be the recipient of any card that makes a character a martial arts expert, and can't be equipped with any martial-arts style weapons. Nonetheless he has an absolutely unheard of base strength of 6, making him the biggest badass of any character card in any game in the series.
70	* RunningGag: Nearly every game has a card with "Say, is that a tentacle?" in the flavor text. Every game has a Skippy the Wonder Dog card, though in a few he's one of the Creatures. There's also generally a priest or occult-knowledgeable character who gets extra defense against "Supernatural" Creatures.
71	* SexySantaDress: Worn by the "Sexy Department Store Elves."
72	* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: ''Bell-Bottomed Badasses'' has the "Huge Wad Of Cash" card which can cancel any other card by being given to the player using the offending card.
73	* ShoutOut: It'd be easier to list what ''isn't'', though one of the more noticeable shout outs is that the Guy Who Dies To Remind Everyone This Isn't a Picnic is obviously meant to be [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Boromir]].
74	* SilverBullet: Shows up in ''Bush-Whackin' Varmints''. Can be used to make the character more powerful in a gunfight, or to instantly foil a werewolf attack (even though the only werewolf card comes from a different deck).
75	* SinisterMinister: The Corrupt Religious Official. "Is he a man of God, or a man of gold?"
76	* StatingTheSimpleSolution: This, on the Killer Toys card:
77	-->"It's a ''doll''. Why don't we just kick it across the room?"
78	-->"You can do that?"
79	* StockSlasher: Villains that have the "Psycho Killer" trait usually fall into this, meant to call to mind characters like Leatherface and Jason Voorhees.
80	* StopMotion: The only actual "monsters" in ''Scurvy Musketeers'''s Creature selection are a stop motion sea serpent and a generic stop motion mythological creature.
81	* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks
82	-->'''"Hey Pierre, what's that little bitty sword going to do to me all the way over there?"'''
83	-->'''WHOOSH, THUD!'''
84	-->'''"Who knew you could throw a sword?"'''
85	* TorchesAndPitchforks: Equippable items in ''Skippy's Revenge''.
86	* TreacherousAdvisor: The "Shifty Guy" in ''Berserker Halflings''. He's officially a Character and not a Creature, but having him in your Movie can count against you.
87	* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes
88	* WordSaladTitle: One mechanic is drawing a bunch of cards before play and coming up with the title of the "movie" the game represents forming one out of the random words on the bottoms of the cards [[note]] Having any of the words in your game or hand at the end is worth extra points [[/note]].
89	* YouAllMeetInAnInn: Mentioned in the tavern location in ''Berserker Halflings''.
90	* ZergRush: The "Swarm" characteristic Creatures can have, which means the player being attacked doesn't get to count the defensive points they get from their characters having guns, presumably because there's too many guys for killing a few to matter. Which oddly means weapons like swords and chainsaws still count.
91	* ZorroMark
92	--> '''"What is that, senor?"'''
93	--> '''"It's a 'Z'."'''
94	--> '''"Look more like a '2' to me."'''

Context TabletopGame / GraveRobbersFromOuterSpace