''They've Invaded Pleasantville'' is a 1981 board game designed by Michael Pierre Price published by TSR.

Gameplay

''They've Invaded Pleasantville'' is a game for two players in which the town player tries to alert the other townsfolk of an alien invasion and stop them from controlling the minds of the whole town. The alien player tries to secretly take over all the townfolk.

Cover art

The cover of the game references the couple from ''

American Gothic ''American Gothic'' is a 1930 oil on beaverwood painting by the American Regionalist artist Grant Wood. Depicting a Midwestern farmer and his wife or daughter standing in front of their Carpenter Gothic style home, ''American Gothic'' is one ...

'' by

Grant Wood Grant DeVolson Wood (February 13, 1891February 12, 1942) was an American artist and representative of Regionalism (art), Regionalism, best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest. He is particularly well known for ''America ...

under Martian attack.

Reception

William A. Barton reviewed ''They've Invaded Pleasantville'' in ''

The Space Gamer ''The Space Gamer'' was a magazine dedicated to the subject of science fiction and fantasy board games and tabletop role-playing games. It quickly grew in importance and was an important and influential magazine in its subject matter from the la ...

'' No. 42. Barton commented that "Unless you shudder every time you remember those old late-show sci-fi flicks or you tend to shun anything less complex than ''

Freedom in the Galaxy ''Freedom in the Galaxy'', subtitled "The Star Rebellions, 5764 AD", is a space opera board game published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in 1979. Description ''Freedom in the Galaxy'' is a two-player game where, similar to ''Star War ...

'', you should find ''They've Invaded Pleasantville'' an amusing little diversion." Duke Ritenhouse commented in a 1998 article that "The big red dragon from Lake Geneva even got into the act by 1981, taking time out from counting its Advanced Dungeons & Dragons profits to release a series of minis that came in ridiculous unwieldy, clear plastic cases. Anyone remember They've invaded Pleasantville? Revolt on Antares? Vampyre? For that matter, does anyone remember Remember the Alamo?" Greg Borenstein in his 2015 master's thesis "The Future of Tabletop Games" noted that "The process of using these lookup tables (and the many others littered throughout They’ve Invaded Pleasantville’s manual) is painstaking and slow. However, their presence gives attentive players an opportunity to fully understand the rules of the simulations driving the game as they are literally laid out for players to read."

References

{{reflist Board games introduced in 1981 TSR, Inc. games