Overview and History

Mike Shields is a caricature artist and has been doing work professionally for over 35 years, both near his home in northern Kentucky and all over the United States.  He was voted "Funniest Caricature Artist in the World" for 7 consecutive years at the annual Caricature Artist convention.  

The idea of Cargo started a long time ago when Mike Shields (aka. Two Handed Mikey) looked at all the board games out there and thought, games could be so much funnier and have so much more character and life.  So he set off to create a board game that was truly entertaining. 

While playing Cargo, at times, you feel stress.  There's nothing worse than looking down a long line of Cops with thousands worth of Illegal Cargo and multiple D.U.I.'s.  Or when you're carrying 47 cargo and a weigh station is coming up.  At times you feel elated, like when you can finally fire that terrible tattle-tale Employee, or remove a D.U.I..  And at times you feel sad, like after most trips to Las Vegas or Mexico.  

Cargo will put you through the ringer, but you'll almost certainly be laughing at the end.  Games can last 5 minutes, or an hour, and everywhere in between.  Hold on tight, because you never know what's going to happen on your next roll.  

How To Play

“Cargo” is a hilarious board game that is the creation of caricature artist Two Handed Mikey. You run a small trucking business and try to make money by picking up cargo and selling it when you land on one of the big cities. The board is a map of the US, and you shake dice to move around it.

What is fun and funny about cargo is all the characters (over 100) in the game, and all caricatures by the artist. It all starts with the “employees”, all unique “folks” with a word or two at the bottom that speaks to their identity (mean, stupid, smart, etc.), and a number at the top (-1, 0, 1, 2, or 3) that tells you how much cargo they’re worth each time you land on a cargo space. (You pick up employees by landing on an employee space). Cargos are represented as chips, and they sell for anywhere from $100 each (New Orleans) to $1,000 each (NYC).

So these employees, they become your company during the game, and there are spaces where you can fire them, and even lose them to another employer, like in real life. Some, like “Ange”, our Italian grandmother who lived to be 108 and is worth 3, you'll want to keep her. Or Blanch, a big girl who "stops up toilets" (she’s a 1), well I love Blanch in spite of that, and she can work for me. But Bruno (2), a "wife beater", I’d fire him if I got the chance. Mitch (1), he "smells like alcohol" a lot it seems like, and Spook (2), he’s always "stressed" out. …So among the employees are favorites and stars of the game.  Really, they’re all funny and a piece of art in their own right. And by the way, Snoopy shoots beavers.  (She's in the "Enhanced" version)

LOOK OUT! It’s the COPS! Along the board in a line are a series of cops, little cards of art, of course, small enough to fit on a space.  The game comes with 14 of these menaces. There are usually about 6 cops on the board, but they increase in number and present a key hazard in the game. If you land on them (oh, and they can move, sometimes landing on you), you must spin the spinner in the hopes that you get below the number each has assigned to it. Barn is a 7 for example, and Billy is a 9. Butch, shaped like a bullet, is a 4. Clarissa, a 1, is unbeatable, and according to the rules she shoots one of your employees if you're found to be intoxicated (is that her on the cover?) Lose on the spin and you get a D.U.I.  Collect 4 of these charges you’re out of the game.

NOTE: (We know you don't drink and drive in real life, but in the world of Cargo, all the cops are crooked and itching to give you a DUI for any or no reason)

Need a LAWYER? They can lower your breathalyzer a few points, depending on whom you get. Belinda Ross improves your situation by two, for example, while Weird Head Walt knocks off 1. Shaneequa Washington helps you by 3. Tony Carpinello (a mob lawyer packin’ a piece) gets your case dismissed. David Gold gets you off, but only if you can afford another 5 grand (on top of the baseline fee for a lawyer at $2500).

You may already see the refreshing lack of political correctness in Cargo. That’s the artist in Mike. He’s been drawing the public for over 35 years and he sees what he sees, real life and the real you, and that is why Cargo is so much fun. We all know people like these employees, cops and lawyers. They’re us. All of us.

A few more things.

Probably the most fun part of the game is the ILLEGAL CARGO. You pick them up by landing on an Illegal Cargo space. Again, art. And there’s real money in the illegal stuff. There’s Guns ($2500), Moonshine (3K), and some neighborhood dogs (1K).  I really love the Mexicans (4K), and there’s even a dude shooting off a round in the picture.  My personal favorite is the "Rhino from the zoo."  There’s plutonium, and the fuel cells, and a whole lot more stuff you probably shouldn't be carrying around with you.

There are several rules pertaining to the illegal cargo. There are “Black Market” cards, that tell whether the black market is open or closed when you land on a city. You always sell your regular chip cargo at a city, but the black market for your legal stuff is only open 60% of the time. And by the way, if you’re carrying the Dead Bodies (worth a whopping 10 grand) (in the G-rated version this is the "Live Dinosaur") and get a DUI, you’re out of the game. If you have the Illegal Aliens (they're really aliens), well, let's just say you don't get a D.U.I.

Stay out of Mexico. You can get shot there and put out of the game. Las Vegas can be a rough ride too, with spaces where you bet all your fortune on even or odd, and spin. If you go bankrupt 3 times you’re out of the game. (There are BANKRUPTCY and D.U.I. cards.)

There’s lots more, but don’t think it’s complicated, because ten-year-old's play and have no trouble picking it up.  The rules sheet is real simple to read and easy to reference. Games can last as short as 5 minutes or as long as an hour, but the cops usually make life difficult, quickly. Hey, maybe you shouldn’t drink and drive cargo trucks, OK? But really, lots of fun. And cheap.

Why we need you:

Well, we've worked together to make the game a reality.  We've designed the whole thing, inside and out, and have made some prototype versions of the game that we've given to friends and family.  We need your help so we can take the next step and go into full production.

We've gotten a few of the boxes and boards made up, but we're lacking all the guts of the game.  The Employees, Illegal Cargo, Lawyers and all the other playing cards still need to be printed.  But without a bulk order we can't make this cost-effective enough to be worth the effort.  The same goes for the specialty dice with blanks instead of 6's, and the Cops dice with a "reverse" option.  We desperately want to keep everything MADE IN AMERICA, and sometimes that means a higher price tag, but it's always a better product.

Without your help, we'll be printing out the cards on our home printers and putting white tape over the 6's on regular dice.  Nobody wants that.  So, please, help us make this game truly awesome.  

What you can get for helping:

We've done our best to come up with some cool ideas for rewards.  Our main point that we want to push is customization; you can literally play with people you know.  Every game is customizable, right down to the individual Cops characters and the group of Lawyers that fights them.  You could make your In-laws the Cops and your closest friends the Lawyers (so when you play the game it feels like everyday life, ha!).

$1 - Our heartfelt appreciation and the comfort of knowing that you've gained good Karma!

$5 - You get a shout out on our website, by name (unless you prefer otherwise), and a big virtual THANK YOU from everyone involved.

Custom Characters: 

$5 - Side View - For this amount on top of any request for a game you will have a custom caricature drawn for you by Two Handed Mikey and inserted into the game as an Employee, Lawyer, or whatever you want. 

$10 - Front View - For this amount on top of any request for a game you will have a custom caricature drawn for you by Two Handed Mikey and inserted into the game as an Employee, Lawyer, or whatever you want. 

Note on custom characters:  The cost for creating new characters based off of photographs and inserting them into the game is only a one-time fee, and the artwork, once created, can then be inserted into as many copies of the game as you, your friends, family, etc. request at normal price.  For example: you want 4 games with 3 front view custom characters.  That is $30 for creating the characters, and $140 for the games.  You are not charged for the custom characters on a by-game basis, only once. The artwork can then be reused an infinite number of times at no additional cost.  Also, custom characters cannot be purchased by themselves, they can only be used in conjunction with game orders.

$12 - For pledging this amount you will receive a limited edition Cargo: The Game poster. Each poster will be hand numbered and signed by the artist.

$25 - Wear your Cargo love.  For pledging this amount, you get a T-shirt of ANY Cargo character/card you desire.  You can have Lips on your shirt, and be constantly warning everyone you see that you really shouldn't kiss Lips.  Or perhaps you would like the "Unflattering Naked Picture of a High Ranking Government Official" on your shirt, just to weird people out.  It's up to you.  Any character you want. We can even have Mike draw you, make you a part of the game, and then put THAT on a shirt for you (though that would also require a pledge at the $5 or $10 level to have the caricature done first).  The possibilities are endless! Well, kinda.

$35 - THE FAMILY GAME! For pledging this amount, you will receive Cargo: The Game, the family-friendly G version. Complete with all the same pieces, but altered to be fun for kids of any age.

$35 - THE GAME!  For pledging this amount, you will receive Cargo: The Game with all content rated PG-13. Complete with all the Employees, Illegal Cargo, Cops, D.U.I.'s and everything else that makes Cargo so much fun. 

$35 - THE REAL GAME! For pledging this amount, you will receive the R-rated no holds-barred, laugh-till it hurts version of Cargo.  This is the original version, politically incorrect, outrageous, and hilarious just like the artist intended.  Better Illegal Cargo, funnier Employees, and just sheer madness.  If you've got a sense of humor and are relatively mature, this is the version for you.

  ####  For additional orders of the game being delivered to the same address, please add $30 to your pledge per game (25 for the game, 5 for additional shipping). ####

Own a small (or large) business? Do you have a large family? Are you a part of an organization?  Cargo makes one of the best Christmas or Holiday gifts in the history of the world!  What other gift provides an incredible customization while remaining so entertaining and also involving so many people?  Well, the next 2 reward levels provide an incentive for taking full advantage of our customization option.

$180 - For pledging this amount, you get 20 custom front-view or side-view caricatures.  That's 20 people that you know that will be inserted into the game.  Again, this is only a one-time fee for the creation of the caricatures.  Once drawn and digitized, these characters can be inserted into as many copies of Cargo as you could possibly want.  

$400 - You get 50 custom front-view or side-view caricatures, so you can involve all your employees, or maybe just the whole neighborhood, in the game.  

$500 - Desperately intrigued by Cargo? Dying to speak to the man behind the game?  Well, for pledging this amount, Two Handed Mikey will make a personal call to you once your game has arrived to teach you how to set up the game and also how to play.  If you want to throw in a couple more questions to satisfy all those questions you have about the origin of Cargo, please, feel free.

$3,000 - If you love Cargo this much, you're probably an absolutely awesome person.  So, Two Handed Mikey would like to meet you.  For pledging this amount, Mikey will personally carry your game from Cargo HQ and place it in your hands.  Heck, he'll even stick around to teach you how to play, and even play along in your first-ever game of Cargo.  

$10,000 - We know, playing Cargo just makes you want to live inside the world of Cargo forever.  For this pledging at this reward level, you will be transformed into a Cargo character (Cop, Lawyer, Employee, Illegal Cargo character, etc) and will remain in it FOREVER.  Yes, you can be a permanent fixture in Cargo: The Game until the end of time.  Limit 5.

$20,000 - Perhaps you're a lawyer.  Perhaps you own (or are at least a senior partner in) an entire firm.  Well, create advertising for your firm and have a bunch of fun by making YOUR law firm a fixture in the first 1,000 games of Cargo ever produced.  For pledging this amount, we'll draw your entire law firm and put them into the game, just like we've said.  But since you'd clearly be very cool for pledging this amount, and it would be your law firm in the game, we'll go ahead and make every lawyer ALWAYS get everyone off scot-free in the game. (If only this could happen in real life) 

If this reward is taken, all of the first 1,000 game recipients will receive the "scot-free" Lawyer pack in addition to the normal Lawyer pack.

Some Game Card Examples