This game is a party game, pure and simple. It can be played with as few as four people or as many as your room will hold. The premise is simple, and listed on the box: Pick a topic, write a response, and guess who said what.
The point of the game is to have fun and get a good laugh. There are scoring methods if you’re into that sort of thing though.
If you don’t own the game yet, you can check it out here on Amazon.
To set the game up, simply put the cards in a stack in the middle of the players and hand each player a slip of paper and a pencil. Something to write on will come in handy as well.
Pick a Reader, who draws the top card from the stack and reads it. All of the players (including the reader) then write a response that fits the card. For example, the reader may read a card that says, “Things… that jiggle.” And a potential response could be, “Jello”.
Once all the players have written their responses and handed their slips of paper to the Reader, the reader shuffles the papers then reads them aloud. Starting with the player to the left of the reader, each person attempts to guess which player wrote which response. When a player is guessed, they are “out” of that round. A player who guesses correctly can continue to guess until they make an incorrect guess at which point, play moves the left skipping players whose responses have already been guessed. Play continues in this manner until everyone has been guessed but one.
For each correct guess you make you get 1 point. If you are the last person left in the round, you get 2 points. After a round has been completed, the player to the left of the reader becomes the new reader.
The game ends when every player has been the reader once, or it can continue indefinitely depending on the players desire to keep playing.
Rule Variation for playing with Kids: Not a huge difference, just use your judgement in regards to which cards to use and what responses to include. Some cards kids may not understand, and some responses may lead to uncomfortable questions.
Variations in the Game: In some cases it is possible for Readers to be able to guess player responses based on handwriting. If this is a problem, you can choose to not have the Reader participate in the response writing and guessing.
In the standard game, the Reader may repeat the responses as many times as the players ask. If you want a more challenging version, the reader does not remind players what the responses are once play has begun.
Common House Rules: Because there are so many cards and the real goal is to have fun and sometimes as a Reader you just don’t think the card you drew will produce humorous responses, I have found it useful to allow Readers to draw until they find a card they like instead of limiting them to the first card they draw.
Time to play: Highly dependent on the number of players, but with 4 players and only playing one round, it can be as short as 15 minutes.
Our suggested age: Any child who can write will be able to play, and though there responses may be easy to guess, they will invariably be hilarious.
If you like this, try these: Taboo, Balderdash, Snake Oil
If you don’t like this, you may not like these: Taboo, Balderdash, Snake Oil
For more information about The Game of Things, check out the official website.