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When my cousins and I were younger, we would play this card game called “Spit” for hours and hours on end (when we weren’t playing Paperboy on the Nintendo or watching Rock ‘n’ Roll High School Forever with – eee!! Corey Feldman!!). Spit is also known as Speed. I won’t go into the details, but if you really want to learn how to play you can visit Wikipedia.
I’m not sure if our parents ever got sick of us playing Spit (it could get almost violent), but if they did, they should have been glad that we weren’t biding our time with Guillotine instead. I actually think Guillotine sounds fun, but I can see where maybe you don’t want your nine-year-old playing it. If it’s up your alley, though, here are nine offbeat and interesting card games you might want to try out at your next party.
1. Guillotine
As you might suspect, Guillotine is set during the French Revolution and was released to commemorate Bastille Day in 1998.
The best part of this game? You get a little cardboard guillotine. There are three rounds to this game which represent three days. Every day, 12 nobles are lined up to be executed. Then each player goes around and plays an action card (if they want to), takes (”kills”) the noble from the front of the line and then draws another action card. An action card, for instance, might tell you to move a noble up two places in line. Since nobles are worth different points, this means the player could be taking a noble with a higher point value (Marie Antoinette is worth five points; the ‘Piss Boy’ is worth one) from the front of the line. Since the goal is to get the most points, this is a good thing.
2. Grave Robbers From Outer Space
I think I need this game (Paul, take notice). GROS pokes fun at sci-fi and horror movie clichés. You have to make a movie, including a location, characters and props. Each of these card has a defense strength (DS) on it. You need to make a movie that has the highest defense.
You can attack other players’ movies as long as you have a creature card. If the number on your creature card is greater than or equal to the sum of all of the cards on the movie you’re attacking, then the player attacking gets to “kill off” another player’s character by making him/her discard the character.
This game has a sense of humor, which is why I like it. For instance, if you have the “Nymphomaniac Cheerleader” character, any male character that’s in your movie gets a bonus point. The game ends when the cards run out or someone draws a “Roll the Credits” card.
The makers of the game have expanded to similar games in different genres, including Cannibal Pygmies in the Jungles of Doom (action/adventure movies), Bell Bottomed Badasses on the Mean Streets of Funk (’70s and Blaxploitation), Berserker Halflings from the Dungeons of Dragons (fantasy) and Kung Fu Samurai on Giant Robot Island (Asian films).
3. 1000 Blank White Cards
This is a game that could be dangerous, depending on how evil your friends are. Basically the players create all of the rules themselves. You start with 80-150 cards – it’s recommended that if you’ve never played before and all of the cards are blank, you create at least some of the cards before the game starts. Otherwise you can re-use cards from previous games so you have a mix of already-made cards and totally blank cards.
There are two rules that you have to follow:
1. Everyone draws up to five cards at the end of his/her turn.
2. Cards must target a specific player, unless it says otherwise on the card.
Other than that, the rules of the game are set as cards are drawn. It depends entirely on what your friends decide to write on the card. “Get drunk at football game and karate-chop your way home, lose 20 points.” OK. “Fall down the stairs and break toe. Toe bone comes through the bottom of your foot. Cool! +500 points.” OK. “The letter C is stupid. Everyone with a letter C in their first or last names loses all points they currently have.” OK.
Blank cards can be made into playable cards at any time during the game. All you have to do is draw on them and throw ‘em into the pile. A few of my favorites from boardgamegeek.com:
So how do you win? When there are no cards left in the deck and no one has any cards that can be played in the current situation. The winner is the player with the highest score at the end of the game, although some people consider the winner the person who drew the most favored cards.
4. Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot
Killer Bunnies seems simple: the point is to get as many carrot cards as possible because one of them will be revealed to be the “magic carrot” at the end of the game, and the person who has that card wins. You’re also trying to kill off each other’s bunnies while keeping as many of yours alive as possible. You can kill other bunnies off with everything from a kitchen whisk to a nuclear warhead.
OK, it’s a lot more complicated than that, but that’s the basic idea behind it. It involves a number system like Grave Robbers from Outer Space does and some of the cards you draw will tell you exactly what to do (like the No Supe For You card above).
5. Gother Than Thou
Gother Than Thou is pretty simple. The deck consists of 55 cards. Within these cards are three types of points: Goth Points, Sickness/Infection and Money. You get 20 Goth Points, you win. Too much Sickness will make you discard everything and not enough Money means you can’t draw from the discard pile.
Some of my favorite cards include Crying Yourself to Sleep, Disturbing German Accent, Absinthe Minded, Fun With Eyeliner, Boots!!, and Steady Clove Supply.
6. Chez Geek
You and your fellow players are apartment roomies. When the game starts, everyone gets a Job card, which includes your amount of free time, your income, your special ability and your Slack Goal. The first person to achieve their Slack Goal wins. You get your Slack Goal by drawing cards – describing your tattoo in incredible detail to your roommate, for instance, earns you three Slack Points.
If Chez Geek isn’t your thing, never fear: there’s also Chez Greek, Chez Guevara, Chez Grunt and, yes, Chez Goth.
7. Unxploded Cow
UC kills two birds with one stone. You’ve got unexploded landmines in France; you’ve got Mad Cows roaming around Britain. Solution? Explode the mines with the infected cows! Brilliant. It costs money to buy cows, but you earn lots of money for every mine you explode. The person with the most money at the end of the game wins.
8. Aquarius
This one’s for the hippie in all of us. It looks like Peter Max designed a set of dominoes.
Everyone gets three cards and one goal card that depicts an element: Earth, Air, Fire, Water or Ether. One card is placed face up on the table for others to play off of (like dominoes). The player with the longest hair goes first. You want seven cards with your goal element to be played. The trick is, you don’t know everyone else’s goal elements, so you’ll need to do your best guessing to block their plays. In the picture below, Fire just won (seven cards to Ether’s six).
9. Falling
The premise of this game is that you’re falling out of the sky and you’d rather not be (makes sense). The goal isn’t to stay alive – that’s not an option. No, you’re definitely going to die. But you want to be the last one to hit the ground (the box says, “It’s not much of a goal, but it’s all you could think of on the way down.”)
One player doesn’t really play at all – their only job is to consistently pass cards out to everyone who is actively playing. You get cards like Skip, Stop, Hit and Push which delay your inevitable Splat. There are five Ground cards, and when you get one, that’s it: game over, you’re dead. Last person to hit the Ground is the winner (sort of).
Has anyone played any of these? Are they any fun? Any other bizarre card games I should know about?
Comments (43)
Comment
thanks to mentalfloss months back, i was introduced to 1,000 blank white cards. right now me and my friends are only at like 400 blank white cards, but it’s an amazingly fun game. especially with alcohol.
posted by susan on 2-1-2008 at 8:37 am
I dunno, but you had me at “Paperboy.”
*sigh* what a great game..
I could see my friends and I having some fun with the blank card game.
posted by mrs.djs on 2-1-2008 at 8:38 am
I’m gonna be looking for some of these.
I also like Bohnanza, a german bean-farming card game.
posted by Christian on 2-1-2008 at 8:41 am
I’ve never played any of these games but guillotine sounds eerily like another disturbing card game I’ve played called Family Business. Basically the same premise but instead of nobles you get a deck of mobsters and you have to add them to a hit list. There are cards like Valentine’s Day Massacre where everyone on the hit list gets wiped out but the main goal is to survive and try to bump others off. Good family fun!
posted by cari s. on 2-1-2008 at 8:41 am
Bohnanza, what a great game! Fluxx is also a personal favorite.
posted by Megan on 2-1-2008 at 9:04 am
Oh, don’t leave off “Kill Dr. Lucky” by Cheapass Games. The joy of offing Dr. Lucky by means of a tight hat or bad cream has filled many (otherwise more productive ) hours in our family. This Christmas we added the “and his little dog too” expansion, and feel like we have a whole new bizarre card game!
posted by Julie on 2-1-2008 at 9:10 am
It’s not bizarre, but I’ve always loved Milles Bornes, the French road race card game.
posted by Craig on 2-1-2008 at 9:14 am
munchkins > Chez Geek! I love Steve Jackson games!
posted by Sarakenobi on 2-1-2008 at 9:24 am
Fluxx! the rules change with almost every card played it is amazingly fun especially if you have been drinking
posted by jon on 2-1-2008 at 9:29 am
My friends and I played a card game the other weekend called “In a Pickle”. The game begins with four cards on the floor to start each stack. Each player has five cards in their hand. A player may lay a card that can logically fit within a card at the bottom of a stack, or a card that can contain the topmost card at the top of a stack. After 4 cards have been played on one stack, everyone plays on that stack until no one can play a “containing” card. the fun of the game is that you can play any containing card — as long as you can present a logical argument that sways the majority of the group to your opinion. So basically, if you can convince the group that the Universe can be contained in a Fish Bowl then you will be the Zen Master of this game.
XD It was totally fun XD
posted by Ashley on 2-1-2008 at 9:45 am
Cool games. I really like Cheapass games (www.cheapass.com), the makers of Unexploded Cow and Falling.
However, I think you missed their best card game, Give Me The Brain. The premise of the game is that you and the other players are trying to run a fastfood restaraunt staffed by zombies, but they only have one brain to share. You compete with other players for the brain so you can get your jobs done first.
posted by Jason! on 2-1-2008 at 9:47 am
Guillotine is a great game. The look on people’s faces when you ask them to play a card game about executing nobles during the French revolution is worth the price alone. Once they play it, they really enjoy it.
If you like “Falling”, there is also another card game you might like called “Lunch Money”. It involves 2 (or more) school yard bullies fighting. There are headlocks, jabs and eye-gouges, and you are encouraged to trash talk while playing. Insults encouraged !
I’ve played 1000 Blank White cards with my family and I’ve taught it to my sons’ 5th grade class. They had a blast with it. My favorite card I kept from teaching the class was one titled “Mean Substitute Teacher” that had a -50 point value. The picture was a witch (complete with a broom) standing in front of a chalkboard.
posted by Fred on 2-1-2008 at 10:08 am
“Family Business” and “Fluxx” are both great card games. Another more recent one is the Addams Family influenced “Gloom”. It’s played with unique clear plastic cards that are used on cards that represent your gloomy family. The object is to kill them off with as much depression and unhappiness as you can lay upon them-’pet puppy dies on your birthday’ for example, while bestowing happiness on your opponents-’you just won the lottery!’
Good times with that one.
posted by Mathias on 2-1-2008 at 10:09 am
I’m a fan of Fluxx, where the rules and goals are constantly changing; Chrononauts, which involves time travel and changing the past to make your future work; and Munchkin, which is just nuts.
But now I must get this blank card game…
posted by kitsana_d on 2-1-2008 at 10:10 am
Aquarius is fun, but Fluxx is much funner. We have the stoner, original, zombie and christian versions. Anything out of loony labs is great.
posted by jenny on 2-1-2008 at 10:10 am
I hadn’t thought about spit/speed in years. My sister and I were brutal. we’d play all the time. and yes, it could get VERY violent! Great fun though. I’d never heard of any of the other games. They sound interesting.
posted by jenny on 2-1-2008 at 10:10 am
Guillotine is indeed a lot of fun, but I would have to say, most of the fun is in the premise! Bring me Marie Antoinette!
posted by SaiSai on 2-1-2008 at 10:15 am
Craig,
I thought I was the only one who loved Milles Bornes. I think that my oh so geeky team at work is going to purchase 1000 white cards now and try that out.
posted by Ian on 2-1-2008 at 10:32 am
Anyone who likes these needs to check out “The Totally Insane Card Game” - easy to find with a google search.
It is a hilarious game where you constantly are trading hands around, and following bizarre rules.
My favorite card in the game is one which is called, “This isn’t my card,” which instructs you to hand it immediately to another player while reading the title aloud.
Funny stuff - great for a group of 5 or so to play.
posted by Roomshaped on 2-1-2008 at 10:34 am
Another vote here for Bohnanza, but I’d also recommend “Dead Money,” a zombie poker game based on Cheapass Games’ “Give Me The Brain.”
Another hit with my friends is The Big Idea, which you can look up online and create your own deck. Always a winner at small parties, especially if you let everyone make cards.
posted by DavidGriner on 2-1-2008 at 10:38 am
Actually, Falling is reeeally fun to play after a few drinks.
posted by Allan on 2-1-2008 at 1:06 pm
Another vote here for Fluxx and Bohnanza. Did anyone say Spooks? Spooks is awesome. Chez Greek is probably my favorite of the Chez games.
posted by wil on 2-1-2008 at 1:57 pm
Guillotine is one of my favorite card games. My entire family plays. Bohnanza is fun, too.
posted by Natalie on 2-1-2008 at 2:12 pm
I think the important thing to remember here is that any card game, even UNO, is much more enjoyable after (or while) knockin’ a few back… I can hear the commercial announcer now, “Are you tired of playing the same ol card or board games over and over? Well why not try playing with Alcohol! Yes, even the simplest of games such as ‘Go Fish’ can be a blast with this new addition…”
posted by Fletch on 2-1-2008 at 2:59 pm
Ooo… I love ‘Unexploded Cow’. And ‘Pass the Brain,’ which someone else mentioned.
But…
My two favorite unusual card games are ‘Ninja Burger’ (Created by the Munchkin people — a hilarious romp of ninja goodness and fun geek situations only solvable by the mystical powers of the ninja –) and something my friends in high school called ‘Mao.’
There were some rules and some actions that needed to be performed while playing, but most of the rules were invented and shifted during gameplay based on particular cards that came up and the person who was ‘chairman’ at the time, and the person who ended the round with the most cards lost.
Needless to say, hilarity insued as people attempted to keep the rules straight and not reveal that they were holding the better part of the 4 decks the game was played with!
posted by ACute Angle on 2-1-2008 at 3:10 pm
Hey, my copy of Guillotine didn’t come with an actual guillotine…boo, hiss!
Gloom is fantastic to play with friends who can tell a good story. You can simply lay the various cards down on your opponents, or you can make up a story to explain just how a character came to be “pursued by poodles” or “tortured by toddlers.” It’s really quite remarkable how the stories of the families become intertwined as the game progresses.
posted by Susan on 2-1-2008 at 4:52 pm
You should try XXXenophile, a collectible card game (CCG) that’s based on sex. It’s great at parties or with your SO. :D
posted by Heathen Dan on 2-1-2008 at 5:35 pm
we been playing Grass for a few months now. Don’t know who makes it, but it’s fun to play. I’m trying to get folks to play euchre, but not many people are into it in Oregon. In Indiana, that’s all we’d do in high school.
posted by Mudi-B on 2-1-2008 at 7:15 pm
I bought Killer Bunnies for my little sister a few years back. . . it still becomes a yearly event over the Christmas holiday when we break out the bunny cards for a game and everyone else watches because they have no idea what’s going on. “Whatcha doing?” “Playing killer bunnies.” “How do you win?” “By getting the magic carrot.” “Oh, OK. . .”
posted by Kmanpat on 2-2-2008 at 7:30 am
I found Guillotine while doing a project on the French Revolution for an English class. It’s one of my favorite games, but definitely one of the best parts is the reaction of people whom you have asked to play. The game was how I ended up presenting much of my project, by discussing the lives of those we killed and by explaining why certain cards were worth certain points.
posted by Manda on 2-2-2008 at 3:45 pm
Guillotine is great. We play it at my job in Tokyo during breaks. but I am a bit dissappointed two of my other favorites are not on this list. Lunch Money, where you get to be playground bullies and beat the snot out of each other (really creepy cards too) and another called Once Upon a time. In that game everyone gets a card with an ending and several item or situation cards (The king, a secret is revealed, a magic sword) and you try to make up a story that fits your ending, but if you mention something the other players have, they get to steal the story. The first one to get rid of the cards and use their ending wins.
posted by John on 2-2-2008 at 10:56 pm
You missed “Lunch Money”. It is a game where you play little girls in a playground beating up each other for their lunch money. Both brutal and funny.
posted by Alan on 2-3-2008 at 4:29 pm
Guillotine is a nice game, but the mechanics are pretty repetitive. You really have to play it with the right people. Ditto Nuclear War. Aquarius is a great game, and so is Fluxx. Zombie Fluxx looks pretty good. Kill Dr. Lucky is a great game, as is The Big Idea and the Munchkins series. Pride and Predjudice was similar to Family Business, I believe, but now it’s out of print. As is Q-Turn, a great little dynamic board game.
posted by Paul on 2-3-2008 at 4:49 pm
Chez Goth is so great. If I had any friends, I would play it all the time. Pass the Brains sounds great too. I’m gonna have to run out and get some of these (and some friends to play them with).
posted by Sara on 2-3-2008 at 6:22 pm
Besides the mention for the Blank Card Game image, you should all check out boardgamegeek.com for some good board and card games. I started with Fluxx but found the randomness a bit off-putting after several plays, but good for a light filler. Guillotine was one I got soon after Fluxx and has been a staple with my friends. Falling is a pretty novel idea since it is a real-time card game, and only takes 3-5 minutes to play, so you don’t feel too bad if you lose. Bohnanza (Bean Farming)is another bizarre topic for a game but quite a lot of fun. The last but best one (IMHO) is Werewolf/Mafia which can be played with 7-20+ players, and is a great psychological test of skill. There are several great games out there produced every year, so don’t just stick to monopoly or risk or hearts. Would you watch Gone With the Wind every time you wanted to watch a movie, just cause you liked it once?
posted by Christian on 2-3-2008 at 10:20 pm
What a fun read. My wife and I used to play Speed but the others are beyond me. Some of the descriptions reminded me of a couple of games I played back in the 70’s. One was mostly a card game, with a board game component called Cosmic Encounters. You used alien powers to defeat your enemies. Another was designed by Brian Eno called Oblique Strategies. I could only remember who designed it and found the name and description on Wikipedia: “Described as “100 Worthwhile Dilemmas” and intended as guides to shaking up the mind in the process of producing artistic endeavors. “
posted by Ken on 2-4-2008 at 3:18 pm
Haven’t had a chance to play any of these games, but would love to try many of them.
Some unusual card games I’ve played include:
Lunch Money - School girls beat each other up for their lunch money. Person with all the money at the end wins.
Zombies - Survivors try to escape the undead by reaching the heliport.
I don’t know how unusual those can be classified or if anyone has mentioned them yet, but both are pretty fun.
posted by Sheila on 2-6-2008 at 11:39 am
How could you have left off the greatest of all card games- Illuminatus? Based on the novel by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea, it’s a great game of interlocking conspiracies.
Fnord!
posted by Madpuppy on 2-7-2008 at 9:46 am
Its like your listing my favorite games; Guillotine, Fluxx, Kill Dr. Lucky, Save Dr. Lucky, Tsuro, Give me the brain- They’re all awesome!
posted by Brady on 2-8-2008 at 9:04 am
Yay for “Bohnanza” and “Kill Dr. Lucky!”. Those two are my favorites, and now i have a whole list of games to look for at the game shop.
My favorite part of Kill Dr. Lucky is watching your friends try to explain the rules of the game to their 7 year old children. It’s surprisingly funny. Anyone ever played “Kill Dr. Lucky and his Dog?”
posted by Redhead on 2-9-2008 at 11:10 am
You left out the Munchkin series! here isn’t a greater series of card games then that one.
PS. I LOVE Guillotine, I’ve played that card game for 5 years now and it NEVER gets old!
posted by Hunter on 2-20-2008 at 4:30 am
My family and I have game nights with friends, and the favourite games are Munchkin (in all its’ various expansion forms), and Zeus on the Loose. ZotL is great for children, but a lot of fun for adults, so it’s the perfect family game.
posted by Melody on 3-2-2008 at 4:10 am
One of the best games of all times is Apples to Apples. It’s not really that odd, but it’s great to play with a bunch of people.
Basically, the “it” person draws a green card with an adjective on it, and all the other players have red cards that have nouns on them. They play whatever card they think that the “it” person will pick to match the adjective. The catch is, the “it” person can pick whichever card he or she likes, regardless of whether or not it matches the green card.
It is great game to play with a whole bunch of people with hours to spare.
And I absolutely LOVE the card game spit. I played it waiting for after school practices in high school. Fantastic game
posted by Danielle on 3-7-2008 at 8:43 pm