Apples To Apples

I looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove games.  I love video games, I love computer games, I love crossword puzzles, I love mind games, I love actual "assemble the pieces" puzzles, I love board games, I love card games, I love anything that can be considered a game.

...well, okay, not every game.  Things that involve one animal fighting another for sport I find rather deplorable.  I'm not a huge fan of buzkashi (though I respect the ingenuity).  Chess Boxing just puzzles me.

But if I had to pick a game that exploded in this country a few years ago and has been one I can casually mention in a group of people and have at least one person know what I'm talking about, it's Apples To Apples.

Here's the breakdown of how it works.

Step 1) Gather a group of people around a table.  Feel free to use restraints or a taser until they're all seated.

Step 2) Pick which player will be the first "judge."

Step 3) The "judge" deals seven red cards from the box- wait, you do own a copy, right?  Okay, scratch everything, put this first:

Step 1)  Buy/borrow a copy of the game.  Don't try to steal one, it won't fit down your pants.

So...I guess that makes this step 4.

Step 4) The "judge" deals seven red cards from the box to each player, including the judge.

Step 5) The judge picks a green card and reads it aloud before placing it on the table.

Step 6) Everybody else looks through their hand and picks the card that either a) best suits the definition, b) is the exact polar opposite of the definition, c) has absolutely nothing to do with the card but the player thinks they can BS it, or d) is a card that the judge would probably like anyway.

Step 7) The judge gathers up the cards, reads them aloud, and picks the card they think best represents what the green card describes.  Players are encouraged to lobby and try to convince the judge that a certain card is best.

Step 8) The player whose card gets picked gets the green card, first player to a certain number of green cards wins, the next player to the left becomes the judge, deals a new card, and play continues.

Pretty simple, isn't it?  Someone says an adjective, you play a noun, best noun wins.

But it's so much deeper than that.  In many games I've played (and I've played games with teenagers, with octogenarians, with people who were stone cold sober and people who probably were one drink away from not being able to pronounce certain words like "luscious" or "tactile"), it's come down to strategy instead of simply picking a card that best represents the adjective.

Suppose the card played was "Obnoxious."  You might have "cell phones" as a red card.  Perhaps you also have "infomercials."  Now you have to think about the person who's choosing and whether they would pick one way or the other.  Of course, you might get beat either way when the person next to you plays "spontaneous combustion" because the judge thinks that's hilarious.

I've also seen judges use strategy.  If one player is one card away from winning, I've watched judges do their best to figure out which player played what card (which is easier if you play something when everyone knows how you feel about it) and then choose in an attempt to simply keep that player from getting the final card.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  It becomes a game of wits and strategy, where you might intentionally toss out cards that don't work because you just want new cards or you don't know much about the subject matter.

And sometimes, you'll still win a round by throwing out something that has nothing to do with it, because the judge just can't choose between two other choices and picks yours to be fair.

There are also a few variations I've seen done.  One group I observed had two tables, and each round there were two judges with a green card each.  A player could pick which judge to give a card to, but could still only give one card.  If you notice that more players are going towards one card, you might give one to the smaller pile just to get your odds up.  There are also six other varieties of game play in the rules that bring something unique to the game.

It's fun, it's simple, it's challenging, it's a great way to get to know people better, and it has a permanent spot on my game shelf, which you might remember I had a picture of on my blog a while ago.  Oh, and for the record, it's even more full now than it was before.

This is a game I wish I could play more often, it's fun with just a few players and it's fun with a huge table of players (up to ten, beyond that go steal another copy you might want to see if another friend owns it.

...I really should consider having ads up on this blog some day.  I could probably advertise a link to buy a copy (or people could just Google it), but at least then I'd get a cut.