Cards Against Humanity – We’re All Going to Hell

Summary

Overall rating: 7/10

Value for money: 7/10

Pros: Unique card game, truly hilarious pairings are possible, can be self printed

Cons: Dark humour isn’t for everyone, expansions not regionally adjusted


Review

“Cards Against Humanity is a party game for horrible people. Unlike most of the party games you’ve played before, Cards Against Humanity is as despicable and awkward as you and your friends.”

This is how the creators describe the game and after playing a few rounds last night I can concur that this description is wholly accurate. The game launched after a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2011 and has been growing in popularity ever since.

The basic premise is simple: there are a load of black cards which each contain a question or a statement with a blank (or multiple blanks) in it and a number of white cards which have answers on. One person (the Card Czar) each round is responsible for drawing a black card and reading it to the rest of the group. They each choose, from their dealt hands of 10 white cards, the best answer and hand it to the Card Czar face down. The Card Czar shuffles the entries, reads each one allowed back to the group and chooses a winner. The winner is given 1 “Awesome” point. Everyone draws white cards to take their total back up to 10 and the Card Czar moves to the person on the left.

So simple even kids could play it but hold up there’s a twist (it’s not called Cards against Humanity for nothing)! The white cards say terrible terrible things and the winner is usually the one whose answer is the darkest. For instance in the game we played last night one round was won when “Dead babies” was played in response to “What is there a lot of in heaven?” and “What’s the next happy meal toy” saw the card “A sad handjob” take the point. It’s not all sick jokes and you will find some satirical answers take the win. Sometimes you’ll find yourself not playing a potential winner because you simply can’t handle it morally and this is why the game is certainly not for everyone. Bring together the right group of people however, and you’ll be laughing for hours.

The creators kindly released a few versions for different territories (US, Canada, UK and Australia) and you can either buy them printed and boxed or download a pdf and print the cards yourself due to the game being released under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.0 license. I opted to buy the game to partly to support the developers but mostly because I’m incredibly lazy. There are a HUGE number of expansion packs but these are only available in a US style and haven’t been released as a pdf. At £8 a pop delivered they’re not cheap but won’t break the bank either and they should give the game a new lease of life after you’ve played a few months. Get the first expansion here: Cards Against Humanity: First Expansion.

In summary; if you and your friends have the kind of humour that means you’re probably going to hell, buy this game and at least you’ll have something to entertain you on the trip.

Instructions

Can be downloaded from the official site here. There are loads of fan invented rules too and if you’re feeling creative it’s not hard to come up with your own versions. There are even alternatives that allow just two people to play but a minimum of 4 players is better.

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