Cards Against Humanity came into my radar a few months ago and looks like it’s having a lot of success in some regions.
When I first saw people playing it, I really felt it wasn’t a fun game and it was just boring to watch. But when I first played it in a conference (yes, that’s what we do at conferences), I actually had lots of fun. Surprise!
But going back a bit, I have to first say how Cards Against Humanity, or CAH for the intimates, is available and to do that, you have to know that it was born under the Creative Commons license, which means that you can download it for free, change or add new cards. You only can’t sell it without the creator’s permission. Great, right?
Cards Against Humanity Details
Name: Cards Against Humanity
Creator(s): Josh Dillon and many more
Publisher: Ad Magic Inc
Year Published: 2011
Category: Cards
Number of Players: At least 3
Age: 17 and above
Play Time: 30 – 90 minutes
Learning Difficulty: Easy
Game Rules: Click here
Best Price: Check at Amazon
Game Components
There isn’t much to say about the components. If you buy it, you’ll receive a deck of good quality plastic cards. If you print it, well, you’ll have whatever you printed it in :P. The question cards are black and the answers are the white ones.
The texts in the cards are exactly the opposite colour, making it very easy to read and avoid mistakes.
Game Experience
This is a fast paced game. You have 10 white cards with a range of different answers (I’ll give you one example bellow).
Every turn one player gets a black card and asks a question. Everyone else choose the funniest answer they have in their hands and put it on the table. All the answers are put together, which means that no one knows whose players played each card.
The player that draw the black card, most know as the Card Czar, then repeats the question and read the first answer. It’s repeated until all the cards are read.
After a good (or several) laugh, the Card Czar chooses which answer he thinks is the best and then the player who gives that answer will reveal itself and acquire the black card.
As an example, you could have the black card with the following text: Introducing Xtreme Baseball! It’s like baseball, but with _________!
The answers will have to complete the sentence. So here are some possible choices:
- Spontaneous human combustion
- Passive-Agressive Post-It notes
- Your weird brother
- Chainsaws for hands
- Menstrual rage
The possible answers are massive and they can be racist, sexual, weird or anything that can bring a good laugh. This game has to be played without taking anything against you or anyone else personally. The content is very explicit, so that’s why the minimum age to play it is so high. The players have to enjoy or at least understand a bit of black humour as well.
The game ends when everyone agrees that it ends. There’s not a formal way to finish it, but when it happens, the player who has the majority of black cards, wins the game.
In my experience, it’s not actually a game to see who the winner will be. It’s a game to have fun while playing it and the result doesn’t really matter as it’s the process of getting the funniest answers is what make this game a good addition to my collection.
One important point is that, unless everyone is getting drunk while playing it, which is not my case, after a few turns it gets repetitive. I’ve seen a lot of people enjoying it for a long time, but for my playing style, I set a limit otherwise it looses its purpose.
Even having a lot of different answers, I feel that Cards Against Humanity should be played for not more 60 minutes, so you can have the most of it and still play it a lot of different times.
Expansions
Expansions in Card Against Humanity means a lot more questions and answers. There are in total 6 expansions and a box with all the cards in it. To make it easier for you, here are them:
- First Expansion (80 white & 20 black cards)
- Second Expansion (75 & 25 black cards)
- Third Expansion (75 & 25 black cards)
- Fourth Expansion (70 & 30 black cards)
- Fifth Expansion (75 & 25 black cards)
- Sixth Expansion (75 & 25 black cards)
- The Bigger Blacker Box (also includes 50 blank cards, so you can make your own questions and answers)
Interested? Buy it or read more reviews at Amazon or even download it for free to try the game. It’s good to mentioned that, at the moment, Amazon has prices lower than the official website, saving you at least $2 per expansion.
Have you ever played it? Have any questions? Tell me about it in the comments section below.
16 Comments
Great review. Short and to the point.
I never heard of the game before, and at first glance it sounds really interesting.
After reading your review I know that its not my taste in games.
All though its simple, and probably funny for a while , I think that after a while its simply gets to the point where its no longer funny ans simply boring.
Playing for a limited amount of time, like you suggested, could probably help lengthen the play time, but I cant imagine myself wanting to play again after a year or so of playing.
That’s exactly my point and as it’s not the kind of game I usually like to play, I was surprise that it was actually fun.
This is SUPER interesting. I really think it’s the most interesting card game I’ve seen in a while ;D
This is truly my style LOL. I know it has some dark stuff in it. And it really can make you laugh.
I heard it doesn’t ship anywhere outside the U.S. Is that true?
If are having problem shipping outside US from Amazon (I know they ship it to more countries though), you can go straight to this link https://store.cardsagainsthumanity.com/ and buy it from there. They ship all around the world. Only point is that it’s not as cheap as Amazon 😉
I just recently learned about this game and have been dying to try it out! I have been on the fence as to whether I want to buy it or not, since I haven’t actually played it yet, but I think I may just take the plunge now. Thanks for the review!
Hi Lisa, thanks for stopping by. If it’s your kind of game, you should definitely go for it. Let me know later what how it was.
I would imagine that with open minded friends who take this game as it should be. A bit of fun, then you could have a good laugh. A few beers, unwind from everything stressful. I agree that playing for about an hour is just about right.
It really helps with the stress. Having a good laugh after a hard day or even a hard week is always good.
Great review! I’ve heard about this game before but no one could give me a clear answer. I’m looking for all kind of games I can introduce my teen and her friends to for a sake of salvation from living the life in their phones.
Are these expansions sold separately? What is the price for the Bigger Blacker box?
Thank you. Kirill.
Hi Kirill. It’s a good one to take them out of their phones indeed.
All the expansions can be bought separately. They cost about $10 at Amazon.
The Bigger Blacker Box costs $30 and it has all the expansions (but not the main game).
Sounds like fun, I’ve never heard of it before but it sounds great. The price doesn’t seem bad either. Thanks!
It’s actually very cheap if you compare with other card games in the market.
Great review!
I was wondering what all the hype was about and felt left out on this game. Now have a pretty good understanding of the concept.
Thanks Wes. I’m glad you liked it. 🙂
I loved your review and I absolutely love playing this game. Cards Against Humanity is so much fun to play with your friends. It’s perfect for parties or just small get-togethers. I’m so excited to see that they have expansion options. I didn’t realize that until now so thank you so much for sharing that with me. I will have to check it out ASAP. I’m having friends over for wine night soon and we always play this game. It’s hilarious : )
Hi Allison,
I’m glad it was helpful for you.
Enjoy your wine night and play against the rules 😛