Ya' know, I've had a similar conversation with my friends about this and I think the "boring cards" are one of strengths of A2A as a game overall as a multi generational family type game. "The Everglades" means nothing to you or me but to someone who lives in FL, it probably has a bigger connection; ditto for "Eleanor Roosevelt".

I love how anyone can customize the game to fit them :)

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True, but there are a lot of boring words in there. Locales can be changed, but I still think the base set needs a revamp.

Then again, I always think in Magic terms.

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I had never even heard of this game, but we played it with some family members at the holidays and it was a lot of fun. Thank you for reminding me about it! I need to remember to get a copy.

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Cary Grant? There's no emotional connection to Cary Grant? But, but...he's totally hot, the most suave person ever to live, and has that whiff of "might be bisexual" to make the fantasies even more exciting.

Just goes to show, one man's meat is another man's poison.

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People like Cary Grant. But trust me. I've seen him in action in Apples to Apples. There's a certain level of interest that you have to have to make it work.

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See, I always considered Eleanor Roosevelt one of the funny cards. Unless the topic is Feminism or something.

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Hygration?

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The act of high-grading.

It's a perfectly cromulent word.

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dude! I so wanna come play at your house! We've been talking about doing that for years but non of us have done it.

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Being OCD it was actually kind of painful for me, but now I'm anxious to play some and see how it goes. Fortunately, my daughter Amy is arriving for spring break today and she LOVES Apples to Apples, so maybe we can talk some Tuesday night Magic-ers into playing a few hands when they are out of the main game.

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You could just change Nebraska to Ohio. :)

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We kept Canada and Canadians because they are ALWAYS funny.

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I love Apples to Apples. I love all board and card games, but that's the only one I've ever been able to get people interested in playing (what's wrong with Simpsons Clue?) and I love it. I don't have the expansion packs yet, though.

Have you ever played Killer Bunnies? That's an awesome game too. XD

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The thing about Apples to Apples that I think is so appealing is that it doesn't really matter who's winning. Every hand is fun. It also doesn't take a lot of concentration to keep track of what's going on (just during choosing individual cards to try and dope out the psychology of the green-card player and so make the best pick) so it's very social during the game. It's very relaxed and easy to play and funny - a totally winning combination.

Played Killer Bunnies a couple times but never really got into it.

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Before the British version of Apples came out, several friends of mine (each of whom owned a set) took all the massively US biased cards and just wrote new words on there.

Knowing what I know of you, you might want to consider a game of Porn Apples ....

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It would have to be kept in a separate box as we frequently play with my teenaged daughter!

We may use the old cards to write new words on. They are a nice weight and it seems a pity to just throw them out. But it will be a slow process with lots of negotiation as the last time we played a game of it wherein the rule was "you can write on bad cards" (someone else's set), the things written were obscene, too specific to individuals in the game and generally unfair. So there will be better vetting this time around.

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My mother has a deep love for Eleanor Roosevelt and will probably pick that card as the winner in almost every Apples to Apples circumstance. Seriously.

"Eleanor Roosevelt" for "Magnificent"? That's a winner in Mom's book.

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There are certain cards that we kept in specifically because of people in our friends group that other people might have discarded. Customizing the game is definitely something that you do in light of your audience!

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Having done exactly that on more than one occasion, you might have a lot of fun just printing up blank red and green cards as a party game and having people come over and make their own set of Apples to Apples.

We always humorously call this "Apples to Copyright Infringement", and have gone through multiple sets so far. Just remember to print *lots* of extras... as there will be quite a bit of ripping up of worthless cards as you go through the process.

And then when everyone's happy with where things are going, you can start adding art and quotes and what-not. Our personal favorite card in our Copyright Infringement deck is the "Timberwolf Anal Protection System" card, a total in-joke of the group (what would be the last thing you want to do before you go to prison... ... why, get the Timberwolf Anal Protection System installed, of course!) which shows in all too graphic depiction a cartoonish naked man picking up dropped soap... and the Timberwolf roaring out of his behind, 100% "online".

It's good, not-so-clean fun. :)

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My friends have a variant along those lines, but with a more organic growth process.

Start out with index cards with duplicates of the good apples-to-apples cards (for bootstrapping purposes; the best way to start a deck is actually to split an existing deck), but shuffle in 10-20% blank cards. If you draw a blank card, you can write in whatever you want on it. We ignore the rule about throwing out the last noun card played on each hand in order to give people time to write.

Between games, prune out boring cards and excessive duplicates and shuffle in more blanks.

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We did something similar last time we played. We realized that pretty much all the cards with an "&" in them were useless, such as salt&pepper, fruits&vegetables, etc, so we tossed them

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I had one horrifying hand where I had almost 100% those cards. As I remember, I managed to convince someone to trade me his worst card for my best card, and we both agreed I'd I still come out ahead.

(I think my best card was "Washer and Dryer". Think about what that means for the rest of my hand.)

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Some of my friends came up with a game called "Apples to Copyright Infringement." A group of us just sat down and made out own red and green cards. It's weird what a group of people (mostly college-aged geeks) will come up with, and how they can be used in A2A combat.

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Joe, we were posting this at the exact same moment.

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In our own NYU Sci-Fi Club version of what we lovingly titled "Apples to Copyright Infringement" we made up a whole slew of our own cards based on NYC stuff. Also, the two blank cards in the set at the Gamer Commune I lived in here officially Sharpie-ed in with "Sara's Boobs" (with the quote of "They block fire exits!")and "Your Mom" (with the quote "Tell your Mom I said hi.").
Revamping Apples to Apples seems to be a great American pastime sort of thing.
It is one of my favorite games ever. And really fun to play drunk...because then everything is funny. Even Helen Keller.

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"Sara's Boobs"

Or: "How do ya like them apples?"

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Cary Grant would not only win games in my circles, but probably derail everything for a good ten minutes.

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One card that's really missing from the basic set: "Me." We added it after the first game.

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True. That should be in there.

Though they do have "My Sex Life," "My Bedroom," and "My Job."

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Perhaps the problem with the red cards is that you're just a whippersnapper.

If your parents and/or grandparents were playing, "Eleanor Roosevelt" and "Cary Grant" would be absolute gold.

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No, I know my Mom and Dad. Cary Grant still wouldn't win.

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I first played it at a friend's house in Minnesota, loved it so much that I put it on my wedding registry, said friend got it for me, I played it with all my local friends at my birthday party some two weeks later, and now it's requested at every single event that I go to. It is the best game ever.

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Indeed it is.

You know about the Green Card Rule, right? That makes it even better.

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You might like to know the man who helped invent that game is one John Kovalic (muskratjohn He's also responsible for "Dork Tower" and helped lay the groundwork for the launch of "PS238" by setting Aaron Williams up as a self-published, so Mr. Kovalic might just actually be the Messiah.

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Oh, I know John Kovalic. He's a good man.

In fact, I have a rather off-the-wall submission to him that I expect him to reject, but whatcha gonna do?

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my golden moment in Apples to Apples: my red card of "Hiroshima, 1945" winning the round. the green card? "awkward"

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My wife's side of the family spent an unfortunate period in Nebraska, and still have relations there, so there are ongoing connections on that side.

My wife has a huge Cary Grant/Old movie fetish, so that would likely remain a useful card.

The Mothman Prophecies, anybody?

Hope springs eternal.

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Cary Grant is both old and magnificent. Or, he was, until he died. But what I'm trying to say is, I have a strong emotional attachment to Mr. Grant.

Eleanor Roosevelt, not so much.

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I've also considered making own cards, possibly localised to refer to people infamous within friends in this city, etc., but not got round to it. What I'd like is to increase the choice just *slightly*, eg. if you could combine cards and be able to play "Roosevelt hair" or "Burning everglades" or whatever. Then the combinations are much better, and "Bush's anything" will still win most disgusting, but you won't see the same combinations so often. However, any idea I think of seems too complicated and unwieldy, which would defeat the purpose of being fun.

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We've printed our own cards, and it was fun. We also tend to skip cards that have "My ____" on them, because we find them too stupid. They never win. Ever. Eleanor has nothing to fear from the "My ____" cards.

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A friend won a round with the card My Bank Account. The red card I'd put down? Pathetic.

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