I'm with you on all of those except #6 - we're overdue for that.

I'm thinking, next time we play, that people can nominate cards for destruction and shred them on the spot if everyone concurs.

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That's a good way of doing it. But make sure you have experienced A2A players - ones who know that THE EVERGLADES may look like it will win, but it won't unless you live in Florida or have a swamp rat at your table.

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We got our game in the mail yesterday. We could use some help editing the deck. You and Gini should lend a hand.

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We definitely will!

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I can't stand Apples to Apples and I honestly think it's the group of people I'm stuck playing with.

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My friend, it must be. In the right crowd even Apples to Apples JUNIOR can be fun! I know, because for my birthday party a friend accidentally bought me that version instead of the regular one.

Of course, we had to make it into a drinking game to make it really awesome, but it was still well received.

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I do all of these things. Ergo, I win this thread.

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YOU WINNZ0R.

Claim your prize at the front desk.

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I like to slow-roll the green card a little differently, by announcing the synonyms before putting it down, e.g.:

"We're looking for something unethical, corrupt, or unprincipled- the word is (lay down card) - Unscrupulous".

A passable Alex Trebek impression is also an asset, I find.

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Hmm. I'll have to steal that one! Good one.

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I disagree with rule number 3, in that everyone should have an ability to have their cards seen.

However, there's a lot of excitement to be drawn by choosing an early winner and then releasing the cards, because many players will up their game in trying to convince you to abandon your convictions.

Also, for experienced players, I find that speed play can help to liven things up. This is a variation that was given in the original rules, where for N players, only N-2 red cards can be played in a round (which means that the slowest person has to sit out). This only works when everyone's equally competitive, because you want to be able to freely laugh at the person who slammed down their card half a second too late.

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My favorite variation is a house rule we always play with, i.e.:

On any given round of play, you can discard your entire hand and draw seven new cards by giving up the chance to play on that round.

Since we haven't hygrated our deck, it helps mitigate the "hand full of generic crap" effect.

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That's exactly how we play! Like, all seven points. Apples to Apples is truly the defining human experience, I guess. We like to do funny voices and weird accents for the green cards.

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Samuel L Jackson will always win anything good, if I'm playing the green card.

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The Best Apples to Apples play ever was when a friend of mine chose Helen Keller as the best answer to Touchy-Feely.

A close second was Hitler as Visionary.

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Cuddly Fly-Fishing.

Though my favorite was playing "Ninjas" on "Extreme", for someone for whom Ninjas is totally a trump card. He rolled out the red cards in this order (IIRC): "Hiroshima", which isn't quite as extreme as "Atom Bombs" (because that's more than one), which isn't quite as extreme as "The End of the World", but that's not quite as extreme as "Supernovas", which isn't nearly as extreme as "The Big Bang"...which isn't nearly as extreme as "NINJAS!!!"

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Our house rule is Going To Hell Points. Leave a bowl of pennies in the middle of the table. Any time someone throws in a red card that is seriously groan worthy (Hitler for Fashionable, Helen Keller for Hilarious, etc), they get a penny. The person with the most pennies at the end of the game is going to hell. Truly awesome players can both win the game, and go to hell, all at the same time.

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I really need to try that.

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You need a rule #8 about custom-made red cards.

The ones we have fall into a few varieties. One of the more popular varieties are extensions on the "My…" cards, which allow the players to poke fun at the judge, or even at other players. "All of the men here" and "all of the women here" can be a lot of fun, depending on the green card and the judge. I once gave "The player on my left" to my nephew, when the green card was "Flat". He chose it because the player on his left was his sister.

Another group are the more risque cards; I used to take them out before playing with people like my mother, but it got to be too much effort once the decks got really big, so now they get left in and screw 'em. For some people, "oral sex" and "multiple orgasms" are almost trump cards.

Inside jokes are good as long as everyone is in on them. However, when we do reduce the deck, we'll have to take out some of the inside jokes that people outside our original A2A circle don't get.

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Step 3: Be Amusingly Arbitrary
One of our recurring arbitrary bits is to proclaim "Dead!" (and by implication irrelevant) whenever a celebrity (who is, in fact, dead) is played--especially if that card is better match than yours. Sometimes this works and the judge agrees, sometimes not.

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That's pretty close to how my friends and I play, with a few variations.

Generally the person deciding looks over the red cards without showing them, and then lays them down face up, one or two at a time (with explainations) with the worst match first. Frequently people who know they can't win will deliberately aim to be first out. Which can take some doing given that we usually play it at parties and have at least 8 people playing, all with warped senses of humor.

And yes, I have a friend with whom 'charging rhinos' will almost always win, and another for whom "The Little Mermaid" or "James T. Kirk" are pretty sure bets.

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I can understand the feeling toward Robin Williams. He is good in dramatic roles. His comedy is repetitiive.

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I am amused, because this is pretty much exactly how we play. Including step 5.

As far as I know we developed these house rules independently of anyone you could've gotten them from.

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I never realized that other people played with the same attitude, and techniques, that we did. Yes, you ALWAYS have to announce the runners-up, with commentary if possible, before revealing the winner.

We have one friend whose tastes are so odd and skewed, that when it's his turn to be judge, a lot of us will just slap our red cards down before we even know what the green card is. Half the time, one of those cards wins, too.

We didn't do a full weed-out like you did, but we do have a couple of cards that we allow people to take mulligans on. One friend, for example, is allowed to draw again if he gets JOHN PHILLIP SOUSA.

Favorite winning deals in Apples to Apples:

Radiant: Madame Curie
Sick and Tired: Lance Armstrong
Crunchy: Princess Diana
Plug and Play: Zucchini

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Now, see, this is full of win. As another poster above, I loathe A2A, and I doubted the "you need new friends" responses, but that may be the correct answer. None of those would ever have won in the games I've been at. And they all should have.

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i play apples to apples to destress and detox with friends, not to have more fun than a barrel full of cracked out monkeys slam dancing to the ramones screaming you will have fun damn it happy happy joy joy @#$@#!@#**11111!!!!!1! head explodes

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You have step two all wrong. You have to gaze at the red cards, looking either bewildered or amused, then you set them down, one at a time, reminding them of the green card and reading off each card. Then you either eliminate the ones that don't fit at all, or you just start talking justifications. The window for being talked into a winner has to be wider, unless your trump card was played.

The weirdest match I've seen so far is "Relaxing," which was won by "The Challenger Explosion." When my husband saw that card, he laughed so hard he fell off his chair. When he was done laughing, he felt much more relaxed.

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The challenger shuttle explosion is always the trump card with my group of friends. I don't know why!

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Apples to Apples is a staple favorite at Irish Gaming Cons, and my favorite present in the world for people who don't have it. It's awesome.
And the way you desribe it above is exactly how I was taught to play it, and how we play it back home, right down to the cardpimping and slow-rolling.

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My favorite was the time that the 6-year-old ended up being the judge for sexy. "I don't know who Joan of Arc was. Not sexy!"

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Step 1: Slow-Roll the Green Card.

I also like to read the synonyms when people are slow to play cards. I have an unfortunate tendency to turn into a game show host at times like that.

If someone's facing a tough decision, help them out by pimping your favorite Red card - and make sure it's not always yours.

Absolutely. I'm a big fan of arguing vehemently for someone else's card because I think it's funnier than mine.

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Helen Keller won anything regardless of what it was played during my college years. It didn't matter who was in the game at the time, it won. It was our universal trump card.

And we all felt dead rotten for playing it, yet lulz were had each time. Some games had the anticipation of what Helen would be associated with. I tried forcing the Sam Jackson trump, but due to me being the only one who liked Snakes on a Plane at the table, it often lost.

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Didn't you leave out the step where everyone has to drink bizarrely-flavored vodkas first?

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Mmm... Bacon Vodka...

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That's great. Do you mind if I repost that to the Worlds Apart Forums?

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Not at all! The world should be alerted to great Apples on Apples action.

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It's funny. We also do step 5 - using cards as a reflection of the winner's personality. But we don't take that step so seriously as to try and *lose* on a round that has an adjective we don't like. ;)

Also, a common judge's cry at my house is "I DID NOT DECLARE OPPOSITE DAY!". This usually means the judge can't find *any* red cards with *any* relevance to the adjective. (We do occasionally declare Opposite Day, but that has to be declared before the green card is revealed.)

I can't make myself believe in pruning the deck, because I still have faith that every red card has *one* green card for which it'd be highly appropriate, but since we tend to play with the "last card loses" rule mentioned above, it's not uncommon for someone to deliberately dawdle in slapping down a card - if they don't feel like they have a winner, they'll just bow out of the round for the sake of getting rid of what they think is a definite loser.

And then usually regret it two rounds later. =P

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