Over the years a hobby of mine has been creating games: mostly card games, but some board and party games as well. I thought it would be a good idea to put my favourites down in writing.
I will share games that have been proven to work, and are well worth a try!
I thought I’d start with a simple (and stupid) card game, Pickle Splat...
PICKLE SPLAT
Pickle splat is a card game of fast reactions where you give cards silly names.
Game type: recognition/speed, silly
Difficulty: *
Players: 2+, Best: 2-4 players
Aim of the game: Correctly name the most cards to win!
NAMING RULES
Cards have a first name and a last name. You must say a cards full name to win it.
FIRST NAME RULES:
Pickle = black cards above 6/ red cards below 6.
Horseradish = Red cards above 6/ black cards below 6.
For Aces, you name the suit. Eg. the first name of the ace of clubs is “club”
LAST NAME RULES:
Splat = numbered cards (except 7 and 10, see below)
Scoop = royal cards.
Ahoy = number 7
Choo choo = number 10
SPECIAL RULE:
Number 6: All players slap the card. First player to slap wins the card. Last player to slap becomes the dealer.
GAMEPLAY
2 player version: One player is the dealer while the other is the caller. The dealer turns a card face up on the table, and the caller must name that card.
If the caller names the card correctly, they win that card, and the dealer deals another card.
If the caller gets the name wrong, takes too long, or garbles their words, the dealer declares “hesitation”. The caller still gets the card, but after a hesitation the players swap roles.
(It is down to players to decide beforehand what they consider a “hesitation”. ~3 seconds is how I play)
When the deck runs out, the game ends. The player who has won the most cards, wins!
3+ player version: Works the same as above, but with multiple callers, and the dealer changes hands.
EITHER: Players take turns being the dealer, passing the deck to the player on their left after dealing a card.
OR: Whoever wins the card, becomes the new dealer (to prevent one player getting too far ahead)
ALSO: In this version, the hesitation rule is optional. You can just decide that the first player to correctly name the card, wins it.
NOTES:
When you first play, you might want to start with just the Pickle, Horseradish, Splat and scoop rules. Once you are comfortable with those, you can add the others.
Also, this is a game that is really easy and fun to personalise. So change the names to something you find more amusing: maybe you want to incorporate names of the players, or play a NSFW version?
When you start getting good at the game, you can add penalisation rules. Eg. if you name a card wrong, you lose a card you have won!
You can also create and add your own naming rules too, the less intuitive they are, the better!
Examples of cards and names:
King of diamonds = Horseradish scoop!
9 of clubs = Pickle splat!
7 of spades = Pickles ahoy!
3 of clubs = Horseradish splat!
Ace of hearts = Heart scoop!
6 = slap the card!
GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN!
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