In 2014, Sam and Luke, design students from New York City, decided to create a board game (of sorts) that embraces technology rather than shun it, and after a widely successful Kickstarter campaign, Game of Phones was born.
What is Game of Phones exactly?
Think Cards Against Humanity, but with a lot more cellphones (and potentially a lot less vulgarity).
You and your friends use your phones to answer questions that the designated question master asks; the question master changes every round. Questions range from stuff like, "find something underwhelming, be creative!" or "most unread text messages win" or "find the best selfie" or "find the best niche Tumblr".
How do we play?
First, the question master picks a card and shows it to the entire group. Then everyone finds a response to the question on their cellphones and shows the person who picked the card. The question master who picked the original card then judges all the answers, and picks the winner of that round.
When the round is finished, everyone grabs their phones, and the next person draws their card – easy peasy!
Cool! So do I need anything else besides my cellphone?
You need at least 2 friends to play the game, but you can have up to as many people as you can fit around your table. Don't worry about blowing through the game too quickly, either. Game of Phones comes with over 100 prompts in a single deck (but infinite possibilities!)
Seems simple enough… Are there any rules?
From the Game of Phones site:
- We suggest the oldest player draws the first card. (They're probably at a disadvantage).
- The player drawing the card is the judge for that turn.
- Each turn is 60 seconds and the judge is responsible for keeping time.
- The judge cannot play in the turn and awards the card to the player with the best response.
- The person to the left of the judge picks the next card and becomes the judge of that turn.
- Repeat until someone has collected 10 cards to win the game.
- If a player can't or won't play a turn they can spectate (though they risk falling behind).
- Play continues if a notification card is drawn. The judge awards the card to the first person that can show they received the relevant notification.
Where can I pick up my own Game of Phones?
You can either order it right off the Game of Phones site or Photojojo.
