Cards Against Humanity, a nasty, funny, CC-licensed card-game

Cards Against Humanity is the perennially sold out, CC-licensed card-game that turns madlibs into an anti-social exercise. They're sold out, but you can put your name down for future runs and expansion packs, or download and print a set.

To start the game, each player draws ten White Cards.
One randomly chosen player begins as the Card Czar and plays a Black Card. The Card Czar reads the question or fill-in-the-blank phrase on the Black Card out loud.
Everyone else answers the question or fills in the blank by passing one White Card, face down, to the Card Czar.
The Card Czar shuffles all of the answers and shares each card combination with the group. For full effect, the Card Czar should usually re-read the Black Card before presenting each answer. The Card Czar then picks a favorite, and whoever played that answer keeps the Black Card as one Awesome Point.
After the round, a new player becomes the Card Czar, and everyone draws back up to ten White Cards.

Cards Against Humanity (via Wil Wheaton)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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totally80s

this looks like great fun, but aren’t the Dick Cheney, Billy Mays and Hannah Montana references a bit dated? Billy Mays passed away three years ago. Maybe the new PDF version has more current questions. thanks
- Jed Stevens
  
  Kinda, yeah. I had one of the first edition printed sets, and there were something like four cards about Glenn Beck. After playing a few times, my friends and I realized that this game is gonna seem really dated in about five years. Fortunately, they seem to be planning to fix that in later releases.
  - totally80s
    
    IOW: current events gaming humor is only funny if the current events are current
- http://twitter.com/jenn2d2 Jennifer Dittrich
  
  The Dick Cheney one is still pretty funny, especially when you’re holding “dwarf porn” or “the heart of a child” in your answer cards.
Jared Forshey

Cards Against Humanity was a bit of star at PAX East this year. Back at the Boston Westin hotel, you’d see at least three or four tables full of happy people groaning and covering their faces at every turn.

It’s still a work in progress, but if you’ve got a set of the CC cards printed off, check out my Cards Against Humanity generator site at http://cahgenerator.appspot.com/ where you can log in, submit card ideas, upvote your favorites, and generate a PDF of the top white and top black cards. You’ll notice some horrible people have already submitted ideas!
http://twitter.com/cpconstantine Conrad Constantine

Sigh, once again, bOINGbOING trys to get on the train, long after it has passed. I’ve been trying to get an official printed set of this for quite some time. They did a final run at PAX East; when they sold out (in minutes), we were left with a sign – “FUCK OFF – THERE ARE NO MORE CARDS, EVER. GO AWAY”.
- http://memoid.tumblr.com/ memoid
  
  Way to be unnecessarily condescending! I hadn’t heard of it, but will definitely proceed to print and play this next weekend.
  - Josiah White
    
    Relevant (recent) xkcd: http://xkcd.com/1053/
- Cefeida
  
  So why are you wasting your time reading a blog that keeps posting about stuff that’s so old and lame, even YOU’ve heard about it already?
- CaptainPedge
  
  Because obviously EVERYONE who reads BB was at PAX East and the website clearly doesn’t say there are plans to run more print runs
- http://profiles.google.com/shoomlah Claire Hummel
  
  I love that you click on a link you care NOTHING about just so you can jump into the comments tand prove how informed you are, only to be misinformed about their print runs. Class act!
- robuluz
  
  Every time you start a comment with *Sigh*, an Angel facepalms.
  
  http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lmpuioeeSV1qf2bq4o1_500.jpg
http://www.epinardscaramel.com TokenFrenchDude

I want this game in French ! :)
Finnagain

Otherwise known as Scatagories.
- aaronmhill
  
  You mean “Apples to Apples”
- Guest
  
  ITYM Scattergories.
  
  Unless you really DID mean Scatagories, which I have yet to play but conjures up something like “2 girls 1 card”
andyhavens

So… this is the cynical/dark version of “Apples to Apples.” Rules are identical; it just has more specific and grim stuff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apples_to_Apples

I think I’ll stick with A2A, as it’s one of the few games that’s truly fun to play with people from a very wide range of ages and game interests. Kids can play and put down goofy stuff, that will sometimes get picked, because some people like to choose the weirdest answer rather than the most appropriate.
- Josiah White
  
  If you like A2A you should check out Dixit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixit_(card_game)
  
  Basically it is a A2A variant with beautiful art.
  - Guest
    
    Dixit: Latin for “he said”
    Dicks-it: Latin for “that’s what she said!”
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1634691682 Bruce Padget
    
    At the game store I frequent, I recommend CAH as A2A’s evil twin, and Dixit as the game that A2A wants to be when it grows up.
- Cefeida
  
  Apples to Apples is my favourite family’s favourite game…and to my sorrow, I find it awfully boring. :( I can’t really imagine this one being very funny either, unless you reach that specific, drunken or drunk-like mood in the evening when anything from a stray spoon to a piece of lint causes hysterical giggling…when you’re there, you’re probably already providing your own entertainment, and using pre-printed answer cards just adds unnecessary formality to the glee.
  
  But, de gustibus.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1634691682 Bruce Padget

Andyhavens — the best quick description of CAH I’ve seen that that it’s “Assholes to Assholes.”
- Guest
  
  Sometimes in the heat of the moment it’s acceptable to go A2A.
http://twitter.com/tardiskitten thisbikeisatardis

I love this game, although I know all of the cards by now, so it’s mostly fun to play with new people who will be shocked. You can always shuffle out the Glenn Beck/other dated cards and add in your own.

The best combo I’ve ever played was “I want to die how I live” + “being a motherfucking sorcerer.” Although “In her upcoming movie from Disney, Hannah Montana struggles with ______ for the first time” + “waking up naked in the Denny’s parking lot for the first time” was a close second.

The best thing about making your own set (which costs about 3-4 bucks at a Staples, but requires about an hour and a half of paper cutting) is that you can make them travel sized and take them to the bar.
Xul Solo

Wow Cory, thanks for another wonderful thing! I can’t wait to hit the printer tomorrow to make a couple sets, one for myself and one for an old friend who I am 100% sure will go bananas for this game.
http://twitter.com/stevepan1 Steve Pan

My favorite combo was how something about how “Obama unwinds” with the winning answer being “a video of Oprah sobbing into a Lean Cuisine” or something.
Ormelted

Played with the Co-Creator at Indiecade last year, he and his gal pal were two of the most charming nerd-ne’er-d0-wells I’ve ever encountered. Playing weird combinations together and getting him to laugh at a game he created and must know by heart was a great small victory!
TwinkieFGR

Dangit. Stop telling more people about this. I’ve been wanting to replace my homemade deck for months.
This post will only make it harder for me to get one of the copies when the new shipment comes in.

But seriously, making it from the PDF is a pain in the butt, but it’s totally worth it.
sweetcraspy

This is a fantastic game. The cards are very potent and we laugh at every play. The only problem with it is that the cards are so specific that if you play it with the same people a lot, your group may develop “best” answers for some cards. That takes quite a few plays through the whole, large deck though, and it’s still 100% fun to introduce new people to.

Apples to Apples is very tame next to it, because its adjectives and nouns are so generic.
http://www.epinardscaramel.com TokenFrenchDude

I have emailed them about a French version, they replied with “We have one going up in a few days. That said, feel free to make one — we’ll host as many as we get”. So yeah.
Brett Myers

You keep saying it’s never going to be printed again, but I don’t see where you’re getting that information. They’ve been re-printing as often as they can, and it sells out in hours on Amazon. They’re using Amazon Fulfillment for distribution and the game is currently the top seller on Amazon.