Which lulls you into complacency: Leg warmers, or the font Helvetica? What's better proof of the way absolute power corrupts: The great Pacific garbage patch, or Labradoodles? Is brunch fraying our moral fabric?

The Metagame is a clever, colorful set of tools that let you pose interesting questions to friends, and debate the relative merit of a weird, wild array of issues. Designed by Eric Zimmerman, Colleen Macklin and John Sharp, a set of cards that began as a game convention knowledge-sharing device is now for everyone.

The versatile Metagame cards include rules for six separate games -- some designed for subjective conversation, others for strategic competition. I like the idea that card games can create social intimacy, like in Games by Play Date's Slash, where you try to outdo your friends' fanfic pairings.

Plenty of people I know play Cards against Humanity -- I'm easily put off by its lazy "omg a rude word" guffawing and internet memes, but appreciate that The Metagame looks poised to offer fresher, more stimulating comparison chat.

You can play The Metagame with a pair or a party. It's $25 on Amazon. Read the rest