What's Your Excuse?! Party Game


This is a party game inspired by the classic game "I never..." or "Never have I ever..." The title comes from my ongoing Pitch Tag thread with Fred Hicks. While the original "I never..." is typically a drinking game, I'll leave it to you to add your own drinking rules. ;)


Stuff You Need
2 or more players. Best in large groups.
A pencil and paper to keep score.
A pencil and paper for each player.
A deck of What's Your Excuse?! cards. Prototypes shown below.




How to Play
The youngest player takes the first turn.

On your turn, draw a card. The card lists three "I never..." sentences such as "I never sky-dived from a zeppelin with a rabid wolverine because..." or "I never drove a monster truck in the circus because..." The easy sentence is usually shorter with more basic words. The medium sentence gets a little more specific. The hard sentence is longest, with more specific obscure terms.

Pick one sentence. Out loud to the rest of the group, make up an excuse for why you never did the thing mentioned. Do not actually say the highlighted words in the sentence. You can make up to three excuses.

For example, you're making an excuse for the sentence "I never sky-dived from a zeppelin with a rabid wolverine because..." You could say to the rest of the group "Because I'm afraid of heights." or "Because I never got my blimp pilot's license." or "Because I'm not good around violent mammals."

Now, the other players each write what they think the "I never..." statement is and reveal their guesses to the group all at once. The guesses must be in the form of an "I never..." sentence with three words or phrases highlighted.

For example, the other players guess: "I never hit a dog with a hot air balloon." "I never got rabies from a wolverine on a plane." and "I never sky-dived from a zeppelin with a mad dog."


Scoring
Each guesser scores points for guessing one, two or three of the highlighted words correctly, even if the exact order of their guess doesn't match your card.

You will also get points if anyone guesses one, two or three of the highlighted words correctly. Note: You only score points once for the same word even if multiple guessers get it correct.

Easy
Guessing one word correctly scores you and the guesser two points.
Guessing two words correctly scores you and the guesser three points.
Guessing three words correctly scores you and the guesser four points.

Med
Guessing one word correctly scores you and the guesser one points.
Guessing two words correctly scores you and the guesser three points.
Guessing three words correctly scores you and the guesser five points.

Hard
Guessing one word correctly scores you and the guesser zero points.
Guessing two words correctly scores you and the guesser four points.
Guessing three words correctly scores you and the guesser seven points.


End of the Game
When every player has had a turn, the game is over and the player with the most points wins.

Comments

  1. Joseph Le MayMay 28, 2012 at 3:34 PM

    Do you have a full deck of those prototype cards made, or just the three?

    ReplyDelete
  2. DanielSolisMay 28, 2012 at 3:40 PM

    I do not yet have a full deck. Are you interested in playtesting?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Joseph Le MayMay 28, 2012 at 3:43 PM

    Absolutely. The world can always use another good party game.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Joseph Le MayMay 28, 2012 at 3:46 PM

    No worries. You can always email me months later when you get around to it. ;)

    ReplyDelete

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