Tinkering With Party Games

Sometimes, I like to tinker with my board & card games. Occasionally, I do it to fix a rule I feel ruins my ability to have fun with the game. However, I mostly do this to see what the game would be like if you switched something out or swapped one theme for another. I find party & social games are the easiest to do this with.

Since this is the holiday season and I figure people will be playing a lot of games this Wednesday night, I thought I'd post two of my favorites. I'm sure I'm not the first person to come up with these, but I thought I'd post them anyway. Have fun with them, and feel free to post your own experimentation with the subject in the comments below. 

APPLES AGAINST HUMANITY

Do you play Apples to Apples and Cards Against Humanity a lot? So much so that you've seen a lot of the card combinations and want to liven things up a little? Try mixing the two together! You can either replace the black cards in Cards Against Humanity with the green cards from Apples to Apples, or you can switch out CAH's white cards with A2A's red cards. You might be surprised how well the two work together. Especially if you own the Apples to Apples Party Box 

THE RESISTANCE: ALIENS AMONG US

Like The Resistance, but want to see what the game might be like with a different theme? Maybe one a little reminiscent of John Carpenter's The Thing? Try this variant I've been toying around with. When dealing out loyalty cards, only include one traitor into the initial allotment. This traitor is a shapeshifting alien that possesses the ability to assimilate and corrupt other players. 

Take the remaining traitor cards and place them at the center of the table. During the phase where everyone closes their eyes, the Alien replaces a number of players' cards with the traitor cards, "assimilating" them. Once this is finished, everyone moves the card in front of them a little (as you would in One Night Ultimate Werewolf), and each player takes one final look at their cards. The game plays out as normal, using the same rules as The Resistance. However, to get the most out of this variant, the players should really embrace the horror of the situation, sowing paranoia throughout the game.