Cards Against Humanity (henceforth, CAH) is the game that pretty much started the whole ‘designer board game’ craze. Launched in May 2011 on Kickstarter , it was created by nine friends who had gathered to celebrate New Years Eve.
The game has received much success, becoming the ‘highest ranked party game on BoardGameGeek’ with an average user rating of 9.48 , outranking even CAH’s own expansions. It is for this reason that it can be considered somewhat of a classic in today’s board gaming community.
What are the Blank Cards for in Cards Against Humanity?
The Cards Against Humanity comes as a complete set, with its own design and logo. However, the original version includes 300 white cards and 90 black cards accompanied by a copy of the rules (included below). The black and white cards involve playing a card (from your hand) and placing it face up on top of another player’s played card. This is done to create a ‘horrible’, funny or just plain offensive sentence, phrase, question or answer.
The words chosen for the black cards are completely randomized, being chosen from a set list of prompts that have been submitted by fans of the game. The instructions on each black card are always negative in nature and can be interpreted as answers to questions or prompts.
The white cards, however, involve a random person from the ‘card czar’ (the player who played a black card) being chosen as a topic for the sentence/fill-in-the-blank phrase/question/answer they have created. They can be interpreted as answers to any of these four options. The player whose turn it is would then choose any person who they know to act as the answer to this question (which could also simply be ‘silence’). The other players are now left with the task of coming up with a witty response.
The Basics of Collecting Cards Against Humanity
There are a total of twelve ‘series’ which have been released for Cards Against Humanity. These include the original release, ten expansions and three special packs. Each pack includes 300 cards (split into two decks) with a maximum number of duplicates found within each set. In other words, you cannot acquire more than one copy of the same card in any one pack, unless otherwise stated.
Packs are currently selling at USD$5-15 each and expansions tend to be priced the same (depending on whether they include white cards or not). The three special packs (GPA, PAX and Holiday Bullshit) cost more due to their limited number of cards and also for the fact that new types of cards have been introduced.
How to Store Your Deck in Safe Away From Damage And Grime
The most important thing that needs to be kept in mind with regards to Cards Against Humanity packs is this: always keep them away from water, moisture and humidity. This means you need a card case (preferably with plastic sleeves) as well as somewhere dry and dust-free for your set of cards. You can purchase such items at any local game store or online on sites like Amazon.
Card cases are quite affordable, with some starting at around $8-10 per pack. The type of card case you choose is also important since there are different types available to suit your required needs.
Different Styles Of Playing Cards With Their Respective Uses
One last thing you need to know when buying cards is that each pack (or ‘deck’) has its own style. The original Cards Against Humanity came in a black and white strip, with the top half displaying the logo and name of the game as well as the dark red slogan: “A party game for horrible people”.
The black cards are all placed under the red strip, while white cards are found above this. There is also an expansion symbol on each card which indicates which pack it belongs to (this includes the two-thirds of the original deck).
All expansions follow this same format with their respective logos and colours being used below the logo. The layouts for each of these packs are also different, given that they are released by different publishers.
Conclusion
Cards Against Humanity is an interesting game that allows people of all ages to enjoy themselves. As long as you play the game within the ‘spirit’ or its original purpose (to make it fun, not offensive) then you should be fine.
Thanks for reading this article and I hope it helps out!