Any good, card-based drinking games?

May 18, 2004 2:54 PM

Well some of us college-age mefites aren't as sophisticated as some of you. My friends and I are planning a similar getaway to a private lake house in the middle of nowhere (read: no cellphone coverage/landline phones/cable tv). Late at night, after a hard day of fishing, football and fun... and after the poker we'll be playing drinking games. There's a deep problem of none of us remembering any. Any good, preferably card-based ones?
posted by geoff. to sports, hobbies, & recreation (22 comments total)

Kings, yo. Everyone I've ever played with has different rules, but those will get you started.
posted by falconred at 2:57 PM on May 18, 2004

Ok before anyone panics. My group is small, no girls, and we're not normally the party hard frat type drinkers. That said, this is the one time of the year we let loose (no chance to get in trouble, no need to drive anywhere, perfect isolation). The internet has helped me remember some of my favorite drinking games like Presidents and Assholes, but you need more people to play that.

The group will be around 3-4 people and we're looking for something that's not constant drinking though a big climax to cards being dealt out then someone getting screwed would be hilarious.

Yes, I realize how incredibly nerdy posting to AskMefi is about drinking games. But dammit, this only happens once a year and we're going to make it memorable, if any of us remembers it.
posted by geoff. at 2:58 PM on May 18, 2004

Probably not do-able at a cottage, but I've always wanted to do the drinking game on the Wild Zero (imdb) dvd.
posted by Gortuk at 3:09 PM on May 18, 2004

Three Man, rolling of the dice which makes you or others perform the out come with a drink. Drunk Drunk Driver, a card game, but felt it was rigged as I always lost by having to consume several full beers quickly.
posted by thomcatspike at 3:14 PM on May 18, 2004

Bull Shit, which is a talking game & based on paying attention, who shit?
posted by thomcatspike at 3:16 PM on May 18, 2004

Two words: Drinking Jenga. The most evil, evil drinking game I have ever played. I will elaborate more if you want, but the basic idea should be fairly obvious.
posted by jammer at 3:28 PM on May 18, 2004

Well, in my case, we combined the aforementioned sophistication WITH drinking. I don't know how it happened exactly, but we managed to get completely hooked on playing drinking Sorry! It was a blast and we played it religiously... very competitive, with people queued up ready to play.

If you know the basic rules of the game, which aren't hard, you can easily transform the game into a drinking version. Pretty much anytime something "key" happens, everyone drinks... or at least the victimized player drinks. For instance, if you sliiiiide, knocking another player back to start, well, they have to drink. When a player reaches home with one of his/her pieces, everyone else drinks. It's easy.

Let me offer you this additional suggestion for the game, kicking it into the board-drinking-game ultrazone. The use of beercan tabs {ehem} as "capes" makes the game that much more exciting. The tab is slipped over the player piece... looked like a cape to us. There are ways to earn a cape, to lose your cape, to capture a cape, to pass out more drinks because you're wearing a cape, etc. It's really all about the cape. This customization has never been offered to the public before now. Consider yourself privileged. :)
posted by Witty at 3:49 PM on May 18, 2004

Drinking is a serious matter and should not be trivialized into a game.

Really though:

1. Memory games. Have one person say a word, the next person repeats and adds another word to that, the third repeats that and adds another, and so on. When you get the chain of words wrong, drink.

2. Bad movie. Rent a bad movie. Agree on a magic word. When that word is uttered, scream it aloud and drink. EG: Red Dawn + "Wolverines."
posted by adamrice at 3:58 PM on May 18, 2004

Shut Up And Drink The Gin. I'm fond of the Immanuel Kant one.
posted by apathy0o0 at 5:47 PM on May 18, 2004

I've played Drinking Uno. If you play a skip card, The person skipped takes a drink. If you play a reverse card, who ever would have come after you before the reverse takes a drink. You play a draw two card and that person draws two cards and takes two drinks. Someone plays a card and you can't follow suit or number, before you start to draw, take a drink. You throw down a wild card and you pick someone to take a drink. Anyone throws down a draw four and EVERYONE takes four drinks.

I have yet to finish a full game. Good Times.
posted by inviolable at 6:06 PM on May 18, 2004

Play President. Also known as "President/Asshole" among other names.

It's full of strategy and it only requires a deck or two of cards.

Best. Game. Evar.
posted by tomierna at 6:21 PM on May 18, 2004

I can't believe beer pong hasn't been mentioned yet.
posted by ChasFile at 7:17 PM on May 18, 2004

Also, I like a game called submarine, which is better for a bar, but you could make it work.

Equipment:
1 full pitcher of beer
1 full glass of beer for each player
1 empty glass

Set-up:
place the empty glass into the full pitcher of beer, bottom down so that the rim floats above the beer in the pitcher.

Play:
pick someone to go first. That person pours some beer into the empty glass floating in the pitcher. This will reduce its displacement and cause it to sink somewhat.

Each person then takes a turn pouring beer into the floating glass. As more more beer gets in the glass, its rim will gradually reach the level of the beer in the pitcher. At this point an interesting discussion about the physical magic of the meniscus erupts.

Winning:
As with any good drinking game there are no winners in this game, only losers. The person who pours the beer into the glass which causes it to sink must fish it out of the pitcher and drink it. A new round begins.

This may sound slow or boring, but it in practice after the first 2 or 3 pours into the glass, it is in imment danger of sinking. 8 or 10 rounds of sweat inducing micro-pours commence. Distracting your pouring opponents is encouraged, though physically touching them is forbidden. Blowing on the glass in an attempt to sink is legal, though expect massive amounts of retaliation for this type of dirty pool. Lots of fun.

Often we start this game with 3 people in the bar, and by the end of the night have 20-person tournaments going.

I also think everyone in this thread (and everyone I play this game with at Cornell) needs to seriously reexamine their priorities before we all end up as homeless junkies like keyser soze.
posted by ChasFile at 7:29 PM on May 18, 2004

Start off with a few dozen rounds of flipcup, followed by a marathon "ride the bus" session.
posted by pemulis at 7:47 PM on May 18, 2004

I like Drinking Mao. Especially when the dealer is loaded enough that he starts making up rules.
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 8:25 PM on May 18, 2004

If you want easy, fun, and drunk (but not too drunk) I'd go with asshole, aka president. Also these. There are many others, more demanding and more obscure; plus many tv-based games; my favorite is a Twin Peaks variant (look for your own link).

If you do other drugs, the best is ZONK. There's a more aesthetically pleasing version of the rules, but I can't find it.)
posted by headless at 9:58 PM on May 18, 2004

Asshole is for teenagers.

Real men play Egyptian Rat Screw. Fast-paced? Check! Physical abuse? You betcha! Easily adaptable for drinking? Naturally.

Mao is also very good, but some of the rules are so i-i-i-r-i-t-a-t-i-n-g! (I know, that's the point!)
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:07 PM on May 18, 2004

Spoons -- not really a drinking game, but fun to play when drunk.

If there are N players, put N-1 spoons in the middle of the table, bowls in and stems out in a radial pattern.

Everyone is dealt four cards. Object of the game is to get four of a kind. Dealer takes a card off the top of the deck. He can either keep it or pass it to the person on his left. If he keeps it, he has to remove a card from his hand and pass it along.

When any player receives a passed card, he has the same choices as the dealer. The last player in the chain places his reject card face up in the refuse pile. The dealer can then draw from the deck or from the refuse pile.

The dealer doesn't wait for the other players to pass cards. He should pick up cards and pass them quickly enough to keep a flow going.

When someone gets 4 of a kind, they take a spoon. Once the first spoon has been taken, everyone else goes for the remaining spoons. The player left without a spoon takes a drink and gets a letter. The penalty for taking a spoon without having 4 of a kind is a drink and two letters. A player is out of the game when he reaches S-P-O-O-N-S. When a player is put out of the game, he takes a spoon with him so that there is always one less spoon than players.

Nuances include 1) taking a spoon and then hitting the remaining bowls with your fist so spoons fly everywhere, 2) slipping a spoon away quietly so that noone notices (easy to do when everyone is busy passing cards), 3) taking a spoon and knocking the rest into someone's lap.

An optional rule is that players still in the game can't speak to players out of the game. Penalty is a drink and a letter.

It's a good idea to use a sturdy table and avoid plastic spoons.
posted by joaquim at 10:38 PM on May 18, 2004

joaquim's suggestion can go far :

My high school friends and I invented a "spoons" variant which could serve as a fun drinking game.

It's played the same manner as outlined above, but - in the place of the spoons - substitute plastic "Whiffle-Ball" bats which are placed across the room from the players.

The players must jump up, grab a bat, and bring it back to "home".

The slowest two players wind up wrestling over the same bat, and sometimes one person winds up being dragged across the floor. There are no rules of combat (Or make up you own.)

And - whatever happens - don't blame me. Death or serious injury are possible, I suppose.

But, death or serious injury are possible in American Football too.
posted by troutfishing at 11:05 PM on May 18, 2004

Circle of Death was always my favorite.

Arrange the cards face down in two concentric circles with a single card (also face down) in the center. The outside ring is worth 1x the value of the card (Aces = 1 second, Kings = 13 seconds), the inner ring 2x, the middle card 3x.

If the card is red the person who drew the card must drink, if the card is black, the person who drew appoints someone else to drink.

I find it's most fun when the middle card is replaced after it's drawn. it's certainly quicker that way regardless.
posted by clockwork at 8:17 AM on May 19, 2004

As per falconred above, Kings, absolutely. Best drinking game ever. Everyone has their own rules - here's ours:

- We don't use cards between 2-8 - you can either take them out beforehand, have the player draw again, or let it be a freebie and the turn passes to the next player.

- 9 = rhyme, 10 = social, jack = categories, queen = person on the left drinks, ace = person on the right, king = first 3 kings pour part of their drink into cup in the middle, last king has to drink it.

- For a more vicious version, if everyone is not drinking the same beverage, players can pour whatever they're drinking into the cup and the poor sod who gets the 4th king is pretty much guaranteed to puke from the delicious mixture that ensues. This version doesn't necessarily make for a fun evening, though, so judge your audience accordingly... Different kinds of the same kind of alcohol (beer or wine) works better.
posted by widdershins at 9:10 AM on May 19, 2004

Pyramid. Here's how you play.

Each player gets dealt 4 cards face down. The pyramid consists of 4 rows, with 4,3,2, and 1 card in the rows respectively, also dealt face down. Each player then gets 1 chance to look at their cards, memorize them, and put them back on the table.

After all the setup, the dealer turns over one of the cards in the 1st row (of 4). This card is worth one drink (sip, usually 10 sips to a beer). If it matches a card in your hand, you get to "give away" (ie make someone else drink) one drink. If you have a pair, or three of a kind, multiply accordingly. Continue all the way up the pyramid, with each row being worth more drinks (the row of 3 is worth 2, row of 2 worth 3 and the card at the top is worth 4). You can split up the drinks, so for example, if you have a pair of queens, and a queen is turned up on the row of 2, then you get to give 6 drinks away, in any configuration, to whomever you like. Making enemies is not always a good idea...

The challenge: one of the fun parts of this game is that you can lie about what cards you have in your hand because no one can see them. you can also forget, of course, and just make it up. Anyone who has been given a drink may challenge the giver at any time, who must then produce the card by turning over one and only one card. The penalty for not producing is double the amount given, and it's the same for a challenge that's met.

A simpler but less fun variation is the "take", where you must drink the number of drinks you get , with your cards face up. You can also play with 5 rows for the truly masochistic.
posted by sauril at 12:01 PM on May 19, 2004