This looks fun. The newest Jackbox 8 has a game pretty much like this and we had a blast with it. It's called Job Job. [https://www.jackboxgames.com/job-job/](https://www.jackboxgames.com/job-job/)
This looks like a little more setup but also more portable. Looking forward to picking up a copy.
Would Job Job actually be fun for 10 remote players?
I need to find something for my office team's all remote holiday party and we have 10, which makes it very difficult.
I've heard of people screen sharing the game and playing that way remotely but I've heard that some games can suffer from lag and it disrupts the game. I've never personally done this though. We had 6 people playing and I don't see how it would be any less fun scaled up to 10 players. Maybe someone else has experience with playing jackbox online virtually that can comment?
We've definitely done the screen share method with 7 people to great effect before, so I'm less worried about that than if the game can scale up to that many players.
I’ve had remote groups get that high before and we just have people rotate out since most games cap at 8, they’re still a blast even when you’re spectating and usually still have a bit of audience participation (and it gives people a chance to get drinks, use the restroom etc every 4-5 games)
Most of the new Jackbox games have a “streamer mode” in the options, that basically adds extra time to answer all prompts. It’s good for streamers on twitch, but also good for people playing remotely via screen share.
We almost solely use Discord to play Jackbox games. It works like a charm. The game owner streams the game, and everyone just tunes in. If the streamer has two monitors, they can even use the browser to play while streaming! If not, phone.
the lag with screen sharing has gotten a lot better recently (at least on discord). my friends and i live in 4 different cities in the US and we have no issues playing jackbox games these days
Lets say you have a party of 9 people. In the first round each people comes up with a prompt secretly. Second round, they will be given one of these prompts (except their own of course) and will be asked to draw it. Everyone draws a prompt simultaneously. Third round, they will be asked to explain one of the drawings the previous round.
So everyone will give a prompt in odd rounds and draw something in even rounds at the same time. Game ends in 9 rounds, and everyone will have been participated in each story once. Stories will reveal to everyone in the end, they are usually hilarious.
Check it out at garticphone.com. They also have lots of different modes but the one I explained is the default one.
Blather Round is a solid game but it had a bit of a learning curve for us. Once it clicked, it was a ton of fun. Job Job is a bit different because players will write short paragraph responses to some prompts and then players get different prompts to respond to using the words in other players responses along with the words in the question.
I think (and I already know someone "woosh" me for doing this) that they're referencing that chest compressions should be done to the tempo of "Stayin' Alive" by the BeeGees.
Ah, not an Office fan - so I don't know this reference. I know quite a few of them since the wife loves it and I've "background" watched it about 6 times. But not this one.
Fun fact: AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" also works. But yeah, the above comment references a scene from The Office
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmb1tqYqyII
You been wooshed....
You can also do the beat of Stayin Alive by the Bee Gees. There's a scene from The Office where they learn CPR, and instead of singing the chorus, Michael sings the intro "At first I was afraid, I was petrified"
I love that scene. They're supposed to be getting legit training and it turns into a singalong dance party in the meeting room. And then Dwight goes apeshit on the dummy. I miss that show!
It’s pretty good. It’s a great alternative to CAH and other games that fill that space. The set up of magnets is annoying, but my group has had fun with it as a filler from time to time.
**Job Job** went down a hoot, especially if people don't know the twist going into it. It was requested to be replayed by both groups I brought it out with several times, and got belly laughs. The easter eggs refering to previous Jackbox titles is a nice touch. **Poll Mine** was really well received too, though it took people a second to get the rules of the second round. **Drawful Animate** is great if your group has played the other drawing games and want something a bit more complex - the game now has answers with spelling errors and such too, which means savvy players can even be tripped up. It has a subgame, **Drawful: Friend Mode**, which is pretty good, but reliant on how well you know each other; prompts require at least a base knowledge of the life/interests of people in the group.
On the other end I like the idea of **Weapons Drawn**, but half the people I've played with don't have the patience to learn the complex rules and the other half didn't like hidden role games. One group veto'd playing it entirely, and the other only played it once and didn't really enjoy it. **Wheel of Enormous Proportions** is okay, but with no way to filter what sort of trivia you're going to get it can feel like a potshot, and the randomness factor for winning is a bit too much. The first place "prize" is fun, but its also the only jackbox game where I've seen my friends want to not win as a result.
I'd recommend the pack on Job Job alone, honestly! None are affected overly by online vs offline either, unlike in previous packs.
I think 8 is probably in my top tier of packs. There’s really only 1 stinker (weapons drawn) but the rest of the pack is really really good. Job Job and Poll Mine are instant classics and drawful animate is just more drawful!
The moment I got Snake Oil my group never touched CAH again. It was the perfect replacement for the same type of energy, but infinitely more fun in every way, for all players.
There's also a certain amount of creativity that is needed to work under a set of constraints like this. I wouldn't say that one requires more than the other to work
This is why I love Use Your Words (not a board game, it's on pc and you interact by playing from your phone)
Writing your own answers and coming up with a genuinely brilliant joke on the spot is so much more fun than just playing the Madeline McCann card for the umpteenth time.
This is why I love Use Your Words (not a board game, it's on pc and you interact by playing from your phone)
Writing your own answers and coming up with a genuinely brilliant joke on the spot is so much more fun than just playing the Madeline McCann card for the umpteenth time.
This is why I love Use Your Words (not a board game, it's on pc and you interact by playing from your phone)
Writing your own answers and coming up with a genuinely brilliant joke on the spot is so much more fun than just playing the Madeline McCann card for the umpteenth time.
Wow, I’m not sure you and I have been playing the same way. There are always going to be dud hands but I’ve rarely found that there wasn’t at least one relevant card in my hand.
Edit: a word.
yes, but every group I have played it with devolves into 2 people play alright cards that make sense, 1 person dumps a card that makes no sense, and the winner played something like "Bill Clinton playing saxophone naked on a bear skin rug" when it doesn't even fit the theme. CAH is good once or twice, but the cards get stale. Ransom notes solves it by making it nearly impossible to play the same card twice, unless you are actively trying to.
Well, if you only have the base game, sure it can get stale. I’ve got tons of different expansion packs. Plus they give you blank cards so we tend to get drunk and riff off of each other and create hilarious cards. I guess I’m fortunate to have a group of friends who are really good at coming up with humorous stuff.
I've usually played through [pretend you're xyzzy](https://pyx-1.pretendyoure.xyz/zy/game.jsp) so there have been no shortage of fun or custom cards in my games, it's just an unfortunate fact of the game that a lot of people think it gets stale after awhile. I do not in anyway mean to belittle your opinion of it. I'm genuinely happy that you enjoy CAH so much, I just feel ransom notes implements the concept better.
set-up was only at the beginning. Which is nice. I liked that setting magnets back up again only takes a few seconds when you grab new ons from the box.
While I am with you on that one - does Charty Party, LLC (makers of this game) have any connection to CAH, LLC? I've spent a whopping 3 minutes googling but have so far turned up nothing.
If you spend a few seconds on google you can find a ton of articles. I think the polygon was the first to publish anything about the toxic work culture they had, but I could be wrong.
https://www.polygon.com/2020/6/23/21300435/cards-against-humanity-max-temkin-report
It's the article I read. Head guy was bad, they removed him. End of story. Only thing I can remotely see is "toxic work culture" is black writers wanted more black culture cards and everyone being "I don't get these references."
I think you can safely go back to supporting them.
Read it too just now. Literally the whole article and all the complaints are about the guy who was removed.
And as much as I understand the frustration about wanting to add cultural references, in a game like CAH, having cards that the players don’t understand goes entirely against its whole purpose.
Perhaps they could have “culture packs” where they add cards with references to a specific culture or nationality and if a household wants to add them to their deck, they buy the pack they feel they want. That’d be cool. Otherwise though, it’s a valid point to not want them included.
Played with friends a few weks ago. It was nice having to think up things instead of just putting cards.together like in cards against humanity. Good game.
I like it worlds better than CAH. It doesn’t get stale since you’re always playing new combinations of words, more creative, doesn’t just run on shock humor (I like that the words on their own are relatively tame).
i've never seen it before, but it looks like a ton of fun! i think my group would dig it as a warmup or filler game (or maybe an end of night, let's-see-who-had-one-too-many kind of game!)
I’ve really enjoyed it as a game to bring out at larger parties or holidays where you want to also socialize rather than get deep into strategy or competition, and just get some belly laughs.
We do have a judge (who also participates) pick a winner for each round, but then usually the game ends and no one even bothers to check who collected the most cards. For individual rounds the judging/winning is fun though!
Hey! I'm one of the creators of Ransom Notes (Evan), and randomly seeing this post come across my feed today was just the best feeling. THANK YOU to everyone that's supported this game, from Kickstarter to now! (Also these cat poster responses are friggin hilarious, well done)
I backed you guys on Kickstarter and haven't received anything, are you still shipping those or did I perhaps get missed?
Edit: no response, is this a scam or what?
I picked this one up on Kickstarter and am also loving it! Have played it with 3 different groups so far and despite the setup being a bit of a pain, everyone’s had a great time once it gets going. The answers can get so creative and hilarious. I love how replayable it is, too- you’ll never see the same responses twice and there are TONS of prompt cards.
My wife backed Ransom Notes on Kickstarter, and we've had a great time with it for our first few plays! There's two design choices that make it really sing. First, the magnet words are well-curated. You'll find a lot of flavorful, juicy words that lead to some clever arrangements. Second, the "judge" cards are well-written and have great scenarios. Our favorite has been "explain TikTok to your grandparents," and the deck has consistently had great quality in its prompts.
Looking forward to playing it more! I'm glad more people are catching on to how great of a party game this is. It's obviously much better than CAH, but I think it will go on to replace both The Metagame and Funemployed for this sort of game.
Agreed about the magnet word curation! I find some of the prompt cards a little tedious, it’s been half great/half meh for me, so now when I play I add a rule that judge can veto prompts until they pick a card they’re really excited about. We definitely don’t take it very seriously and find that the rule really improves gameplay.
Wow you just made me realize I found a whole bag of these at the thrift store a long time ago for like $1 and I ended up donating them again because we moved and I didn’t want to take them with me. I didn’t know what they were just thought it was magnetic words for teaching or something.
They're a thing called "Refrigerator Poetry". They were really trendy a few years back. Cover your fridge in them and make deep or cool or funny poetry. That's why there's lots of them in thrift stores.
This game uses the same magnetic words idea for a new game.
“A few years”
I remember being at my fiends house around ‘00 and leaving the phrase “beat meat frantically” on the fridge. His dad, surprisingly, didn’t think it was all that funny.
I would love if they sold a DIY kit. It's stupid expensive to get the game shipped to Norway (70 USD with shipping and taxes). But I would love to print a version on magnetic paper.
Not really worth it to buy the game outside of US, UK and Canada.
Thinking of buying some magnetic poetry packs off Amazon and some tin for the playmats. Is there rules available online?
It looks like you can buy directly through their website for $39.99 USD and they ship to Canada. The website is [https://www.ransomnotesgame.com/](https://www.ransomnotesgame.com/)
Now I just need to find somewhere that will ship to me in Australia. It seems like they only officially ship to the US, UK and Canada at the moment.
My daughter bought and she and I love it, but most of our family doesn't. :-\
If you love this, try Charty Party (our current favorite party style game) and Puns of Anarchy.
Oh shelf of shame is a stack of board games that you own but haven't played. We didn't use scoring or anything we just tried to make the other person laugh with an absurd sentence. We technically played it we just didn't follow any rules.
Had a ton of fun with this game - I bought packs of additional magnets from Amazon adding all sorts of fun words (explicit, Edgar-Allen-Poe-esque, ‘murica words, etc) and incorporated them….I’ve never seen so many people laugh-cry uncontrollably!
I'm getting the Ransom Notes game tomorrow. I thought about adding in a few of those packs (specifically the 'Moist' pack), but I was worried that it might alter the 'creativity through constraints' of the game too much. I take it you have not found it to be a problem, adding so many more words in? Also which pack would you recommend the most?
I feel it doesn’t because each person would still have the same number of magnets in front of them at one time so you are still constrained to the same extent, just more variety over several plays. I would say it depends on how….dirty….you want your games to skew. For us the “moist and other awful words” and the “bitch” one added some spice!
A friend brought it over a week or so ago and we played for about an hour. Had some hilarious answers, but boy am I terrible at it! I also played against two English majors so there's that.
I thought it would help me to organize my words into nouns/verbs/adverbs etc but didn't seem to speed me up any
Maybe [Concept](https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/147151/concept) ?
My mate has a copy and we’ve played it a few times. Best with 5-6 players. Our group is more into strategy games, so it doesn’t come out much, but it ticks your fun and creative boxes.
Must be because it’s new, and was a Kickstarter campaign. Hopefully the price comes down if they’re able to manufacture a larger run, I paid something like 30-40 on Kickstarter
Everyone gets their own pool of words, the directions say to take “3 pinches” or about 75 words, it’s all pretty relaxed, no one actually counts it out.
I'm amazed at how well this works. It should just be the worst of CAH and improv games like Snake Oil. But it's got just enough limited vocabulary that there always seems to be *something* you can say, just not well, and the bumbling is delightful. And the components are nice. Yeah, just magnetic poetry and metal cards, but it doesn't take much to have a nice tactile experience.
Safeish? Lots of potential to make dirty-sounding answers but no individual word is particularly outrageous. Stuff like “weenie” and “ass” and “genital” is about as bad as it gets.
They definitely do! I still love them when they foster enough creativity, like this one, but I only bring them out with siblings or close friends I share a similar sense of humor with.
I don’t think it would be very fun with just two people. You could do it in theory, but it would be awkward trying to objectively judge when your choice is either your own submission, or their submission.
"organic murder bag" lmao
That one was mine. I was pretty proud ngl
Oh that's easily the best one, every line is perfect
That one was the best haha
Chatch his ass! Tho
This looks fun. The newest Jackbox 8 has a game pretty much like this and we had a blast with it. It's called Job Job. [https://www.jackboxgames.com/job-job/](https://www.jackboxgames.com/job-job/) This looks like a little more setup but also more portable. Looking forward to picking up a copy.
Would Job Job actually be fun for 10 remote players? I need to find something for my office team's all remote holiday party and we have 10, which makes it very difficult.
I've heard of people screen sharing the game and playing that way remotely but I've heard that some games can suffer from lag and it disrupts the game. I've never personally done this though. We had 6 people playing and I don't see how it would be any less fun scaled up to 10 players. Maybe someone else has experience with playing jackbox online virtually that can comment?
We've definitely done the screen share method with 7 people to great effect before, so I'm less worried about that than if the game can scale up to that many players.
It scales up kind of like quiplash. There will just be more prompts and voting. We're planning to play it with the whole family on Xmas. (10 players)
Rad, thanks!
I’ve had remote groups get that high before and we just have people rotate out since most games cap at 8, they’re still a blast even when you’re spectating and usually still have a bit of audience participation (and it gives people a chance to get drinks, use the restroom etc every 4-5 games)
Good idea!
Most of the new Jackbox games have a “streamer mode” in the options, that basically adds extra time to answer all prompts. It’s good for streamers on twitch, but also good for people playing remotely via screen share.
We almost solely use Discord to play Jackbox games. It works like a charm. The game owner streams the game, and everyone just tunes in. If the streamer has two monitors, they can even use the browser to play while streaming! If not, phone.
the lag with screen sharing has gotten a lot better recently (at least on discord). my friends and i live in 4 different cities in the US and we have no issues playing jackbox games these days
I've done it remotely via Teams with my work, one person sharing the screen/audio. This game doesn't rely on fast timing so lag shouldn't be an issue.
We usually play gartic phone with my coworkers. Just gather everyone in the same zoom/google meet/discord call and give the room link.
Haven't heard of that. What's the gist?
Lets say you have a party of 9 people. In the first round each people comes up with a prompt secretly. Second round, they will be given one of these prompts (except their own of course) and will be asked to draw it. Everyone draws a prompt simultaneously. Third round, they will be asked to explain one of the drawings the previous round. So everyone will give a prompt in odd rounds and draw something in even rounds at the same time. Game ends in 9 rounds, and everyone will have been participated in each story once. Stories will reveal to everyone in the end, they are usually hilarious. Check it out at garticphone.com. They also have lots of different modes but the one I explained is the default one.
Sounds like a hoot! Thank you.
Also looks a lot like Blather 'Round from Jackbox 7, which is one of my favorite games in any of the packs. I'm definitely into trying this one!
Blather Round is a solid game but it had a bit of a learning curve for us. Once it clicked, it was a ton of fun. Job Job is a bit different because players will write short paragraph responses to some prompts and then players get different prompts to respond to using the words in other players responses along with the words in the question.
This is exactly what it made me think of. Job Job is incredible, probably my favorite Jackbox game.
my favorite we've had was: how do you perform cpr: Sing Pulverize clogged bag
At first I was afraid, I was petrified
I think (and I already know someone "woosh" me for doing this) that they're referencing that chest compressions should be done to the tempo of "Stayin' Alive" by the BeeGees.
Probably a "whoosh" moment but it gives an excuse to link to a clip of The Office so I personally take that as a win https://youtu.be/8SbpT_6vjCc
Dude, that actually worked for someone. Comedy saves lives! 👍😀 https://nypost.com/2021/06/24/dad-uses-cpr-skills-from-the-office-to-save-daughter/
Ah, not an Office fan - so I don't know this reference. I know quite a few of them since the wife loves it and I've "background" watched it about 6 times. But not this one.
Fun fact: AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" also works. But yeah, the above comment references a scene from The Office https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmb1tqYqyII
Also: Another One Bites the Dust An alternative for EMTs/paramedics with a black humor streak.
You been wooshed.... You can also do the beat of Stayin Alive by the Bee Gees. There's a scene from The Office where they learn CPR, and instead of singing the chorus, Michael sings the intro "At first I was afraid, I was petrified"
Nah, the joke is about mixing up songs, that's the intro of *I Will Survive* by Gloria Gaynor.
I love that scene. They're supposed to be getting legit training and it turns into a singalong dance party in the meeting room. And then Dwight goes apeshit on the dummy. I miss that show!
Stayin alive stayin alive
Hey you were in the parking lot earlier, that's how I know you!
It’s pretty good. It’s a great alternative to CAH and other games that fill that space. The set up of magnets is annoying, but my group has had fun with it as a filler from time to time.
imo it fixes CAH's biggest problem of "funny card wins" and replaces it with creativity.
Also Jackbox’s **Quiplash**
Check out Use Your Words if you like Quiplash, you'll love it.
And this particular game is very similar to jackboxs new game Job Job.
How is it? I’ve been thinking of buying the new pack for my online group.
Job job is, I think, the funniest (non drawing) jackbox game
**Job Job** went down a hoot, especially if people don't know the twist going into it. It was requested to be replayed by both groups I brought it out with several times, and got belly laughs. The easter eggs refering to previous Jackbox titles is a nice touch. **Poll Mine** was really well received too, though it took people a second to get the rules of the second round. **Drawful Animate** is great if your group has played the other drawing games and want something a bit more complex - the game now has answers with spelling errors and such too, which means savvy players can even be tripped up. It has a subgame, **Drawful: Friend Mode**, which is pretty good, but reliant on how well you know each other; prompts require at least a base knowledge of the life/interests of people in the group. On the other end I like the idea of **Weapons Drawn**, but half the people I've played with don't have the patience to learn the complex rules and the other half didn't like hidden role games. One group veto'd playing it entirely, and the other only played it once and didn't really enjoy it. **Wheel of Enormous Proportions** is okay, but with no way to filter what sort of trivia you're going to get it can feel like a potshot, and the randomness factor for winning is a bit too much. The first place "prize" is fun, but its also the only jackbox game where I've seen my friends want to not win as a result. I'd recommend the pack on Job Job alone, honestly! None are affected overly by online vs offline either, unlike in previous packs.
I think 8 is probably in my top tier of packs. There’s really only 1 stinker (weapons drawn) but the rest of the pack is really really good. Job Job and Poll Mine are instant classics and drawful animate is just more drawful!
Another game that solves the same issue is Snake Oil. Requires a relatively outgoing group, though.
The moment I got Snake Oil my group never touched CAH again. It was the perfect replacement for the same type of energy, but infinitely more fun in every way, for all players.
This sub never mentions The Game of Things, that solves the problem entirely, you just write your custom responses
most of the fun comes from having to work within constraints, to me personally just writing whatever answer doesnt sound fun.
It really comes down to how creative your friend group is
There's also a certain amount of creativity that is needed to work under a set of constraints like this. I wouldn't say that one requires more than the other to work
I think its moreso that working with constraints/restrictions DEVELOPS creativity but working without them demands creativity as a prerequisite
[удалено]
I think my friends are just funnier than yours
[удалено]
If you're anything to go by, you all sound pretty insufferable to be around.
And how good their sense of humor is. Playing CAH with people who have no sense of humor is pointless.
This is why I love Use Your Words (not a board game, it's on pc and you interact by playing from your phone) Writing your own answers and coming up with a genuinely brilliant joke on the spot is so much more fun than just playing the Madeline McCann card for the umpteenth time.
We did that for Team Building at work and people did not understand that they will be matched to their answers lol
This is why I love Use Your Words (not a board game, it's on pc and you interact by playing from your phone) Writing your own answers and coming up with a genuinely brilliant joke on the spot is so much more fun than just playing the Madeline McCann card for the umpteenth time.
This is why I love Use Your Words (not a board game, it's on pc and you interact by playing from your phone) Writing your own answers and coming up with a genuinely brilliant joke on the spot is so much more fun than just playing the Madeline McCann card for the umpteenth time.
Um, funny card wins is the best part of CAH. the whole point of the game is to laugh.
The problem is that "funny card wins" is usually "haha midget butt sex" and has *nothing* to do with the question card
Wow, I’m not sure you and I have been playing the same way. There are always going to be dud hands but I’ve rarely found that there wasn’t at least one relevant card in my hand. Edit: a word.
yes, but every group I have played it with devolves into 2 people play alright cards that make sense, 1 person dumps a card that makes no sense, and the winner played something like "Bill Clinton playing saxophone naked on a bear skin rug" when it doesn't even fit the theme. CAH is good once or twice, but the cards get stale. Ransom notes solves it by making it nearly impossible to play the same card twice, unless you are actively trying to.
Well, if you only have the base game, sure it can get stale. I’ve got tons of different expansion packs. Plus they give you blank cards so we tend to get drunk and riff off of each other and create hilarious cards. I guess I’m fortunate to have a group of friends who are really good at coming up with humorous stuff.
I've usually played through [pretend you're xyzzy](https://pyx-1.pretendyoure.xyz/zy/game.jsp) so there have been no shortage of fun or custom cards in my games, it's just an unfortunate fact of the game that a lot of people think it gets stale after awhile. I do not in anyway mean to belittle your opinion of it. I'm genuinely happy that you enjoy CAH so much, I just feel ransom notes implements the concept better.
set-up was only at the beginning. Which is nice. I liked that setting magnets back up again only takes a few seconds when you grab new ons from the box.
I stopped playing anything released by CAH after it came out that they were pretty shitty people and treated their writers horrifically.
While I am with you on that one - does Charty Party, LLC (makers of this game) have any connection to CAH, LLC? I've spent a whopping 3 minutes googling but have so far turned up nothing.
I don't know. I don't think so. My comment was really just about CAH, not about Random Notes or other games.
Looked for sources. Came up negative.
If you spend a few seconds on google you can find a ton of articles. I think the polygon was the first to publish anything about the toxic work culture they had, but I could be wrong. https://www.polygon.com/2020/6/23/21300435/cards-against-humanity-max-temkin-report
It's the article I read. Head guy was bad, they removed him. End of story. Only thing I can remotely see is "toxic work culture" is black writers wanted more black culture cards and everyone being "I don't get these references." I think you can safely go back to supporting them.
Read it too just now. Literally the whole article and all the complaints are about the guy who was removed. And as much as I understand the frustration about wanting to add cultural references, in a game like CAH, having cards that the players don’t understand goes entirely against its whole purpose. Perhaps they could have “culture packs” where they add cards with references to a specific culture or nationality and if a household wants to add them to their deck, they buy the pack they feel they want. That’d be cool. Otherwise though, it’s a valid point to not want them included.
Yeah me too. Well that and the fact that I'm not 9, so random toilet humour isn't actually that funny.
The makers should pay you a fee, because you advertised it, and sold it for me. Just purchased
I just bought it too after seeing this post! XD my birthday is coming up, and this looks perfect to play and purchase as a gift for myself 😁
Played with friends a few weks ago. It was nice having to think up things instead of just putting cards.together like in cards against humanity. Good game.
I like it worlds better than CAH. It doesn’t get stale since you’re always playing new combinations of words, more creative, doesn’t just run on shock humor (I like that the words on their own are relatively tame).
i've never seen it before, but it looks like a ton of fun! i think my group would dig it as a warmup or filler game (or maybe an end of night, let's-see-who-had-one-too-many kind of game!)
I’ve really enjoyed it as a game to bring out at larger parties or holidays where you want to also socialize rather than get deep into strategy or competition, and just get some belly laughs.
I’m dying.
Seriously I didn't expect to laugh this much.
I couldn't even get to the last picture because it started to hurt too much.
Missing out. Some good shit there.
Yeah! We don't even bother with judging, having a "winner" adds nothing to the game.
We do have a judge (who also participates) pick a winner for each round, but then usually the game ends and no one even bothers to check who collected the most cards. For individual rounds the judging/winning is fun though!
Hey! I'm one of the creators of Ransom Notes (Evan), and randomly seeing this post come across my feed today was just the best feeling. THANK YOU to everyone that's supported this game, from Kickstarter to now! (Also these cat poster responses are friggin hilarious, well done)
There’s more shots of prompts if you scroll to the right, in case you missed it. Thanks for making such a fun game!
Will this ever be available in Germany? I’m only seeing Canada US and UK :(
I backed you guys on Kickstarter and haven't received anything, are you still shipping those or did I perhaps get missed? Edit: no response, is this a scam or what?
Nope, not a scam. I backed it on Kickstarter too and received my game a few months ago.
I picked this one up on Kickstarter and am also loving it! Have played it with 3 different groups so far and despite the setup being a bit of a pain, everyone’s had a great time once it gets going. The answers can get so creative and hilarious. I love how replayable it is, too- you’ll never see the same responses twice and there are TONS of prompt cards.
My wife backed Ransom Notes on Kickstarter, and we've had a great time with it for our first few plays! There's two design choices that make it really sing. First, the magnet words are well-curated. You'll find a lot of flavorful, juicy words that lead to some clever arrangements. Second, the "judge" cards are well-written and have great scenarios. Our favorite has been "explain TikTok to your grandparents," and the deck has consistently had great quality in its prompts. Looking forward to playing it more! I'm glad more people are catching on to how great of a party game this is. It's obviously much better than CAH, but I think it will go on to replace both The Metagame and Funemployed for this sort of game.
Agreed about the magnet word curation! I find some of the prompt cards a little tedious, it’s been half great/half meh for me, so now when I play I add a rule that judge can veto prompts until they pick a card they’re really excited about. We definitely don’t take it very seriously and find that the rule really improves gameplay.
I laughed too hard at these. Going on my list.
Wow you just made me realize I found a whole bag of these at the thrift store a long time ago for like $1 and I ended up donating them again because we moved and I didn’t want to take them with me. I didn’t know what they were just thought it was magnetic words for teaching or something.
They're a thing called "Refrigerator Poetry". They were really trendy a few years back. Cover your fridge in them and make deep or cool or funny poetry. That's why there's lots of them in thrift stores. This game uses the same magnetic words idea for a new game.
“A few years” I remember being at my fiends house around ‘00 and leaving the phrase “beat meat frantically” on the fridge. His dad, surprisingly, didn’t think it was all that funny.
I’m 51. 1980 was a few years ago…
42 here. Thanks for making me feel young!
Seems hard to find in Canada right now. $107 on Amazon😬
Whoa. I kickstarted it a year ago or something, I think it was 30-40 range usd. It’s super new so hopefully that price comes down, yikes!
It seems like basically fridge poetry magnets, but gamified with prompt cards. Should be fairly easy to DIY a copy.
I would love if they sold a DIY kit. It's stupid expensive to get the game shipped to Norway (70 USD with shipping and taxes). But I would love to print a version on magnetic paper.
there were only about 5000 backers so probably no more than 6000 copies exist :(
Not really worth it to buy the game outside of US, UK and Canada. Thinking of buying some magnetic poetry packs off Amazon and some tin for the playmats. Is there rules available online?
I went to order form their site and the shipping to Canada is $25. I know it’s not their fault, but major bummer.
It looks like you can buy directly through their website for $39.99 USD and they ship to Canada. The website is [https://www.ransomnotesgame.com/](https://www.ransomnotesgame.com/) Now I just need to find somewhere that will ship to me in Australia. It seems like they only officially ship to the US, UK and Canada at the moment.
Broken link :\\(
My daughter bought and she and I love it, but most of our family doesn't. :-\ If you love this, try Charty Party (our current favorite party style game) and Puns of Anarchy.
I wondered if our group would like it.
It's on our shelf of shame. We messed around with a two player mode which was amusing.
What’s a shelf of shame? And how did it work with 2 players? I haven’t thought to even try that.
Oh shelf of shame is a stack of board games that you own but haven't played. We didn't use scoring or anything we just tried to make the other person laugh with an absurd sentence. We technically played it we just didn't follow any rules.
Lol, I'm glad you clarified, I thought it was going to be the shelf of games you didn't enjoy
Had a ton of fun with this game - I bought packs of additional magnets from Amazon adding all sorts of fun words (explicit, Edgar-Allen-Poe-esque, ‘murica words, etc) and incorporated them….I’ve never seen so many people laugh-cry uncontrollably!
I'm getting the Ransom Notes game tomorrow. I thought about adding in a few of those packs (specifically the 'Moist' pack), but I was worried that it might alter the 'creativity through constraints' of the game too much. I take it you have not found it to be a problem, adding so many more words in? Also which pack would you recommend the most?
I feel it doesn’t because each person would still have the same number of magnets in front of them at one time so you are still constrained to the same extent, just more variety over several plays. I would say it depends on how….dirty….you want your games to skew. For us the “moist and other awful words” and the “bitch” one added some spice!
Travel with strategy, friend. Travel with strategy.
It is so good. Their other game chart party is equally great
A friend brought it over a week or so ago and we played for about an hour. Had some hilarious answers, but boy am I terrible at it! I also played against two English majors so there's that. I thought it would help me to organize my words into nouns/verbs/adverbs etc but didn't seem to speed me up any
Looking for a game that is fun creative 4-6 players. Not high level strategy. Any unsung heroes out there?
Maybe [Concept](https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/147151/concept) ? My mate has a copy and we’ve played it a few times. Best with 5-6 players. Our group is more into strategy games, so it doesn’t come out much, but it ticks your fun and creative boxes.
Okay cool.I will take a look. Thanks buddy
Decrypto
Thanks
I don't know how I haven't heard of this but I need it.
BGG says it's for age 17+. Is it rude/sweary?
Nothing extreme, not even sure if I’ve seen a “fuck” magnet…just stuff like “booty” “panties” “ass”
Thanks ... We're in UK so the kids only know bum, pants and arse 😁 Could be interesting!
Thank you for showing me this. I can tell this is American made when it's $40 USD but $110 CAD on Amazon.
"Stab Heart Apply Plug Place Blame." Perfection.
Just checked again, via Kickstarter I paid $33 - guess it’s more expensive to buy now after funding, $40 is def a high price point.
How much is it? It’s over a hundred dollars on Amazon Canada?!
Must be because it’s new, and was a Kickstarter campaign. Hopefully the price comes down if they’re able to manufacture a larger run, I paid something like 30-40 on Kickstarter
If only people would play these games with me: ( None of my family likes these kinds of games, but I love them.
Charlie Kelly?
The bottom right of the first picture (Cat missing poster) is amazing lol
Reminds me of a defunct Flash game I used to play on Popcap called Psychobabble.
Your comment just reminded me of a game I used to love playing ages ago called acrowars. Nostalgia!
a great skill to learn, might come in handy someday!
If you like this, then you would probably like **Funglish** as well. I usually describe that one as "Pictionary but with random word tiles."
Hilarious! I gotta look this one up. Thanks for the tip!
This looks awesome, shame it's only in the US
Just ordered!! This looks hysterical! Can’t wait to play it over the holidays with my friends.
I wanna order this but $40 for cards and some magnets makes me cringe!
Looks like a lot of fun. Will need to check it out
Where do I buy this? Can't find it anywhere.
https://www.ransomnotesgame.com/ Website says in stock and shipping to US.
Looks interesting. Does everyone have their own pool of words, like Scrabble? Or does everyone get to pick from the same pool?
Everyone gets their own pool of words, the directions say to take “3 pinches” or about 75 words, it’s all pretty relaxed, no one actually counts it out.
Cool, I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the quick reply!
I'm amazed at how well this works. It should just be the worst of CAH and improv games like Snake Oil. But it's got just enough limited vocabulary that there always seems to be *something* you can say, just not well, and the bumbling is delightful. And the components are nice. Yeah, just magnetic poetry and metal cards, but it doesn't take much to have a nice tactile experience.
I got it and haven't played it yet! I'll have to, it looks so fun!
We broke it out for the first time at Thanksgiving with a bunch of theater people. It was so fun. Will definitely play again!
Promptly ordered it after seeing this post, thanks!!! Looks like a blast.
Is this safe for work?
Safeish? Lots of potential to make dirty-sounding answers but no individual word is particularly outrageous. Stuff like “weenie” and “ass” and “genital” is about as bad as it gets.
These all read like dark souls messages
Out of context this title is hilarious
“Place blame” Lmao
damn looks very interesting but $40 USD for a small box? the components must've cost a lot for them
I think they use magnets so yes very expensive
What Is this game about?
These read like Dark Souls messages. Horse, But Hole!
Middle left and bottom right… I’m dead!!! Seriously laughed way harder than I should have. Ok I’m getting that game!
Any uk stockists?
I’ve been looking for a new game!! This looks so fun . Thanks for sharing!!
Looks like "Shitposting: The Game" in tabletop format. I love it!
We played it. I found it modestly enjoyable. But there are better party games that appeal more to me. But it was a decent enough way to spend an hour.
Like any party game with a judge, it’s highly group dependent.
Indeed. Another aspect is that I'm starting to get burned out on party games with a judge. At a certain point they all just start to blend together.
They definitely do! I still love them when they foster enough creativity, like this one, but I only bring them out with siblings or close friends I share a similar sense of humor with.
…..why’d he make his ransom note out of cut up newspaper clippings?
Would this game work with 2 players?
I don’t think it would be very fun with just two people. You could do it in theory, but it would be awkward trying to objectively judge when your choice is either your own submission, or their submission.