Protected: I’ll See Myself Out, Episode 61: Don’t be coming ’round here with no oranges November 25, 2018

WHAT’S INCLUDED: 660 high quality word magnets, 6 metal submission cards, 100 prompt cards, storage bag, and instructions. With tons of absurd prompt cards and a new pool of words every time, this party game has infinite hilarious combinations and feels fresh every time you play AGE 15+: Ransom Notes: House Party Edition is designed to be perfect for both family groups and adult game nights alike — the prompt cards are appropriate for most teen family groups, but players can decide how clean or inappropriate to make the game depending on their answers. Here’s a selection of cards I drew randomly, to give you an idea of what kind of prompts you might encounter:After a player wins the current round, it is time to prepare for the next round. Take all of the magnets off each players’ submission card. Return all of these word magnets to the top of the box. The most fun part is that there is no restriction on how many or few words to use in responses, and the prompts range from straightforward "write a new slogan for Applebee's" to nearly insane complexity for the limited space and vocabulary available: "write a note to explain to the waitress that the bathroom fan is broken". Some ppl squeeze many tiles onto the plate in an attempt to be clear, while others opt for pithy minimalism. Results in both directions are hilariously stilted and creatively vague. Turn over the first challenge card, read it aloud to everyone and then frantically begin making your ‘ransom note’ type response. There are a few suggested ways to judge who wins the round but mostly I play with a friendly bunch so we take an honest vote accepting if someone else’s response is genuinely better than our own we vote for it. However, if you are playing with particularly competitive people who will always vote for their own, even if it’s rubbish there are other suggested ways to choose a winner to avoid creating war not peace. A few of the cards pretty explicit (“Walk us through the masturbation process,” for instance, and “Ask your boss for a promotion in exchange for sexual favors”). It’s easy enough to just toss any cards and magnets you don’t want in your game (the FAQs say about 15-30% of the cards are not PG), but it’s something to know about ahead of time, depending on who’s going to play. Designed for 3-6 players, Ransom Notes is perfect for game night groups who want a game that's as silly as it is clever.

The major quibble I had was that they were trying a little too hard to steer you toward a naughty game experience (and yes, it does say it’s for ages 17+.) We didn’t come across any really R-rated words (I think we found “boob,”“genital,”“panties,” and “bitchy” and a few others at that level), but there were a lot of words like “secrete” and “bedroom” and “flesh” which are not inherently sexy, but it felt like the word selection overall was weighted in that direction. The game lists itself as 17+, and after a thorough inspection, I can see why. Even the most innocuous words can become hilarious and/or twisted around, but they’ve also included a handful of body parts (“butt”, “booty,” “boob,” “ass,” “genital”), activities (“murder,” “sex,” “seduce”), and other words in the magnets that one may or may not want to set aside (“bitchy,” “sexy”). Also about 20 of the prompt cards (less than a sixth) could be considered somewhere on a scale of silly (“Why is cocaine illegal?”) to direct references to sex acts and porn. And one weird Bernie Sanders reference. You can easily remove these and still have a lot of cards to play with. Review Each round begins with the top Prompt Card being flipped over. It doesn’t matter who flips it over. One of the players will read the text on the card out loud. The round then begins. If the Prompt Card refers to the most recent judge, your submission should relate to the player that was the judge in the previous round. For this round all of the players will write a jingle for a toupee store. Regular readers will know I don’t have a problem with racy humor! There was just a slightly forced, smirky feel to it, and I wish they had just chosen more neutral words, and let the double entendres arise more naturally, because they’re funnier that way. I like deciding when I want to make a dirty joke, rather than getting buffaloed into it because we’re at a party and that’s how you have to act. Possibly I am overstating this issue, because I am a mom who was playing a game with several teenage daughters, and I may have been on high alert. Something I noticed in playing Ransom Notes is that the more literal your response, the less funny it can be – some of the funniest responses sound like an 80’s sitcom character who doesn’t speak English trying to answer the phone. The random words make it a lot of fun to work with, and trying to piece together a sentence or complete thought is appealing to almost everyone. Hosts should keep in mind however, that this (like ALL games) is not a game you get out to play without breaking the shrink wrap and prepping the game beforehand – there are 756 words on 14 sheets that need to be broken apart and mixed together before game time. It took me about 20 minutes to do, so please don’t make your guests help you game prep – or worse, watch you do it. Always break the plastic the day before, people!

Aside from a few choice cards the game can be as risqué or ‘clean’ as you make it with your phrase productions. Sure, to play with teens you might need to go through and take out some of those aforementioned cards with a more adult theme but to make the game 17+ seems a little odd. I mean it just doesn’t have the same “gosh that’s rude” feeling you get when playing Cards Against Humanity. Okay so I don’t actually say “golly gosh” in my general vocabulary but I’m not a rude party games type of player and I found this to be just fine for my temperament. What ‘s Game About Doing Why