How to Play Cards Against Humanity

A famous party icebreaker, Cards Against Humanity is an adults-only game for players mature enough to handle intentionally provocative (but often hilarious) topics and answers. The goal is to pair the answer and question cards in the funniest, most provocative, or the cleverest way you can.

1. Playing the Game

Draw ten white cards each. You can only look at your own hand of cards. Leave the rest of the white “answer” cards and black “question” cards separated into face-down stacks.

• You need at least four players to play Cards Against Humanity. There’s no upper limit to how many people can play, but it’s most fun with 6–8 players.
• If you don’t already own Cards Against Humanity, you can find a deck here.

Play the first black card. The official rules say that the “person who most recently pooped” is the first “Card Czar.” (This might give you an idea of what the game will be like.) If you prefer, the person with the next upcoming birthday can go first instead. That player starts the round by turning over the top card in the black “questions” stack. Read the card aloud and leave it to face up on the table.

Have each other player choose a white answer card. The Card Czar waits while each other player chooses one card from their hand. The goal is to pick the funniest answer to the black question card, or the answer the Card Czar will like most. Put the selected white cards in a face-down pile.

• If the black card says “Pick 2,” choose two white cards from your hand. Keep them in the order the Czar should read them.

Shuffle and read aloud the answer cards. Now the Card Czar picks up the white answer cards and shuffles them, so no one knows who put down which card. Reread the black answer card, then read the white cards one by one, putting them face up on the table.

Choose the best answer. The Card Czar chooses their favourite answer to the question. The player who played the winning card gets one “Awesome Point.” The easiest way to track points is to give the black question card to the winning player.

• All players can talk while the Card Czar is deciding, and try to influence the decision.
• Set aside all the white cards from that round into a discard pile.

Start the next round. Each player draws back up to ten white cards. The person sitting to the Card Czar’s left becomes the Czar for the next round, picking a new black card.

• Alternatively, you can appoint whoever won the last round as the new Czar. This doesn’t work well if there’s a newcomer in the group, since it’s harder to win rounds if you don’t know the Czar’s style of humour.

Play until you’re sick of it. This is a casual, non-competitive game, and people usually play until they get tired of it. If you want a more defined end point, play until one player gets five points (or 7–10 for a longer game). Whoever has the most points at the end of the game wins.

• One fun way to end the game is to use the “haiku” black card for the final round. You don’t need to find the actual card: it just says “Make a haiku.” The other players each choose three cards from their hand to use as an answer.
• Some players stop drawing new cards when they announce the end but keep playing until they run out of cards. This leads to (even more) absurd nonsense answers.