One person is the judge, everyone else plays a card, and the judge picks whichever answer they like best. Nothing to download, no accounts, and the whole thing starts in about ten seconds.
It's best around one table, where you can hear the answers read out and watch everyone react. Nothing stops a remote game though: everyone joins the same room code from wherever they are.
Setting up takes three steps and about ten seconds. Whoever opens the room gets a code, the rest of the table taps in, and the first prompt appears the moment you start. Nobody installs anything and nobody makes an account.
That is the entire setup. Everything else is decisions the host makes before you start.
A prompt appears on every screen. Everyone except the judge plays a card. The judge reads them all out loud and picks a winner.
Our fort collapsed because of .
Three answers in
The winner takes the point and the judge role moves to the next player.
Real cards, shown the way they look in your hand. The dark card is the prompt and the light ones are answers, the same as a physical deck. These come from the Family friendly version of the Base Game pack.
At the petting zoo, a goat ate my .
Every pack has hundreds of both, and you hold seven answer cards at a time.
One person taps Host a room. They get a four letter code, a QR code and a link. Everyone else scans the code or opens the link on their own phone, tablet or laptop, types a name, and they are in. There is no app to install and nobody needs an account.
Only have one device? Pass and play hides each hand as the device goes round the table.
Every time the judge picks your card, you take a point. The judge role moves round the table, so everyone judges the same number of times and nobody has an advantage. Most points at the end wins.
The host sets the length in rotations. A round is one prompt. A rotation is a full lap of the table, meaning every player has judged once. Five rotations with five players works out to twenty five rounds, which usually runs about an hour.
There is no objectively correct card. You are not playing the prompt, you are playing the person judging. The card that destroys your best friend will get a blank stare from your mother-in-law, and reading the judge is most of the skill in this game.
It also means the same pack plays completely differently with different groups, which is why a single pack lasts far longer than the card count suggests.
Three to eight. The judge does not play a card, so three is the minimum for the judge to have a real choice. Five or six is the sweet spot.
Yes, by adding bots in the lobby. Bots play a random card each round and never judge, so two humans still get real turns as judge.
Ten minutes to about an hour. The host sets the number of rotations before the game starts.
No. Everyone joins the same room code from wherever they are. It is great around one table and works over a video call with the judge reading the answers out loud.
Yes. Base Game, Christmas and Family Game Night have a Family friendly version with no adult content. The rest are explicit only. The host picks the version in the lobby.
Grab a room code and send it round the table.
Start a gameCards Out Loud is an independent party game with entirely original cards. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to any other card game or its publisher.