At Gen Con Indy, I was able to see the newest offering from the folks at North Star Games. I even had a chance to play a sample game at the convention. I won in about 10 minutes. After the jump, I will explain game play and my thoughts as well.
Crappy Birthday is a party game designed by Brian and Amy Weinstock. It is designed for 4-8 players of ages 12 and up. Crappy Birthday is designed to be taken to a birthday party as a gift that is to be played and left. The game only lasts about 10 to 20 minutes depending on how many players are in the game.
Each game begins when each player is dealt 5 cards from the deck of “crappy birthday gifts”. Once each person has their cards, one of the players is selected as the birthday boy/girl. All of the other players give a gift/card in their hand to the birthday boy or girl. Each card is to be played face down. The birthday boy or girl then looks at all of the gifts given and decides which one they think is the crappiest gift without knowing which card came from which player. Once the decision is made and revealed the giver of the gift claims responsibility for giving the gift and receives one point. Players select another card from the deck, making sure they have no more than five cards in their hand. The game continues by rotating who the birthday person is. The winner is the first person to reach three points.
I played a demo of the game at Gen Con and have played a copy of the game provided by North Star Games for review with my family since coming home from Gen Con. Both times the game led to a lot of conversation as to why we chose which gift to give to the other. I didn’t think that all of the gifts were “crappy.” I would have loved some of them. Some of the gifts are more adventurous. Some are nasty. Some are just strange. We laughed and had a good time each time we have played.
The game says that it is designed for players ages 12 and up, but I allowed my 10 year old to play with us and she didn’t have a problem
grasping the rules and we didn’t come across anything too inappropriate for her age. North Star usually does a pretty good job of rating their games, so I would be a little careful I have read of people playing the game with children as young as 5. I am not sure I would go that young, but you get the point.
Crappy Birthday is a party game designed to get people talking. It did that. Not only that, but it got us laughing. We were playing together and having a good time as a family. The game does take a little strategy. Some of the gifts that my wife thought would be crappy were gifts that I would have loved to have had. That is part of the game that encourages conversation. Why did you choose to give that particular gift to that particular person at that particular time? It is strategy and luck that leads to a winner. I think this is a very good game. I plan on taking it to my next family get together to see what conversations can be started. Crappy Birthday can be purchased for $15 from Amazon.com or other retailers.
Thanks you Luke Warren at North Star Games for providing a copy of Crappy Birthday for review.
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