Rabble

4-20 players, Competitive Team Play, Rabble Rousing Hijinks

Note: I will be reviewing the Rabble “Fun Size” version which comes with 42 Rabble Cards and 14 Challenge Cards

Overview of Gameplay

Rabble is a fun, party card game that plays relatively quickly and easily. A minimum of 4 players will be need to partake in this game all the way up to 20 players if you can find em. First you will want to split up the players into two teams, I’ve found it’s easiest to stagger the players. For example, sitting around a table have every other player be on team one mixed in with team 2. ALSO, another thing I’ve found is that it’s a bit better to play standing up…..I’ll get to that in a minute.

So, each team will be dealt a stack of 20 face-down rabble cards and a hand of 6 challenge cards which can be viewed. On their turn one player on team 1 will flip the top card of the rabble deck and say and do whatever comes to mind to try and get the other team 1 members to guess what is written on the drawn card. They get 45 seconds total to try and go through as many cards as they can. After their 45 seconds are up, Team 2 gets a try. Now, back and forth this goes passing the decks to the next person on the respective team until one of the teams has full guessed all 20 cards in their team’s deck. That team scores 1 point for every unguessed card in the other team’s deck, then all the cards are shuffled for each deck. Oh, but the game has only just begun!

Round two then commences with the only change being that players can only use a single word to describe what is written on their card. Play and scoring continues through round 2 until round three strikes! In round three players cannot make a sound and can only act out what their card says. Again, play continues till a deck runs out in which the final scoring happens and whoever has the most points wins!

There is a bit of a caveat thrown into the mix here in the form of the Challenge Cards. Each team has 6 of these little critters to unleash on the opposing team. At the onset of a clue the opposing team can hand the clue giver one of the challenge cards, the clue giver reads it and has to abide by the challenge while performing their clue for their team. They could be things like trying to walk like a baby or talking in an accent. Basically, ways to make the clue giving even more challenging.

Components/Visual Appeal/Theme

The cards are of decent quality, not a linen finish or anything BUT they had a good thickness to them and didn’t feel cheap.  Visually they are pretty bland looking with stark white backgrounds and bold black headers detailing the clue. Some of the cards however did have some pictures to go along with the clue, such as the “Dwayne Johnson” card having a picture of a rock displayed, teehee. The theming is all over the place with a variety of clues printed on the cards from people to places, things and nachos. I do enjoy some of the funny little excerpts printed under the headings as well although I wish all the cards had just a little more color or excitement to them.

Box/Storage/Rulebook

Being this is the “fun size” travel version the box is about the same size as your standard poker card box, a teensy bit thicker. It comes with a single double-sided card with the “Quick start” rules printed upon it. This is meant to get you into a game pretty quickly and for the most part works pretty well although I couldn’t find anywhere the number of players that could play. THAT SAID, it very quickly becomes evident you need a decent sized group to play this. Also, I would highly recommend jumping on their website and perusing the full directions to iron out any confusion. There were a few things I was scratching my head about until I read the full directions (which is just a single page).

Player Interaction/Fun Factor

This game soars with the player interaction. I mean that’s all this game is really, player interaction the card game. The clue giver will be acting like a crazy fool trying to get his teammates to guess his cards while the team will be acting like crazy fools screaming out all kind of wild answers in an attempt to get them correct. And I do have to admit I had fun while playing this, although be warned there are some NSFW (Not Safe For Work) cards mixed in that I would not let my kids see (although they can easily be removed). Personally, though I didn’t much care for the challenge cards. They felt almost out of place especially since some of these clues are TOUGH even to try and act out or describe. Tossing in a silly thing you must ALSO accomplish while trying to get your bearings on the clue at hand was just a bit too much. But again, you can easily play the game without them if you so choose.

Optimal Player Count/Replay Value

For this game, the bigger the party, the better. Yes you can play it with 4, two teams of two but the real fun starts showing up once you have a decently large group….I would say two groups of 5 is a really good play time. The more people you have all trying to guess the cards, the more hilarity ensues. The replay value is pretty high as well even for this travel version. Since there are 42 cards and each team gets a random assortment of 20, you could play a few games with the same group before being completely aware of what cards people are trying to guess. That said, I think this version is better suited for multiple new groups to keep it fresher, longer.

Positive Final Thoughts

Overall I like it! I think this would be a great game to bring out at a party of adults as some of the cards are rather tough to try and explain. This isn’t something that I would want to play on my typical game night but considering its easy to transport size, I can keep it in my vehicle and have it ready on a whim.

Negative Final Thoughts

Like I said above, this isn’t something that I would want to play all the time as I feel it’s a very situational game. The graphic design needs some work on the cards to make them a bit more colorful and exciting. Also, some of the words are just plain HARD! For sure gonna have to google some of these as I think most of these clues are directed for the college crowd……..*good lord I must be getting old*

The Bottom Line

For the price of the “fun size” travel deck it’s a great deal. The game is fun to play at a party although I cannot see myself whipping it out that often at home. For those of you who have roommates or a large number of people that you regularly hang with, this would be a great go-to party game.