A lively game with your friends, especially in a social gathering of acquaintances or an exclusive private party, the Curses Game stands out as the most popular and favourite piece of participative playing. Usually on occasions such as these, you would like to see party guests enjoying the affair and bonding with each other.
It is a simple game with two sets of deck cards. One set is the Curses card pile and the other set is the Challenge card pile. A player with the nearest oncoming birthday starts the game and then the turn goes clockwise. When it is your turn, you pick up a curse card. A curse card makes you do an action throughout the game without fail. A Curse card may ask you to speak in
merlin seven deadly sins various accents, making animal sounds, or contorting your body in silly positions. Then, it becomes complicated when you have to pick up another curse card. If you cannot do both, you can drop one and you are penalized for one point. Three points mean that you broke your curse at maximum allowable penalty which will disqualify you and get you out of the Curses Game. The only remaining player able to sustain keeping his curse "unbroken" wins!
A step-on bell is at the middle of the circle that 5 to 6 players gather standing up. The bell is for any player to ring by stepping on it by foot to mark an opponent who is unable to keep up with the curse. This is called "breaking the curse". You know that this Curses Game defies what people normally understand what curse does. Like in fairy tales, a curse is broken by the hero so that a person cursed is set free. Not with this game where the objective is for players to safeguard the curse. Strange, is it not?
The other deck of cards is called Challenge and each player picks up a card and does the challenge while maintaining his actions required by the Curse card. Challenge cards may ask you to act like a physician examining someone's ear or act like a cop arresting someone for traffic violation. This game has been awarded as the 2002 Mensa Select Mind Game. You surely would have a grand time laughing with your friends trying to watch each other's antics while making sure that you are not taken out of the Curses Game!
Rochelle Stenway has written hundreds of toy reviews over the years. Check out her latest reviews of the Curses Game