Personally, I don’t much care for this game but my family loves it and we played it yesterday so I decided to write it up.

Apples to Apples is a card game for (theoretically) 3 or more players. In my opinion, the more players there are the more fun the game is.

The game consists of two stacks of cards: red apples and green apples. The red apple cards all bear the name of a person, place, thing, event or concept. The green apple cards all bear an adjective. Each turn one player acts as the dealer and deals one green card in the center of the table. Each player besides the dealer chooses one red apple card from their hand (each player maintains a hand of 7 red apples) that they think the dealer will choose as the one best described by the adjective on the green card. The players all put their chosen card face down. If the dealer picks your card as the best, you score a point. The cards in play are scrambled up so the dealer can’t play favorites.

So, for example, the dealer flips a green card that says “moronic.” The players all play red cards with things on them that they think the dealer will think are moronic. If someone knows the dealer is a hardcore republican and they have a red card that says “democrats” they would be well-advised to play that card as the dealer is likely to characterize it as the most moronic concept played that round. Players take turns being the dealer until someone gets enough points to win.

In terms of mechanics it’s a pretty weak game but it can be good for ice-breaking, socialization, or just a few laughs.