LogFAQs > #898980846

Enjoyment - It's hard to think of a game for me that is as consistently fun as Time's Up. I actually got into it for the first time at a meetup, waiting to get into a game of Avalon. Like so many other games, the fun you have in Time's Up is tied to the people you play with. I like to be strict about certain rules, but lax on others, but if people get tied up about specifics, it can get overly argumentative. Due to the nature of the cards' titles, having people with at least a reasonable cultural reference pool is also critical.

Anyway, I enjoy everything about Time's Up - it's cooperative but also competitive, it's creative, it rewards playing quickly, it involves just the right amount of memory, and you laugh a lot while playing. It's fair in the sense that everyone gets a shake at it, but of course the luck of the draw will always matter. It's the type of game where you'll have a nine-word title that no one recognizes in Round 1, and it will not be gotten until everyone has seen the card and they know what to guess - but then in Round 2, it will be gotten instantly when someone clues "Nine!" It's the type of game where you'll know that there are two food-related items in there, so you might accidentally shout out the wrong one in Round 3 the moment your partner pantomimes eating, resulting in the card being skipped, and then bemoan your over-anxious trigger finger. But you can be redeemed with the next card when your partner points at you enthusiastically and stares at you - the universal signal for "WHAT YOU JUST SAID!!!" It's the type of game that has people pantomiming getting their ass burned by sitting on "Blazing Saddles." It's the type of game where you realize that "Two Indian guys want to get fast food" means "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle," or where the same card will cause two partners to give vastly different clues to each other that they simply can't figure out.

Time's Up isn't for everyone and I wouldn't consider it a centerpiece game for a game night where you want to cover some "meaty" games. However, it's probably the one I enjoy the most. My core group of four isn't a big fan, and at public meetups, I'm often trying different games. But in the bigger get-together where Avalon usually gets done, I'm always a bit excited when a game night dwindles toward its end and only four or six people (who can be persuaded to enjoy the game) are left and I can reach for the cards and sand timer.

Future - Knowing the cards (of which there are many, but not unlimited) can confer an unfair advantage, sadly, so I try not to overplay the game - usually only one game per gaming session, tops two. But when everyone gets to know the cards to some extent, that mitigates the effect. As I mentioned above, I'd ideally play it once per gaming session with enthusiastic partners that I like - if I suspect the player count will be right at any point, I try to bring my set.

Bonus question - What is your favorite game (or favorite X games), and why?
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yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness