- Designer: Rodrigo Rego
- Publisher: Alion Games
- Players: 1-10
- Age: 14+
- Time: 15 minutes
- Played with preview copy provided by publisher
How Dare You? Is a party game you can play anywhere. Guess the number – but don’t go too high! Lighten up the mood at any game night, dinner party or couples therapy session. Play it during business meetings, datenight your uncle’s funeral – or all three at once!
—description from the box
This truly tiny party game made it onto my list for GenCon 2023 when the publisher contacted me the day before I was leaving for Indianapolis and said that an advance copy would be waiting there for me. I’m a big fan of the other games from Dr Ø – through previous releases by Aporta Games. While this one isn’t designed by Dr. Østby, he served as the developer of this title, and I was more than happy to give it a go.
The entire game is a small box of 70 cards – there are 60 question cards, each with 6 numbered questions on them, and 10 Double Dare cards which are used in the (should be mandatory) expansion. That’s it.
To play – One player reads a question aloud to the group. (all answers are numbers). You’re supposed to pick a number at random before looking at the card to decide which question to use, or say, use some cubic randomizer that you might have lying around that gives you choices between one and six… I’d also recommend that you read out the category on the top of the card as well as the “Silly Goose” value.
The active player goes first and must guess a number that is close to – but not higher – than the correct answer. Players take turns either making a guess that is higher than the previous player, or calling out a DARE if they believe the previous player guessed too high. When a Dare is called the answer is checked and the player who was wrong must keep the card for “Silly goose points”. In a four player game, once ten cards have been read OR a player has collected five cards, the game ends, and the player with the most silly goose points loses. Everyone else wins.
“How Dare you?” comes with 2 optional advanced rules that spice up the gameplay:
“Doubling”: If you guess a number that is at least twice that of the previous player, you gain a doubling card. This card negates one “silly goose point”. This variant tempts players to make higher guesses.
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“Double Dare”: If you are dared, you can either accept the dare and check the answer like normal, or you can reply with a “Double Dare”. The player who is wrong will now get double punishment (getting two cards instead of one by taking a random one from the deck). But the player who initiated the dare, now has the option to chicken out and withdraw their dare. If they do, they must instead guess a higher number before the round continues as normal.
So far, we have played with the Doubling rule and have really enjoyed it. The one time that we used the Double Dare rule, I honestly don’t think it ever even came into play. Maybe we’re just so knowledgeable at these random questions that we had a hard time pushing the game into a Double Dare situation?
The game is a hoot. The questions span all sorts of knowledge areas, and surprisingly, the one gamer in our group who is a Jeopardy fan (and has passed the contestant test on a number of occasions) found that he was stumped by a few of the questions… Our group went so far as to fact check a few of the answers that seemed unexpected, and the answers we found online via Google matched those on the card. Though, I suppose that it is quite possible that Google was the source for the answers on the cards, and then, of course they would match!
Having played with a few different player counts, I think that it’s best with no more than 4 or 5 – for my personal tastes. At this player count, it’s more likely that the questions will make a full trip around the circle, and then every player gets a chance to participate in the game on each round. I can see where a 10 player game (the max on the box) might go a few turns before you get to even say something. While the answers can be surprising, and it’s always fun to watch a Dare go down; it seems to me to be much for fun to be a participant rather than a spectator.
As with all trivia quiz games (I’m looking at you, Lander Toppen), I’d make a note somewhere of when the game was printed – many of the questions ask you to know the biggest / highest / most / etc of something, and at some point down the road, you’ll need to know that the game is asking you knowledge from 2023. Realistically, I don’t think it’s an issue at all, but hey, i’m a game reviewer and game developer, and this is the stuff that keeps me up at night.
The age on the box is listed as 14+, and I haven’t come across any “adult” topics that I’d be concerned about. But the age recommendation feels right as many of the questions will require at least high school knowledge to be able to have a realistic chance of knowing the things on the cards. The graphic design on the cards is fine, everything is legible. I’m not a huge fan of the cover art – the “kids” on there look like those weird, slightly grotesque cariacatures from MAD Magazine; but I’m a game critic, not an art critic – so that that with whatever shaker of salt you need.
Games don’t take very long, maybe ten to fifteen minutes? This makes it perfect for a restaurant (waiting for a table), game night (waiting for someone to arrive or a quick closer), or even an electric car charging session. Almost all of the questions in my games so far have led to an exclamation of disbelief or more like to raucous laughter as the truth is revealed. While there is a “big loser” at the end, this is one game where no one really seems to mind who wins or loses, it’s just so much fun to play. How Dare You? Is a pocket sized gem that you play anywhere with just about anyone.
Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers
- I love it! Dale Y
- I like it. Steph H, John P
- Neutral.
- Not for me…
