The Same Game 2023

Is a microwave more important to humanity than diapers? How differently does a rocking horse move compared to a windshield wiper? And don't a pizza cutter and a unicycle look similar in some way?

Your goal in The Same Game is to help your fellow players avoid falling into a trap. To set up, choose a difficulty level (1-4), then randomly choose the 6-9 category cards (e.g., length, material, price, movement, duration of use, etc.) and lay them on the table. Each player secretly draws a number tile from the bag — from 1 up to the number of categories — returns this tile to the bag, then writes this number on their player board. (More than one player might have this number.) Finally, place a number tile next to each category and deal each player a face-down object card.

After looking at your object card, think of an object that's as similar to your card as possible in your trap category, that is, the category next to the number you wrote down. If your trap category is price, for example, you want to write down an object that costs the same as the object on your card, but is as different as possible in every other way.

Players then take turns being the active player. When you're active, you reveal your object card and written word...then say and do nothing. Everyone else then discusses which categories to reveal one by one. The more categories they reveal without hitting your trap category, the more the team scores!

After everyone has been active player once (or twice with 3-4 players), the game ends. How well did you score as a team?