Make Fake News Great Again
Make Fake News Great Again Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Setup and Play
Contents: 69 picture cards, eleven! text cards, zero dice, no board.
Sit down together (e.g. on chairs), preferably around one table.
Take (all or just a handful of) picture and text cards out of the box, shuffle them and deal each player 6 cards. Place the remaining cards as a face-down draw pile in the middle of the table. OK so far?
OK. Whoever last read a newspaper becomes the first Storyteller. If you don't know what a newspaper is, or have forgotten when you last held one, then the second-oldest of you becomes Storyteller. Why the second-oldest? Why not?
The Storyteller turns over the top card of the draw pile and places it face up in the middle of the table. This roughly sets the topic of the first Fake News: here, for example, something about porn or porn stars.
Each fellow player (only the fellow players, not the Storyteller! Capito?) chooses one of their hand cards that could best fit the given topic. Each player then slides their card face down to the Storyteller. The Storyteller sets his own hand cards aside. He takes the cards that the fellow players have slid to him, without looking at them! and shuffles them so that he does not know whose card is which. Only then does he look at the cards and thinks up a cool Fake News story. The Storyteller loudly calls out BREAKING NEWS² and then starts off, as in the example below:
*** BREAKING NEWS ***
Porn star spills the beans ...
² Whoever forgets to call out "Breaking News!" must, as punishment, down a glass of sausage water. Cucumber water works as an alternative too. Or something like that ...
Then he places one of the cards he has just received face up next to the topic card and carries on talking. The Storyteller decides for himself when which card appears in his story:
[Topic card: Porn star] [Card: money bag]
*** BREAKING NEWS *** ... "... as is now known, hush money was paid
to cover up an affair between a well-known
porn actress and ..."
While the Storyteller tells his Fake News, he gradually lays out the cards that he works into his story.
[Topic card: Porn star] [Card: money bag] [Card: Trump] [Card: mushroom]
Important: you do not have to report true news! It's all just FAKE NEWS!
Also very important: one of the cards does not make it into the story! The Storyteller decides for himself which card does not fit into his story. He keeps this card in his hand and ends his Fake News story. The card that does not make it into the story is the Loser card. The Storyteller places the Loser card face up.
The Loser who played this card reveals themselves and places the Loser card face up beside them. They should feel a bit ashamed, because they did not even make it into a Fake News story!
Once the Loser has finished being ashamed, play continues: whoever wishes may discard unloved hand cards. After that, everyone draws cards to replenish. Make sure all players have 6 cards. The Loser of the last round becomes the new Storyteller (in FAKE NEWS, it is always the Losers who open their big mouths). They draw the top card of the draw pile and place it face up in the middle of the table. All fellow players think about which of their hand cards best fits the new story ... lalala lululu etc. etc. ... you can imagine how it goes from here. If not, ask your fellow players or google something!
End of the Game
You play until one of you has 5 Loser cards lying in front of them (if you want to play until 6, 7 or X Loser cards, that is also possible, but at your own risk!). As soon as someone receives the 5th Loser card, the game ends and they are the Super Loser. The Super Loser must now tell the ultimate Fake News story using all of their Loser cards! Everyone else cheers enthusiastically and is delighted.
After that, each player may count their Loser cards. The player with the fewest Loser cards wins. In case of a tie, there are several winners. But let's be honest:
With FAKE NEWS there are never any winners. With FAKE NEWS there are always only losers.