Punderdome: A Card Game for Pun Lovers
Punderdome: A Card Game for Pun Lovers Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
Punderdome comes with:
- 110 White Cards
- 110 Green Cards
- 1 set of instructions
- 1 "Just for Pun!" card
- 2 Mystery Envelopes
- 1 large pad of slips for Mystery Envelope prizes
- 6 small pads for writing puns
- 6 pencils
What You Bring
- A timer
- Mystery Envelope prizes
Assembling Players
In order to play Punderdome, you'll need to gather at least two of your most pun-tolerant friends and/or relatives. Inform them they are about to play this game with you. Apologize later.
Congratulations: you are now the game's first Prompter!
Again, Punderdome is best played with three or more players. Players can compete as individuals or as small teams.
Game Play
The Objective: Win a Mystery Envelope prize by being the first player/team to obtain ten pairs of cards.
Before Playing: First Prompter fills Mystery Envelope (for more details, see "Mystery Envelope Prizes" section).
- First Prompter draws two cards and reads one Quick Pun question.
- Player who responds quickest with a pun wins 30 extra seconds for the Prompt Round to follow.
- Prompter flips the cards, reads Green (Situations) and White (Topics).
- Players have 90 seconds to write down a single pun (word/phrase/sentence) that combines both topics and then give to the Prompter.
- Prompter chooses best pun and awards that player that round's Green and White Cards.
- The winner becomes the new Prompter. Rounds continue until one team/player has ten pairs of cards.
Quick Pun
To warm up the players each round, the Prompter reads aloud the Quick Pun question from the back of either the White or Green Card. Prompter's choice!
The first player to shout out any pun that answers the Quick Pun question wins an extra 30 seconds (on top of the usual 90 seconds) to work on their pun in the following Prompt Round.
An example Quick Pun answer is provided on the back of each card, but creativity is encouraged!
Note to the Prompter: Be careful to hide the prompt on the opposite side of the card when you're reading the Quick Pun! The Quick Pun side is only used during the Quick Pun Round.
Green and White Prompts
Now, the Prompter turns over the cards and reads aloud both the Green and White Card prompts. Each of the other players then has 90 seconds to come up with one pun that connects the prompts on the White and Green Cards (the winner of the Quick Pun Round gets a full two minutes).
Example: The Prompter pulls a White Card that says "Aunts and Uncles" and a Green Card that says "Grocery Shopping." During the 90 seconds, a player could write down "My aunt re-produced my cousin." This would be acceptable! For more examples refer to the "Just for Pun!" card.
When time is up, all players besides the Prompter write their best pun down and turn it in to the Prompter, who shuffles the responses, reads them aloud, and chooses a winner for that round based on his/her personal preference.
Note to the Players: Use the paper provided to brainstorm, but be sure not to write your name or any clues to your identity on the paper you turn in to the Prompter.
The winner receives that round's pair of cards (White and Green) and draws the next two cards, becoming the Prompter for the next round. The game continues like this, alternating Quick Pun and Prompt Rounds, until one player/team receives a total of ten pairs of cards. That player gets to choose one of the Mystery Envelopes and redeem the prize inside!
Mystery Envelope Prizes
First Prompter is also the Host, responsible for providing the contents of the prize Mystery Envelopes. Before the game begins, the Host writes down on the paper provided two different prizes he or she could give away to the winner at the end of the game. The Host could write "temporary tattoo," "spatula," or "microwave," depending on what he or she has and is willing to part with.
Once written, these slips of paper go directly into the Mystery Envelopes and are placed in the middle of the play area. The Host's prizes should remain top secret throughout the duration of the game. The Mystery Envelopes will remain untouched until an individual/team is declared the winner.
At the end of the game, the winner will get to choose only one of these Mystery Envelopes, with no knowledge of what's inside either one. The Host can feasibly put something great in one and something awful in the other. For example, if a group is playing Punderdome at a neighborhood café, the Host could write down "One drink, on me!" in one Mystery Envelope and "Used napkin!" in the other Mystery Envelope. Yes, after all that hard work, it's entirely possible the winner could walk away with the grand prize of a used napkin.
Note: If the Host ends up winning Punderdome, he gets to keep the Mystery Envelope prizes. Not only has he convinced a group of friends to pun for hours, but he also gets to keep his stuff. A real prize in itself!
What Counts As a Pun?
For the purposes of playing Punderdome, a pun is any play on words. Basically, a pun is a joke where you use one word to mean another word for the explicit purpose of inducing a deep and guttural groan from everyone around you. Here are some easy ways to make puns based on the following prompts.
Rhyming
Think about words you'd associate with dogs: bones, dog houses, leashes...
Next, pick one of those words and brainstorm rhymes. How about bark? Bark rhymes with dark, arc, NARC, and lark. Let's go with dark! Replace the word dark with bark in a well-known phrase like "Are you afraid of the dark?"
Finally, adjust your phrasing so it connects with "Watching Television":
Nickelodeon is thinking about bringing back one of their classic TV shows but this time only targeting dog audiences. It's going to be called Arf! You Afraid of the Bark?
Homophones (two words that sound the same but have different meanings)
Pick a dog-related word that sounds like another word. Let's go with paws. Paws sounds the same as the word pause. That means that the words paws and pause are homophones!
Next, make a sentence using the word pause that relates to "Watching Television." This could be as simple as I had to pause the television show I was watching. Adjust the new sentence to relate to dogs. For example:
The television show I was watching was on paws. Paws, feet, and hooves!
Making Up Words
Take a word related to dog, let's say terrier. Terrier sounds a lot like terror. If we wanted to relate it to "Watching Television," we could connect the word terror to watching reports about terrorists on the news. Now all you have to do is replace terrorists with terrierists and you have a pun that combines dogs and watching television, all by making up one word.
It seems like every day I'm watching reports about terrierists on the news.