Rotten Apples
Rotten Apples Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- Answer cards (green Green Apple cards): each player is dealt 10 per hand.
- Prompt cards (Brown Cards): fill-in-the-blank questions or phrases, kept in a face-down pile.
Set Up
Each player is dealt 10 Green Apple cards. The Brown Cards are placed in a pile. The top card reveals the fill-in-the-blank question or phrase.
Who Starts?
Sir Isaac Newton: Sir Isaac Newton famously discovered gravity after being hit on the head by a falling apple. The person whose birthday is closest to January 4th, the birthday of Sir Isaac Newton, becomes the first Apple Picker.
The person whose birthday is closest to January 4th becomes the first Apple Picker.
Play
The Apple Picker places the top Brown Card next to the Brown Card pile. This reveals a second Brown Card on the top of the pile. Looking only at the face up side of the two cards, the Apple Picker decides which of the cards they would like to play. The other card is placed on the Brown Card pile.
The Apple Picker then reads the card out loud to the other players.
Each player takes the card they believe best fills in the blank and passes it face down to the Apple Picker.
Splits
William Tell: Legend has it that William Tell shot an apple off of his son's head, splitting the apple in two. Some cards have two blanks and call for a two part answer. Players then submit two cards, in the order they want them read, face down to the Apple Picker.
Some cards have two blanks and call for a two part answer. Players then submit two cards, in the order they want them read, face down to the Apple Picker.
Feed the Picker
Steve Jobs: Steve Jobs was the visionary co-founder of Apple Inc. In honor of Steve Jobs, every round a Green Apple card is randomly drawn (or two cards if it is a William Tell/two blank question) and handed face down to the Apple Picker.
Every round a Green Apple card is randomly drawn (or two cards if it is a William Tell/two blank question) and handed face down to the Apple Picker.
After all cards are handed to the Apple Picker, the Apple Picker shuffles them (being careful to keep William Tell answers in the proper order). They then share each answer by re-reading the Brown Card and filling in the blanks using the Green Apple Card(s).
Johnny Appleseed Rule
Johnny Appleseed: John Chapman (aka Johnny Appleseed) travelled across huge areas of early America planting apple seeds to grow apple trees. As the Apple Picker is making their decision, players are allowed to try and plant seeds about what Green Apple Card(s) should be picked. They may be planting seeds to get the Apple Picker to pick their response, their favorite response, or confuse the Apple Picker about what response might come from Steve Jobs.
As the Apple Picker is making their decision, players are allowed to try and plant seeds about what Green Apple Card(s) should be picked. They may be planting seeds to get the Apple Picker to pick their response, their favorite response, or confuse the Apple Picker about what response might come from Steve Jobs.
After the Apple Picker has re-read the Brown Card with each of the Green Apple answers, they decide which answer they believe is the funniest.
Scoring
The player whose answer is chosen wins that round and holds onto the Brown Card from that round. If the Apple Picker picks the Steve Jobs answer, the Apple Picker wins the round and keeps the Brown Card. All other cards are placed in a discard pile.
Players draw new Green Apple Cards to replenish to 10 cards. The player that won the round becomes the next Apple Picker and play continues until someone wins the game.
Winning the Game
The first player to win three rounds and collect three Brown Cards wins the game.
Garden of Eden Rule
The Garden of Eden: The Bible says that Adam and Eve had things pretty good in the Garden of Eden until Eve was tempted to eat an apple from the Tree of Knowledge. If you think your cards are pretty good but could be better... once, and only once, per game, a player can invoke the Garden of Eden rule.
If you think your cards are pretty good but could be better... once, and only once, per game, a player can invoke the Garden of Eden rule.
This allows the player to discard some or all of their Green Apple cards and randomly draw the same number of cards from the Green Apple deck.