Cards Against Humanity is a politically incorrect

Political correctness

Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...

 multiplayer party game

Party game

Party games are games that some people play as forms of entertainment at social gatherings. Party games usually involve more than one player. There are a large number and styles of party games available and the one selected will depend on the atmosphere that is sought to be generated...

 currently available for free digital download or as a published hardcopy as of June 15, 2011. Cards Against Humanity is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike license, making it possible to consider it an open source

Open source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

 product. Its title references the phrase "crimes against humanity."

History

Cards Against Humanity was created by a group of alumni of Highland Park High School

Highland Park High School (Highland Park, Illinois)

Highland Park High School, or HPHS, is a public four-year high school located in Highland Park, Illinois, a North Shore suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Township High School District 113, which also includes Deerfield High School.Prior to the 1949–50 school year, the...

 as a party game for a New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...

 celebration. Cards Against Humanity was financed through the website Kickstarter

Kickstarter

Kickstarter is an online threshold pledge system for funding creative projects. Kickstarter has funded a diverse array of endeavors, ranging from indie film and music to journalism, solar energy technology and food-related projects.-Model:...

, exceeding its funding goal by nearly 300% by the project's end on January 30, 2011. Creator Ben Hantoot stated in an interview with Dice Hate Me that the game was developed by "8 of us who are the core writer-creators, 5 or 6 additional 'part time' developers" and "dozens of friends and acquaintances who have played the game".

In October 2011, the game was exhibited as part of the "Big Games" area of the annual IndieCade

Indiecade

Indiecade or IndieCade is an international juried festival of independent video games. IndieCade is known as "the video game industry's Sundance". At IndieCade independent video game developers are selected to screen and promote their work at the annual IndieCade festival and showcase events...

 games festival in Culver City, where the release of a first expansion was officially announced.

In November 2011, Cards Against Humanity released the first expansion to their game, which contained 112 new cards and sold out in three days.

Gameplay

The Cards Against Humanity website describes the rules of the game:

The game includes rules for so-called "Pick 2s" and "Pick 3s," black question cards that are answered with multiple white answer cards. The official rules include additional provisions for gambling previously won "Awesome Points" for the right to play additional white cards during a round. Many house rules also exist for Cards Against Humanity.

Reception

Critical and popular reception of Cards Against Humanity has been generally positive. The game has been praised as "Simple, yet well-executed" by the Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...

 "Puzzler", as "pretty amazing" by The Onion

The Onion

The Onion is an American news satire organization. It is an entertainment newspaper and a website featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news, in addition to a non-satirical entertainment section known as The A.V. Club...

 AV Club, and as "the game your party deserves" by Thrillist

Thrillist

Thrillist is a leading men's lifestyle brand, currently reaching over 3 million subscribers in 19 local markets in the U.S. and the U.K.Best known for its irreverent tone, Thrillist delivers a targeted recommendation via one email each day to its audience of mostly young, well-educated, affluent...

. The game review and discussion website Dice Hate Me reviewed the game as well, stating it was "Brilliantly crafted," though warned that the game was "not for the faint of heart, nor the easily offended" citing the often offensive

Offensive

Offensive may refer to:* Offensive , a political party* Offensive , an attack...

 nature of the cards included with the game. The game has also been well received on BoardGameGeek.com

BoardGameGeek

BoardGameGeek is a website that was founded in January 2000 by Scott Alden and Derk Solko as a resource for the board gaming hobby. The database holds reviews, articles, and session reports for over 45,000 different games, expansions, and designers. BoardGameGeek includes German-style board games,...

, garnering an 8.0/10 review as of early June 2011.