Bad Decisions Review
Review by David Lent
Bad Decisions is a story telling party card game about people making poor life choices. It’s suitable for 3 to 9 players and can be played with or without “Racy” cards so you can play this with people of all ages. All the “Racy” cards are clearly marked so you can remove them when gaming with younger players. The “Racy” cards are much more appropriate than Cards Against Humanity’s cards and will not offend normal adults. Bad Decisions is designed for fun gameplay; not shock value.
The rules for Bad Decisions only take about 3 minutes to read. Each player gets 5 each of fool, crisis and bad decision cards. The starting bard is determined randomly and draws a story card. He fills out the first two blanks with the card types called for on the story card and the other players fill in the third blank. The bard randomizes the cards and reads aloud all the different stories. He choses the one he likes best and gives the story card to the winner. There is no set criteria for what the bard is looking for. Some may choose the funniest combination and others may choose the combination that is the most logical. At the end of the turn, the bard role passes to the next player in clockwise order. The rules are really this easy!
There are four separate ways a Bad Decisions game can end. You can play to a set number of points, play for a set number of rounds, play for a set time period or play until all the stories have been read. I like how there are various ways the game can end. It increases re-playability and makes the game more interesting.
Bad Decisions has some variant rules that players can use to spice up the game a bit. First, the bard can determine which of the 2 blanks on the story card to fill in instead of just filling out the first two. Second, the bard can fill out only the first blank and let the other players fill out the other two. Third, the game can be played with no bard or points and the players just try to create as funny or interesting a story as they can. This can even be done solitaire.
I played Bad Decisions at Wolfcon and we used the variant rule where the players fill out the last 2 blanks and didn’t use the “Racy” cards. We had a lot of fun and I like how the game can be played in public without fear of getting arrested. My friends and I played with the “Racy” cards and I found the game to be much tamer than cards against humanity.
Bad Decision is a good choice for gamers who are looking for a party game that can be played with gamers of all ages.
Buy your own copy here.