How to Play Our Game

Cards of the Humanities will include the following types of cards in the complete deck:


1. "Most likely" cards. These will list a variety of possible effects that subgenres (and the particular works and authors who represent them) might produce. Examples may be drawn quite explicitly from what we know about those subgenres ("Most likely to put you inside of a castle," for instance, or "Most likely to describe nature") while others may simply be more random or designed to incite discussion or debate ("Most likely to upset you" or "Most likely to make you want to leave the country"). We haven't decided yet how many of these cards there will be, but each of the four teams should plan to produce an equal number of them.

2. Subgenre cards. There will be between 3-5 of these for each individual subgenre. Each card will describe an element of one or more theories of that subgenre, or refer to a feature of its historical development. In cases where there are competing theories of the same subgenre, these cards may very well contradict each other.

3. Text cards. There will be between 8-12 of these for each genre team (since there are four teams total, that means there will be a minimum of 32 and a maximum of 48 of these). Each of these cards will include the title, author, date of publication of a particular text, and a brief description (do we want to do that or not?). It may be possible to include images as well (title pages, for example).

4. Author cards. These are optional, but in cases where there are particular authors especially well known for or traditionally associated with a certain subgenre, that author may be featured on a card. It may be possible to include images in this case as well.

Here are the rules of play for Cards of the Humanities:

1. All of the subgenre, text, and author cards are combined and shuffled.

2. Players select 5 cards (more? less?) randomly from that deck. 

3. One player is the judge and draws a card randomly from the "most likely" pile and reads it.

4. Each of the other players selects one card from his/her hand to play in response. The card may be selected because it's especially accurate, or completely inaccurate, or funny, or weird, etc. No one else sees the cards played by others.

5. The judge reads each card out and chooses the winning card. The judge can choose based on any criteria at all--it's totally up to the judge.

6. The winning player keeps the card.

7. Players add a new card from the deck to their hand after they play a card.

8. The next player in line serves as judge.

9. Play until a) everyone decides to stop or b) one player holds one (or more) "subgenre" hand of 4 cards from the same subgenre or c) some combination or variation of the above. (Do we want to decide on one of these or leave options open?)

The goal of playing Cards of the Humanities:

To learn something about the history and theories of a variety of literary subgenres under the broader categories of poetry, drama, autobiography, and novel, and to be exposed to a sampling of texts and authors writing (in different time periods and geographical locations) in those subgenres. Also to have fun.

Bonus feature: future expansion packs! Think of how many subgenres and how many texts and authors aren't even represented here.

We reserve the right to modify these rules and game design as our research and discussion progresses.