The Voting Game – The Adult Party Game About Your Friends (NSFW Edition)

Released in 2015 through a Kickstarter campaign, The Voting Game was designed by Tom Rohlf and was the first game released by Player Ten Games, they have since gone on to make many other similar party games such as Hot Seat and Pick Your Poison. Dom & Andy have played The Voting Game with several groups of our friends and found it to be a fun way to loosen people up and get the first few drinks down!

Talking of drinks, straight off the bat, we should tell you that Player Ten Games specialise in adult party games, but we are talking drinking games rather than “nudge-nudge wink-wink” games, the “House Rules” section of the instructions literally begins with when players should drink and take shots.

The second reason the 17+ warning box is on the side is because a lot of the questions are not suitable for the younger audience, but the answers they will generate will be even worse! Of course, you could go through the box and remove all the less child-friendly cards but; 1) that pretty much ruins the game and, 2) you’ll end up removing about a third of the cards. 

As a party-style game, The Voting Game is designed to be played by 5-10 players and we have found that odd numbers are best to stop there being too many ties. Game times vary largely depending on the number of players and how many rounds you actually want to do, but we would suggest anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour is a good estimate. 

How To Get Elected

As you might expect from a game designed to be played by chemically imbalanced people, The Voting Game’s rules are very straight forward. Each player is allocated a number from 1 to 10 which also has a unique colour for each. Players are then given their voting cards, which they will use to decide which player to vote for.

The Voting Game suggests that the player who most recently called their mother goes first, however you can decide whatever way you prefer.

With all of this done, the first player draws a black Question Card and reads it aloud to the group. Everyone, including the reader, then gives the reader whichever of their voting cards matches the number of the player they believe best fits the question. The reader then reveals the votes one by one and player with the most votes wins the round & keeps the Question Card. The player to the left of the reader, reads the next question card and so on. Let’s give you an example to help. 

5 friends are playing The Voting Game and have allocated themselves numbers: Fred is 1 (Blue), Daphne is 2 (Red), Velma is 3 (Yellow), Shaggy is 4 (Turquoise) & Scooby is 5 (Grey). Fred calls his mum every day, so he goes first and draws the following question: “Who will yell at you for not sorting the recycling?” Everyone looks through their voting cards and gives the chosen cards, face down, to Fred.

Once everyone has locked in their vote, Fred reveals the votes one after the other. Three cards show a 3 with yellow corners, meaning Velma has three votes. Two cards show a red 2, which means Daphne got two votes. As Velma got the most votes, she will keep the question card and is the winner for this round. Shaggy is next to read a question card, as he was the second most recent to call his mother, then we keep going round and round until someone has collected 6 Questions Cards and is declared the winner! Or until Old Man Johnson calls about his haunted fairground… 

Rigged System

When trying to think of criticism for The Voting Game, we do struggle a bit as it is a very simple & straight forward game, which is both excellent from a gameplay perspective but also a little dull as there is very little theming outside of some colours. There are some expansion packs but we have not played those yet, so maybe they add a bit more pizazz, but this is a very small issue as no one buys drinking/party games because of the incredible artwork.

Otherwise, we only have two things that would be possible deal breakers for us. First, the product quality isn’t brilliant, the cards are very easy to rip and are absolutely not waterproof. Which, when you remember that the target audience for this game is boozed-up party goers, means the life expectancy of the cards can be fairly low. We have played the game a few times and I am down about 5 question cards, thankfully the voting cards are still accounted for otherwise the game would quite literally no longer function. 

Our second grumble is around some of the cards themselves. To be fair to Player Ten Games, The Voting Game is clearly not for children and therefore you should expect adult themes. But some of the cards just feel a bit mean spirited, which we feel limits the people you can play the game with or forces you to skip some cards. If you have a shyer friend or someone who is more sensitive to bullying, and a group of their peers singles them out for something negative, that friend may not appreciate the humour.

Further, some cards are juvenile/gross, which we are fine with but we actually had to remove some cards that are, whichever way you cut it, down-right offensive. We won’t advertise them here, but suggest you agree with your friends on the questions before the voting begins as this will avoid any upsets. 

Count The Votes

In summary, both Andy & Dom enjoy playing The Voting Game and there’s nothing in our critique that is a deal-breaker for us. Because the base game comes with a lot of question cards, the game changes every time you play and even more so if you are playing with different people. This makes the replayability of The Voting Game very high, making it great value for money. 

Ultimately, The Voting Game is a fun way to organise a drinking party, have a great laugh with your friends or even get to know new people. If you are looking for a solid party game for adults, The Voting Game should definitely be on your list.