Venn Party

By Darren Riches & Steve Palmer

5-15 Minutes

3-10 Players

2/5 Difficulty

The deck

The deck has 48 cards. There are 3 types of card and each has a Venn diagram of two different coloured circles. The overlapping circles create a third colour forming the inner and outer colours.

The 3 different Venn cards.

How to win

The object of the game is to correctly guess if cards contain the stated colour while stopping your opponents from doing the same.

The game is played in rounds and at the end of each round, one card is discarded. The game ends when all cards have been used and the winner is the player with the fewest cards.

Set up

Shuffle the deck and deal cards face down in one pile in the middle of the playing area, this is known as the central deck.

For a quick game, deal 20 cards. For a long game, deal 40 cards.

The starting player for the first round is whoever most recently won a game of Venn Party. If no one has won a game of Venn Classic before, the tallest player starts.

Gameplay

The game is played in rounds, with each round consisting of 3 stages:

Stage 1 – Start
Stage 2 – Challenge or Continue
Stage 3 – Resolution

Stage 1

Start

The starting player picks up the top card from the central deck, looks at the card and pushes it to a player and states a colour that appears on the card, but it may not! For example,

“This card has blue on it”

Stage 2

Challenge or Continue

— Challenge

When a card is pushed to a receiving player, they have two options.

They can issue a challenge by agreeing or disagreeing. For example,

“I’m challenging you, you’re telling the truth” (agree)
or
“I’m challenging you, you’re telling a lie” (disagree)

And then the game moves on to the resolution stage.

— Continue

Otherwise, if the receiving player is unsure and they don’t want to challenge, they can pick up the card, look at it and push it to a player stating a colour.

This can be the same colour that has been previously stated or a different colour. For example:

“This card has orange on it”

The latest receiving player has the same options. They can then either agree, disagree, or pick up the card and push it on again. This carries on until a player issues a challenge by agreeing or disagreeing.

Then the game moves on to the resolution stage.

Stage 3

Resolution

Once a player issues a challenge by verbally agreeing or disagreeing, the card must then be turned over for all players to see it.

If the receiving player’s statement is correct, the player that pushed the card loses the round.

If the receiving player’s statement is incorrect, they lose the round.

The player that loses the round must place the card face down in front of them and then pick up one card from the central deck to start a new round.

The End

Once all the cards from the central deck have gone, the game is over.

The player with the fewest cards in front of them wins.

If a game ends in a draw with 2 or more players having the fewest cards, then place 3 random cards in a new central deck and the remaining players play a mini game. The player with the fewest cards at the end wins. Repeat this mini game until there is one outright winner.

Advanced
Gameplay

A player can push a card WITHOUT looking at the card. If a card is passed back to a player that has previously pushed without looking, they must either challenge or look at the card and then pass it on again.