Say Anything is a party game for up to eight players. In Say Anything, players try to guess the question-reader’s opinion, and the question-reader also tries to guess what the other players will believe to be his or her answer. The goal of the game is to have the highest point total by correctly guessing what submitted answer will be selected by the question-reader, or by correctly guessing the answer that the other players select. For those familiar with Apples to Apples (or Cards Against Humanity), Say Anything employs a similar mechanism of matching closely with the reader (or Card Czar), but allows for more flexibility than what is on the pre-printed cards.
Say Anything contains a score board, miniature whiteboards and betting chips in each of the player colors, whiteboard markers, the Select-o-Matic 5000™, and a deck of question cards. The question cards generally take the form of “In my opinion…” and then give the reader five different items from which to choose (or three different items in different editions). In each round of the game, the question-reader selects a card from the deck and chooses one of the topics. Topics range from matter-of-fact answers such as “…who’s the best rock musician or band?” to open-ended questions like “…if you could train a monkey to do anything, what would it be?” The other players then quickly write a response on their whiteboard and submit it facedown to the middle of the table. Ordering is somewhat important here because if two players have the same answer, the later to submit must choose a different answer and re-submit.
After all answers are submitted, the reader takes the boards, reads each of the responses in the order in which they were submitted, and lays them out on the table. The reader then uses the Select-o-Matic 5000™ to choose the response that best fits with his or her opinion. After the reader has selected, the players use their betting chips to choose which answer they believe to be the reader’s choice. After all are marked, the reader reveals his or her answer. The player who wrote the chosen answer gets one point, each player gets one point for each betting chip on the correct answer. The reader also gets points for the number of betting chips on the chosen answer, up to a maximum of three points.
In my opinion… Say Anything is fantastic. As a game, it molds well to the style of the group. I’ve played Say Anything with dear friends where the game has been a fairly tame and matter-of-fact exercise in measuring how much we know each other. And I’ve also played Say Anything with different groups where filthy and raunchy stuff gets submitted. And that is what is great about the game — it plays with all kinds of groups. You can play Say Anything with your family at the holidays with little concern that any awkward taboo topics are going to come up (e.g. religion, sex, politics), but you can also play the game with your college drinking buddies — while still drinking! The only limitation is the creativity of your group and where you all are willing to take the game.
It plays quickly enough that you can run through a game in about half an hour, but it also has that draw that you want to play it a couple of times in a row. Since players may actually “say anything”, Say Anything does not have the problem of Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity where you are limited to only what you have in your hand, but it also plays best with a group that is creative enough to go for the entertaining answers or ones that fit well with the group. In sum, Say Anything is a remarkably fun party game that works well to fit your group’s personality and creativity level.
Say Anything is available at Target, Wal-Mart, some hobby game stores, and online. It has a manufacturer suggested retail price of $19.99, but can be found for less, as Target online has it for $15.99.