When life gives you crappy situations, you should rank them!
In my experiences going to breweries, they don’t often have games, but they are usually pretty subpar if they do. There can sometimes be a slew of random party games I’ve never heard of that I just never bothered to try. Finally, on my and my husband’s third-anniversary trip, I had to play a game for the “Game of the Week,” so I decided to pick one of the random five options provided by Fogtown Brewing!
I chose a small blue box resembling a simple card game called Stuff Happens. After researching it now, this title was reprinted to be in a family-friendly version. In (known initially as) S*** Happens, players must be the first ones to rank crappy situations in order of how crappy they are.
For example, maybe you were attacked by a swarm of bees, or you wet the bed every night. Each player starts with three horrible situations. Then, given a new scenario, they must place the latest event on a scale of 1 - 100 and correctly guess where it lies compared to their other unfortunate circumstances.
Mechanics & Categories: Card, Party, Pattern
UNFORTUNATELY COMEDIC
These circumstances have to lie on a scale of one to a hundred, so some of these are very tame. But when you reveal a horrible card, it becomes hard not to laugh at how unfortunate that would be. The art contains stick figures and simple vector shapes, adding to the comedic factor. I think of Pictionary and drawing stick figures doing actions; we’ve all been there.
Since this is a relatively opinionated game, seeing how your friends rank the event can be interesting. “Wow, you would really rather fall into a porta-potty?” You can see how the crazy conversations and debates get started.
DEAD SIMPLE
This game is so simple you probably don’t need a rule book to understand the point. There is a card with a bad situation and a number. You have other bad situations in front of you with numbers. Can you place the new card correctly? That’s it.
Though Stuff Happens is geared more toward adults, I can see people wanting to reinvent their own! Even a kid-friendly version would be awesome, and I’m sure they would have a blast with their friends.
BRING TO PARTIES
This is such a convenient game to have at a brewery. It’s so tiny and only consists of 200 cards. Up to eight people can play as well. It’s easy to bring this deck of cards in a purse without the box and have it on hand when your friend group has some downtime. Stuff Happens also doesn’t require anyone to be a “gamer,” as it can be more of a conversation starter with some ridiculous scenarios!
Final Comments
I loved the simple concept of this game from the second I played it. Yes, I was at a brewery, so the vibe differs significantly. But I could easily see our friends and family playing this. That being said, eventually, you will learn which cards are worse than others, and the game becomes unplayable. I recommend getting it with the intent to regift or sell it later. It’s a pretty funny game that I enjoyed, but I am unsure how much more I could play, given the 200-card count. But who knows?
For kicks, I modeled GPT (AI for folks who don’t know what GPT is) so that it could come up with rankings for a provided list of scenarios for me. I thought I would love to make this game for things I come up with, but if I score them, I can’t play. Thus, ask the AI!
Here is one of my sample lists:
“eating mold, the car gets stuck in flooding, meeting your favorite celebrity and they are rude to you, getting broken up with, speeding ticket, losing a large amount of money gambling, accidentally dropping your phone in the ocean.”
And the GPT response:
Here's the list of items rated on a scale of 1 to 100 in ascending order of unfortunate circumstances: 1. Meeting your favorite celebrity, and they are rude to you: 10 2. Eating mold: 20 3. Accidentally dropping your phone in the ocean: 30 4. Speeding ticket: 40 5. Getting broken up with: 50 6. Losing a large amount of money gambling: 60 7. Car gets stuck in flooding: 70 Please note that these ratings are subjective and based on the perceived level of unfortunate circumstances.
Similar To: Superfight, What Do You Meme?, Trial by Trolley
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Publisher: Goliath Games
Game(s) Pictured: Stuff Happens
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