Awkward Party

Game Intro. "Let’s face it. You don’t really want to be here. You don’t really want to talk to any of these people. You don’t really even want to play this game. But you came here for a reason, and you’re not going to get it unless you’re prepared to engage in a little small talk, the occasional social lubricant, and some generous nodding and smiling. If you play your cards right—literally in this case—you might just walk out of here a new person... yeah, who are we kidding, you’ll just be happy if you get through the evening with your dignity intact."

Awkward Party is a thematic card game, with party game elements, that pokes fun at the bizarre traditions and anxieties that define awkward social gatherings. At the start of the game, each player receives a hand of seven Awkward Party cards (hand limit 7), three Why Am I Even Here? Cards (hand limit), and sets their individual Awkwardness meter to 5. The Party Interest meter is put in the middle of the table and also set to 5. The Awkward Party cards are the main cards that the players play throughout the game with varying effects. They come in a number of categories such as Conversation, Venue, Money, Role, Drink, Support, Romantic Encounter, Rejection, and Something Interesting. The Conversation cards also have their own subjects such as Weather, Movies, Sports, Religion, Politics, and Sex.

The Why Am I Even Here? cards are the secret objectives each player is trying to complete. They also vary considerably from having a Conversation with all other players to receiving Money from two other players to acquiring the "Someone's Dog" card. Once one of their objectives has been completed, the player must reveal the corresponding Why Am I Even Here? card. In most cases, the winner of the game is the player who has revealed the most Why Am I Even Here? cards. There are a few exceptions such as the "Go Home" and the "Street Cred" Why Am I Even Here? cards, which are only completed and revealed when a particular game-ending event is triggered, even if it is not on the player's turn. If the event is triggered, the player holding the corresponding Why Am I Even Here? card wins the game regardless of how many revealed Why Am I Even Here? cards other players have. The game ends immediately when any one of the following events occurs:

 A player reveals three completed Why Am I Even Here? cards. 
 A player's Awkwardness meter exceeds 10 (and they are forced to leave the party).
 Party Interest drops below 1.
 Party Interest exceeds 10 for the third time and the cops arrive to shut it down.

Game-play itself is turn-based. Each player turn has four phases:

 Play 0-2 Awkward Party cards. 
 Discard any number of Awkward Party and/or unrevealed Why Am I Even Here? cards. 
 Draw Awkward Party and/or Why Am I Even Here? cards up to the hand limit (revealed Why Am I Even Here? cards still count).
 Reduce Party Interest by 1.

If a player plays a conversation card on another player, any player may play another card to join the conversation if their awkwardness is low enough and they have a matching subject. With the exception of Conversation, Rejection, Money, and Support cards, turns can be stolen by other players by playing a card in the same category as the card just played. This card counts as the first card played by the player that just stole the turn. Turn-stealing can be chained, one card at a time, so long as players continue playing cards from the same category.

—description from the designer