Grab a lace collar and scrunchie because game night just got a judicial upgrade.
Buffalo Games brings the ultimate game for debaters to families’ next game night with I Dissent, a “game of supreme opinions.” Players will vote, debate, and deliberate on different argumentative statements in this card game.
In this strategy game, players preside over the esteemed court of public opinion (aka modern society) and argue over hot-button statements. In each round, players vote to either agree or disagree with very important topics — from “a hot dog is a sandwich” to “Halloween is the most fun holiday.”
After the round’s chief justice reads out the statement up for debate, players on both sides of the argument attempt to sway more people to their side. At the end of the conversation, players will choose either their “agree” or “disagree” opinion card to play, along with a voting card worth one, two, or three points. Much like the Supreme Court of the United States, players need to earn the majority to win. Educational and fun, no?
The strategy part of the game comes in with the voting cards — endorsing an opinion with one vote means a player is confident that they’re on the majority side and do not need an extra two or three votes to push their total higher. However, the majority is tallied based on the amount of points on each voting card, so players must weigh how much power they have to give each vote.
Each player also has one “I dissent” card that they can play to attempt to steal the points to their minority side. An “I dissent” card trumps any other amount of votes because it’s worth a whopping six points. However, the dissent card can only be played once per game, so players must use it wisely.
In addition to the included cards, each deck comes with a handful of blank cards for each chief justice to write their own arguments, so possibilities for friendly debates are pretty endless. Have a favorite TV character, color, or underrated opinion? Now’s your chance to explain why and have others come to your side with a little persuasive speaking.
All in all, playing I Dissent is a fun chance to argue and make players’ opinions heard as they try to sway the votes to their own side, just like the real SCOTUS.
