Oh Fruck! Card Game Review

Oh Fruck! is a card game for designed for two to six people. It is also an unbelievably, undeniably fun game full of laughs, action, silliness, and just about anything else you can imagine. Its description as a “raucous” game perfectly fits this game.

I know that sounds crazy to say about a card game, but it’s true.

In its most simple form, the object of Oh Fruck! is to get rid of all your cards. As in similar games, each player is dealt cards to begin the game, then must discard, matching previously discarded cards by number or suit. If unable to discard, the player must take a card. This is where the similarity to other card games ends.

What makes this game so different from other card games in this genre is the rules.

In addition to the playing cards, Oh Fruck! has a deck of rule cards. At the beginning of the game, three rule cards are turned over and they apply to the round. This means it’s highly unlikely you’d ever play the same game twice.

And while we’re speaking of the rules, be warned that these rules are not your ordinary rules; they can involve taking a specific action like squawking like a chicken whenever a certain card is discarded, or speaking in an accent whenever you talk to the other players, or giving yourselves nicknames that must be used rather than real names. Depending on the “luck” of the rules draw, you might have all of these scenarios going on at the same time.

Just to make it even more complicated (or hilarious if you’re disposed to have a lot of fun with it) mixed in with the playing cards are cards that instruct you to turn over another rule card. Again, depending on the luck of the draw, you might have six, or seven, or even more rules to follow in a single round of play.

Other special cards include those that change the direction of the play, make the next player have to pick a card (or three) and lose a turn, or allow you to discard as many cards as you can. For every action, you have to remember to play by the rules, however many of them there may be.

Here are a couple things I learned from my experience playing Oh Fruck!

While it would be possible—and probably fun—to play with just two people, I think it would take a minimum of three to actually get the most from it.

I also think that despite being billed as appropriate for ages 12 and up, 12 might be a bit young. There are occasions where a player is to yell the word “fruck” in the context of a rule or situation, and in our game, anyway, in the heat of the moment, it sometimes didn’t come out as fruck. So anyone under a certain age, or sensitive about curse words might not appreciate the game.

This can be a strategic game, and it’s kind of easy to lose sight of that in the craziness of the game.

Learning to play Oh Fruck! may take only five minutes as the creators state, but it can certainly take longer than 15 minutes to play.

The creators of the game suggest various playing alternatives, to shorten the length, or limit rules, or accommodate players, and all of those are options my friends and I would consider in the future.

So if you’re looking for a new game for game night, a game that can literally have you on the floor laughing (it did us, thanks to a rule!), is relatively easy to learn and play, check out Oh Fruck! And if you’re interested, check out how this game came to be, on its website www.ohfruck.com.

I got my game at Amazon, for less than $15, and it was well worth it.

Oh Fruck!, A Card Game for Real Fruckers, The Fruckus Company