To be honest, I never expected to laugh as much as I did when I reserved a media slot for Change My Mind, a tabletop card game that challenges players to rank and debate the most absurd topics imaginable while convincing others of their perspective. I brought along my colleague Trina and invited Adam Gumbert from Respawn Aim Fire podcast to join us on this adventure. I'm so glad I did, as both of them can vouch for the hilarity and sheer fun of this wacky game, which turned out to be one of the highlights of my experience at PAX West.
The game's concept is straightforward and quick to learn, taking merely thirty seconds to explain. In each round, one player draws a card from a deck, which lists several items. The task for this player is to arrange these items in order, either from worst to best or vice versa. Each item corresponds to a letter, and the player uses tokens marked with these letters to secretly establish their order by placing the tokens facedown.
Meanwhile, the other players each select tokens bearing the same letters. Their goal is to predict the sequence chosen by the first player. Once all players have arranged their tokens, the initial player reveals their chosen order by flipping their tokens face up.
Then the real fun begins - a discussion ensues where players debate and persuade the card holder to reconsider their rankings. This continues until the card holder confirms their final decision is locked in. Then, the rest of the players reveal their guesses by turning over their tokens.
The player whose guesses most closely align with the card holder's final list wins the round and claims the card. The game ends with the first player who accumulates three cards.
There are clean cards and then there are the more risqué ones. Our host and game creator, Josh Saleh, asked if we were comfortable playing with the adult-themed cards. Naturally, we all agreed. Adam was the first to draw a card, and his prompt was “Worst things to yell during an orgasm.” The responses were hilariously outrageous, and I immediately found myself debating his answers, trying to convince him to reconsider his choices. My efforts were largely unsuccessful, and ultimately, Trina—who had engaged in the least amount of arguing, likely because she had the most matches—emerged the winner and claimed the card.
In the next round, it was my turn to select a card. This card required us to rank the worst superpowers. Among the humorous responses were powers like "being able to identify every Liam within a ten-mile radius" and "forcing anyone I wink at to consume their own shit." After a lively discussion, I revised the rankings slightly. Once again, Trina emerged as the winner. It was also determined, based on my initial rankings, that I’m more of a supervillain than a superhero—although I maintain that I'm better described as an anti-hero.
The game is a blast, and I can easily imagine how entertaining it would be with a lively group of friends. While it requires a minimum of three players, the laughs and spirited debates only intensify with more participants. Now that the game has officially launched, it's the perfect time to gather your friends and dive into Change My Mind!
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