Rank

Rank is a game in which the players, each seeing only their own card, attempt collectively to put their cards in ascending order.

Preparation

Remove 2 suits from a deck of cards. Establish a ranking among the remaining suits. My convention is spades and diamonds, with spades ranking higher. The players sit around a table.

Play

Each round, one player deals a single card to each other player. The dealer then declares a prompt, for example “good vacation spots”. The prompt must have a natural order; “animals” doesn’t work, but “scary animals” or “cute animals” does. Each player looks at their own card in secret.

Now each player in turn declares a response which belongs to the category at an intensity that matches their card. Taking good vacation spots as our category, a 5 might warrant “A nice hotel on the other side of town”, and a Jack might elicit “tropical beach”.

Once all players have responded, the dealer must organize the cards, face down, from least to greatest. The cards are revealed and everyone takes a moment to congratulate themselves or argue. Deal proceeds around the table.