Whoonu

Whoonu? Good game. Good question. As in “who knew.” Or, “who knew, out of a choice between goldfish, sand castles, climbing trees and fried chicken, you’d like climbing trees the best. Sure, sure, those people who don’t know you from Adam wouldn’t know such a thing. But even me, your best friend?”

You get 300 cards (a significant amount, but one can’t help wonder if there are even more cards waiting to be expanded thereunto), six stacks of six chips, each stack worth one more point, and a small envelope in case you want to be extra certain that no one can see who thought what about you. So, on this turn, you’re the one. Everybody else gets four cards. And sure, given that there are only four out of 300 cards, it’s just as likely that there’ll be something or nothing that you’ll really like amongst the four. You remove the cards from the envelope of secrecy, contemplate them for a bit, and then place them, face-up on the table, in order of what you deem to be least to most favorite. Players then claim their cards, and you reward them with the corresponding chip – the highest scoring chip going to your favorite.

The game is just short enough to keep it light, just long enough to keep it involving. The game mechanic of the chips (when the chips are all used up, the round is over) makes the game that much easier to play.

And that’s pretty much that. Simple, elegant, just enough luck to keep you from taking anything seriously, just enough to make you want to know as much about everybody as you can. For sure, you’ll be learning a lot about each other. For also sure, you’ll be laughing a lot, surprised a lot, feeling somehow closer to each other, having had just enough fun so that you don’t really care who actually won – because just getting to play Whoonu together is already very much like winning.

Thanks to Kevin and delightful daughter Kelsey Eikenberry for introducing me to Whoonu. Feel free to thank me for introducing it to you.