Paper Crowns

A crown nobody asked for, three reasons in your hand, and everybody claiming it at once, in private — then the claims go up with the names off and you vote for one that is not yours. Nobody waits for a turn. Grudges last considerably longer.

How it feels

• Immediate
• Ridiculous
• Everyone talking at once

What the design is for

• 01

  Everybody at once, nobody in turn

  Every seat claims in the same moment and in private, and the vote opens when the last one lands. Five rounds, whatever the table size — twelve people is more voices rather than a longer evening.

• 02

  Three reasons, none of them good

  Your hand is three written reasons rather than generated ones, so any of them can be made to land against any crown. A claim spends one and it is refilled at the top of the round; sitting a round out turns the whole hand over for three fresh ones. Knowing what to spend on this crown is most of the game.

• 03

  Nobody knows whose is whose

  The claims go on the floor in an order the shuffle chose, with the names off. You vote for one, never your own, and who wrote what is published only once the round is over. On one phone going round a table the game hands over between seats rather than showing the next person what the last one wrote.

• 04

  The tie goes to the wrong person

  Most votes takes the crown. Level on votes, and it goes to whichever of the tied claimants has the fewest points — so the thing lands where it is least deserved, which is the entire joke. Level on that too and it goes to whichever was read out first, in front of everybody. The evening ends on the same joke: level on points goes to whoever wore the fewest crowns, then to whoever claimed first. Measured, because the alternative ended between 19% and 50% of evenings with nobody wearing anything, and the bigger the table the worse it got.

• 05

  The crown is never the same twice

  Titles are assembled from a grammar rather than drawn from a list — an opener, a subject, a twist — so a second evening is not the same jokes in a different order.

• 06

  No computer opponent, on purpose

  The jokes are the players’; the device is only holding the hat. A machine cannot claim a crown for being the one most likely to be recognised by a horse, so there is nothing to play against and it is not offered.