How to Play What’s the Best Thing, a cooperative rating game.
Watch the Video
Read the Rules
The aim of the game
To win, rank the face down cards in numerical order, using only examples from a category as your guide.
To set up
- Shuffle the rating cards, deal 1 to each player face down and put the rest on the table.
- Layout the category card deck and place 3 cards in a row underneath.
- Place the best and worst markers on the table with space in between and the life tokens in a row nearby.
- Pick a starting player and give them the shhh! Token. When you have the Ssshh token, you can’t discuss things with other players.
To play the game
On your turn, secretly look at your rating card, which shows a value from 1-10, 1 being the worst and 10 being the best. Next pick a category from the 3 available and say something that fits that category and the rating out of ten aloud.
For example, I think anchovies are a 2 out of 10 pizza topping, so I say ‘anchovies’.
Finally, place the rating card face down and the category card face up on top of it, in between the best and worst markers, replace the category you took with a new one from the stack and pass the shhh! Token to the player on your left, now it’s their turn.
They secretly look at their rating, pick a category, say something they think fits and place it in the lineup.
As cards are placed, everyone apart from the person who’s turn it is may discuss where they think the item should go in the lineup, with 1 exception…
You can’t say numbers. You can only say if you think an answer is better or worse, or higher or lower than another.
For example, if someone says ‘dog’ for their ‘pet’ category, I think dogs are much better pets than anchovies are pizza toppings, so i think that card should go closer to the best side.
Game end & scoring
Keep on choosing categories, giving examples and ranking them until there’s 5 on the table. Now it’s time to flip them over. For each card that’s out of sequence you lose a life. For example, in this scenario, 4 is out of order, so we’d lose 1 life.
Finally, discard the category cards you used, shuffle the rating deck and start a new round, this time ranking 8 categories. If you survive round 2, it’s time for round 3, ranking 10 cards and if you manage that without losing all your life, you win!
That’s What’s the Best Thing? A cooperative matter of opinion.
Enjoy!