In a Bind – bound to have fun

I got to play the freshly-published version of the excellent social card game In a Bind recently. It’s designed by Behrooz Shahriari, who I know originally via the London playtest meetup.

It’s a very straightforward game, quick to learn and to play, for 3–10 players, about physical constraints. At its simplest, players take turns to draw cards, each of which orders you to take up some position (such as One finger touching your mouth, Left hand above elbow, This card touching your right shoulder, etc). As soon as you’re either unable to satisfy all of your cards’ instructions, or you’re physically so tied up that you’re unable to draw another card, you’re eliminated. The game continues until only one person is left as the winner.

The alternative mode of play, known as ‘Slow and Sadistic’ (the above way is ‘Fast and Furious’) has you draw cards that you then play on other players, to force them to comply. I’m not such a fan of this as I don’t like the potential animosity of targeting people, but for many groups I’m sure it will be the favourite.

In a Bind was launched via Kickstarter, and one of the extras was a further deck of cards which can be used selectively or en masse to expand the basic game – triggered binds (when something happens, do X), communal binds that everyone has to do, and wildcard binds where the blank is completed by another player. All add different dimensions of fun and work well separately or in combo.

So! – it’s lots of fun, and cheap to buy: give it a go if you get the chance! That’s all I have to say 🙂