Warning: Just try not to play with it your family.
From the same innovator who brought you Play Nation, comes Singapore’s very own card-game, LIMPEH SAYS. The birth child of Tan Yong Heng, a 21-year-old graphic design student at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) and his friend, the owner and founder of Play Nation, Gabriel Leow, LIMPEH SAYS promises that although it is not the expansion pack to “Cards Against Humanity”, it is nonetheless a box packed full of big laughs delivered with a huge serving of Singaporeans-only humour.
If you’ve never played “Cards against Humanity” before, just understand that to win, you must give the best answer (subjected to what is democratically preferred) to 10 of each individual round’s question. In the example of LIMPEH SAYS, the red cards are the questions and the white cards are the answers. The game starts by each player drawing 10 white cards (10 distinct answers), and begins when one player who plays as the LIMPEH draws a red card (the question for that round) and reads it aloud. Everyone would then have to answer the question using one white card, handing the card over to the LIMPEH faced down, to which the LIMPEH reads the answers out and picks the best answer afterwards. The following round, a new LIMPEH will be elected and the person with the best answer is award 1 point, and the first person to collect 10 points wins. You can find the official rulebook to LIMPEH SAYS here.
A few minutes into the game will lead you to realize that although there is a declared winner at the end of the game, the goal of every round is not to try to beat the people around you, but to simply have fun. Hopefully by mid-2017, we’ll all be able to play this game at the numerous board-game cafes that Singapore has.
The novelty of having a Singapore-based card game aside, LIMPEH SAYS is light-hearted and memorable way to introduce the Singaporean culture to foreign friends or to even test the “Singaporean-ness” of your friends and family. Certainly, LIMPEH SAYS is a huge leap from the pick-up sticks, five stones and chapteh days, but who is to say that this card-game is not able to achieve the same level of recognition in Singapore’s culture? In an era where most of the popular games are single-player games, it’s nice to have a community-focused board game for a change.
I personally already see myself playing LIMPEH SAYS the next Chinese New Year, in a bid to avoid intrusive questions posed by distant relatives. It’s surely a nice way to turn the tables on those annoying relatives where this time, you are the LIMPEH and you are the one asking inappropriate questions. The reason why I said “next Chinese New Year” is that sadly, the estimated delivery of this card game is set on March 2017, and if you’re interested, do give their Kickstarter campaign a look for the different card-sets they are delivering. Here is a timeline of what the team behind LIMPEH SAYS has projected for their business:
It’s gonna be un-un-un-unbelievable if LIMPEH SAYS manages to make it in the international area. I’d admit, some of the jokes might be NSFW but who cares? There is a saying that goes, “If you can’t laugh at yourself, there are many others who have no problem laughing at you.” Only by going through the good,bad and ugly will one truly understand another’s culture, paving way for a completely unbiased cultural exchange.
By the way, their Kickstarter campaign has amassed over S$113,769, that’s five times of their pledged S$20,000 goal, and will receive its crowdfunding by Sunday, 29 January 2017. The link to their Kickstarter campaign can be found here. Support local, buy local. Here’s wishing all readers a very Happy Chinese New Year and an amazing weekend ahead!
