Chit Chat – Numbers Party

Do you ever get into numbers discussions with your friends? “I’ll bet you that Michael Jackson had more hit singles than Madonna!”

Chit Chat is “The hilarious game of more or less” by Billy Langsworty, Deej Johnson, and Matt Burtonwood. Helvetiq publishes this cooperative party game. The box says it’s for 2-8 players, ages 10+, and it takes 15 minutes to play – and we’d agree with that.

How to Play

The basic idea of Chit Chat is that you’re working together to put numbers in ascending order. Unfortunately, you don’t know what most of these numbers are.

Start by shuffling Question cards and drawing 8 of them, question side up. Grab a Reference number card and place it in the middle of the table.

Now read the trivia question on the first Question card. Let the group discuss what they think. Is the answer higher or lower than the Reference number? Figure out where it should go.

Now the next player reads the next Question off the pile. Then discuss again – should this new card go at the top of the list, the bottom, or between two other cards? Make sure you don’t peek at the answer on the back of each card!

No two cards will ever have the same answer, so work hard to place your eight cards in exactly the right order.

Keep answering and placing until the group has gone through all eight cards. Before the big reveal, you may review your ordering. You may move up to two of the cards to different places in the final line-up.

Now it’s time to check and score!

Scoring

Starting with the card you think is the smallest number – at the bottom of your list – flip it and check the answer. Then move to the next card. Remember, each card should have a higher number than all the ones you’ve already flipped!

You start with 10 points. Every time you reveal a card, subtract a point for each card already visible with a HIGHER number than the card you just flipped. Once you’ve scored all eight Question cards (plus the Reference card), see how your score stacks up with the table in the rules.

Impressions

Chit Chat hits all of the right notes for a solid party game. It’s simple to understand. It’s easy to drop in or leave partway through. There are facts to see, but most people won’t know the real answers, so fudging it creates some humorous tension. It feels great to slot an answer into just the right spot, and disappointing when you get it wrong – but since it’s cooperative, the tension is never overwhelming.

I Know! I Know! I Know?

I said earlier that you don’t know what the numbers are that you’re trying to put in order.

But that’s not entirely true. Because sometimes someone DOES know the answer to one of these trivia questions. Or they can at least get close with an estimate.

The moment when a player drops a knowledge bomb that turns out to be wrong at the end is almost as fun (and funny!) as when they absolutely nail it. But either way everyone leaves the table knowing a little bit more, and they’ve got a fun story to tell about a number nobody expected.

Harder than it Looks

Some of these facts absolutely demolish our sense of scale. Did you know there are more Judge Judy episodes than confirmed exoplanets? It seems crazy but it’s true (at least for now). The facts in this game vary wildly in subject matter and domain expertise, but that just adds more to the fun! Unfortunately, we did run into a couple of cards (like the one pictured below) that could have benefited from better editing.

Final Thoughts

Our group enjoys playing Chit Chat, but we nearly always lose. The rulebook would imply that you can’t score less than zero, but we’ve managed a negative score many times! All it takes is one Question placed far too low, to take off points for every single card we thought was higher.

But we laugh through it anyway. Chit Chat is the kind of trivia game where it feels like we’ve learned something afterward.

If Chit Chat sounds like your kind of party game, get it on Amazon, from Asmodee, or ask for it at your local game store.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Chit Chat from Helvetiq Games (via Asmodee) for this review.