Remember the fun of games that let you get to know your friends better like Truth or Dare or Two Truths and a Lie? These games were a blast and never required any skill other than the ability to hold a conversation. The hard part was figuring out when the game was over and who won. Remember how you’d struggle to know what to ask? Yeah/Nope solves all of this while keeping the best part of these games—the laughter, the fun, and uncovering each other’s secrets. It’s the perfect casual party game!
What Is Yeah / Nope?
Yeah/Nope is a semi-cooperative, conversational game that allows players to learn about one another through the fun of guessing about a person based only on what you know of them. Warning: if you play with parents or siblings the game gets infinitely more interesting.
Yeah/Nope is one of those great after-dinner party games that lets you get closer to your friends. It’s far more fun than sitting around staring at a screen. There’s laughs and surprise as you find out just how much you know about those closest to you and get to know your friends better.
Given that this game contains some meme-worthy situation tiles like “while drunk,” and “in bed” I’d not recommend it for anyone under the age of seventeen. The situation tiles can turn even the most innocuous experience cards into hilarious statements that may or may not reveal more about you than you intend.
Have you played strip poker? Participated in a flash mob? Used a cheesy pick-up line? Told off a boss? Yeah/Nope gives you the chance to put on your best poker face and see just how well your friends know the real you as they try to uncover the truth and guess the details. Did you do it at work? As a teen? Was it worth it? Did it end badly? Between the scenarios that tiles create and the stories you’ll imagine, there’s no end to the hilarity. Sometimes the tales they invent will be more outrageous as the truth!
What’s in the Box?
Yeah/Nope comes in a sequined game box that contains everything you need to enjoy an evening of tell-all fun and “OMG! You didn’t!” laughter.
- 450 experience cards
- 12 situation tiles
- 8 wager tokens
- Instruction Booklet
Set Up
A game of Yeah/Nope begins when you spread out the twelve situation tiles in the center of the table. Now these tiles are double sided with different situations on each side except for the Never tile. There are no special instructions for their placement, so mix them up and lay them out randomly. Take note that the tile with “while drunk” and “while high” is marked as a 21+ tile. I’d also recommend not using it if you are playing with your in-laws or parents. They might learn something you’d rather not confess or you might learn something about them you’d rather not. On the other hand, this could lead to some really interesting stories.
Once the situation tiles are laid out. Each player draws ten experience cards and lays them face down in from of them or puts them in their hand. However, you do it just don’t let the others see what you are holding.
Next each player takes a wager token and places it in front of them with the IN side face up.
To determine who goes first you can follow the rules and make the person with the most recent birthday go first, or you can use a six-sided dice and roll for it. The person whose turn it is receives the sequined game box.
Gameplay
Player one chooses an experience card from their hand. They read it aloud then place it face up on the table in front of them.
At this point, every other player is now a part of a team. Their goal is to select one of the twelve situations tiles that will make the statement true about player one. Working together, they discuss and debate to choose a single situation tile on which they all agree. Now they can openly discuss what they know of player one and share with one another any relevant information they have during the course of picking the tile. This is where it gets hard because throughout the discussion player one has to attempt to keep a neutral expression and not say anything that might give away the truth.
In the event that the guessing team doesn’t agree on a single situation tile, the player to the left of player one gets the final say on which tile is used.
Once a tile is chosen, a member of the guessing team places that situation tile next to the experience card and reads them both aloud. At this point, player one will use the sequined game box to declare the statement true or untrue by flipping image to Yeah or Nope. Thus the name Yeah/Nope.
Keep in mind that player one is expected to answer honestly. Answer using the box because you don’t want to spill the story details just yet as there is more to come.
What Next?
How the turn proceeds from here depends on how player one answered. Yeah or Nope is the determining factor for how a turn proceeds.
Nope
If player one answered with a Nope, the round is over. Points are awarded. If Nope was the response to the first round of guessing then there’s no story to tell. Sorry folks. Nothing to see here. Move along. The turn moves to the left. If there was a Yeah that proceeded the Nope then there’s definitely a story to tell. Dish, sweetie, the guessing team wants all the juicy details.
Yeah
If player one answer was Yeah, hold that tale in for a bit, no matter how hard it is to bite your tongue because there is more to come.
Now that we know there’s a tale. We want to know all about it! Each player on the guessing team has to decide if they want to flip their wager token to OUT and collect their points or if they want to stay IN and possibly raise that number of points.
Players who select OUT receive all of the points accumulated so far. The score for them is tallied and they are OUT for the remainder of the turn.
Players who select IN don’t get to relax because now they are risking the point they currently have. The situation tile that was just used is pulled off to the side for later scoring. Every player that is still IN now works together in an effort to choose a new situation tile. Your goal is to make another true statement using the experience card still in play.
The round continues with this process repeating and each player on the guessing team choosing to go OUT or stay IN prior to the new situation tile being chosen. The turn only ends when every player from the guessing team finally chooses to go OUT or if the player whose turn it is answers Nope.
Keep in mind that the new true statement does not have to include the previously used situation tile in the situation to make it true. It simply needs to be true.
Example:
Using the experience card “I’ve been in a play” with the situation tile “with family” “and it ended badly” might both be true but they might not both be the same experience. The player may have had a lovely time in a play with their family thus a Yeah and yet have been in a different play with classmates that ended badly (also a Yeah).
Thus the situation tiles are neither mutually exclusive nor mutually inclusive, so the play on the spot may have more than one tale to tell at the end of their turn.
For our game, the player actually was in a play with family as a child and had a great time. They were also in a different play with classmates and hated it because it ended badly. I scored quite well on that one. Speaking of scoring, how does that work?
Scoring
Once player one has answered Yeah or Nope, the players on the guessing team that choose to go OUT get their points. Each of them receives one point for each of situation tile that received a Yeah during the time they were IN. So the longer you stay IN the better… it seems. Not always true because if you are still IN when the player whose turn it is reveals a Nope answer then you score zero points. That’s right! A big fat goose egg is all you get.
If the Player answering gives a Nope before all the guessing team players choose to go OUT, then they score a point for every situation tile played during their turn.
The one major exception is the NEVER tile which, when it is chosen by the guessing team, ends the round. The player answers Yeah or Nope but either way, the turn is over. Once that statement is answered the guessing team gets three points if they are right or the answering player receive three points if the guess was wrong.
Next Round
Once the score is tallied and the round is over then all the situation tiles are flipped before being returned to the center of the table. The answering player discards the experience tile, then draws another one to replace it. Play then moves to the left. All the guessing players flip their wager tokens to IN and you start the process again.
End of Game
Play continues until the each of the players has had an equal amount of turns being the answering player or until you reach a predetermined score. We used both rules. We decided that play would end when someone reached twenty points or once we’d all answered five times.
Why Play Yeah/Nope
There is a lot of fun to be had playing Yeah/Nope. It’s become quite popular in our group. Beware, though, it’s a very subjective game in terms of things like “ended badly” or “I hated it” and you can get some really lively discussions going. Also keep in mind that while you are supposed to tell the truth, and a lot of people see truth differently. We called it the “Obi-won Kenobi rule.”
Only the bravest of souls will play with siblings, in-laws, or their parents because this game will dig up those secrets and you will all find out that the memory of thing might be slightly different in each other’s minds. However, the walk down memory lane that Yeah/Nope offers can really turn in to great bonding both with friend and family. No matter what, it will be a chance to remember, confess, and laugh both at yourself and with your friend. The stories are the best part of the game. If you got a natural storyteller in your circle, it can make it more fun than cable TV on a good night.
