If you’ve ever played around with the term refrigerator magnet in the past, Ransom Note will instantly bring you back to nostalgia. It also has what I think is the most important trait in a party game. It doesn’t require any complicated rules, setup, or explanations. Each round begins with an open-ended question card, such as “Describe a scary medical condition.” Players take some magnetic word tiles and arrange them into (usually slightly nonsensical) answers to that round’s prompts. Each “ransom note” can be as elaborate (or as elaborate) as you want. You may have the perfect set of words to create a plausible answer, but often you need to get a little creative with your answers. Sometimes a word or two is all you need.
Either way, the PG-13-leaning word tile combinations aren’t as foul-mouthed as “adult” party games like Cards Against Humanity, and are almost guaranteed to get some laughs. Officially, there is a “winner” for each round, and the game ends after a predetermined number of rounds. But it can be just as fun to forget about keeping score and just challenge everyone to come up with the funniest, most random notes they can think of. — Carissa Bell, Senior Reporter
