Quick Rules

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• Each round, one player is the "Card Czar" and draws/reads a black prompt card out loud.
• Every other player secretly submits their funniest white answer card (or cards) from their hand to fill in the prompt.
• The Card Czar reads all the submissions and picks their favorite - that player wins the round and keeps the black card as a point.
• The Card Czar role rotates clockwise each round; refill your hand back up to 10 white cards after each round.
• Most points (black cards won) when the group decides to stop wins - there's no fixed ending.

How to Play (Quick Overview)

1. 1

   Deal 10 white cards to each player. Shuffle the black prompt cards and the white answer cards into two separate decks.

2. 2

   Choose a starting Card Czar; that player draws the top black card and reads the prompt aloud (some prompts need one white card to fill a blank, others ask for multiple).

3. 3

   Every other player privately chooses the white card (or cards) from their own hand that best answers or completes the prompt, and passes it face down to the Card Czar without saying which is theirs.

4. 4

   The Card Czar shuffles the submissions, then reads each one aloud paired with the black prompt, without knowing who submitted which.

5. 5

   The Card Czar picks their favorite combination; whoever submitted it wins that round and keeps the black card face up in front of them as a point.

6. 6

   Everyone draws back up to 10 white cards, the Card Czar role passes to the next player clockwise, and a new round begins.

Objective

Make the person judging each round laugh (or wince) hardest by submitting the best-matching answer card to their prompt, and collect the most black prompt cards as points over the course of the game.

Setup

Shuffle the black prompt cards into one deck and the white answer cards into a separate deck. Deal 10 white cards to every player. Choose one player to be the first “Card Czar” (the judge for the first round).

How to Play

Each round follows the same pattern:

1. The Card Czar draws the top black card and reads the prompt out loud to the table. Some prompts are fill-in-the-blank statements needing one white card; others explicitly ask for two or three.
2. Every other player (not the Card Czar) privately selects the white card, or cards, from their own hand that they think best answers or completes the prompt, and passes their choice face down to the Card Czar without revealing it to anyone else.
3. Once everyone has submitted, the Card Czar shuffles the anonymous submissions and reads each one aloud alongside the black prompt.
4. The Card Czar - and only the Card Czar - picks the single submission they find funniest or best fitting. There’s no vote; the judge’s choice is final.
5. Whoever submitted the winning answer keeps the black prompt card face up in front of them as a point, and everyone draws back up to a full hand of 10 white cards.
6. The role of Card Czar passes to the next player clockwise, and a new round begins with a fresh black card.

Scoring

Each round has exactly one winner, who keeps that round’s black card. There’s no scoring beyond counting black cards collected - no points are subtracted, and losing a round costs nothing beyond not winning that card.

Winning

Cards Against Humanity has no built-in end condition - groups typically agree in advance to play to a target number of black cards (say, first to 7 wins), play for a fixed amount of time, or simply play until the deck runs out or everyone’s ready to stop. Whoever has the most black cards at that point is the winner.

Variations

• Rando Cardrissian: an optional “phantom player” whose random white card is added to every round’s submissions, giving the Card Czar an extra wildcard option and letting a very unlucky player occasionally win with a completely random pairing.
• Expansion packs: numerous official expansion packs add extra black and white cards, which most groups shuffle directly into the base deck rather than playing separately.
• House themes: some groups create custom prompt/answer cards for specific inside jokes, though this departs from the officially published card set.

History

Cards Against Humanity was created by a group of friends from Highland Park, Illinois, who launched it as a free print-and-play download in 2009 before funding a physical print run through Kickstarter in 2011. The designers have kept the company independently owned and are known for a series of unconventional, often satirical marketing stunts in place of traditional advertising, including selling boxes of nothing on Black Friday and, another year, digging a large, deliberately useless hole in a field.

Fun Fact

Cards Against Humanity has released numerous free downloadable expansion packs over the years alongside its paid products, part of a deliberate brand identity built around not behaving like a conventional game company - a strategy that’s arguably as core to the game’s reputation as its actual cards.

More to Explore

• Variations →
• History →
• Fun Fact →

Cards Against Humanity is a trademark of Cards Against Humanity, LLC. This page is an independent rules reference and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Cards Against Humanity, LLC.