The teens in our Teen Advisory Group were already in about-to-go-on-vacation mode. Seemed like a great time to have them try a card game that involves plotting, revenge, and kittens.

The game is called Exploding Kittens, and the teens spent an hour learning about it and playing. I shot pictures and video throughout the event, but can't share the video here because... well, there was a lot of yelling and swearing involved! It seems the gameplay inspires a lot of emotional reactions, what with all the plotting and revenge!

How do you play? 

The goal of Exploding Kittens is familiar: Be the last one standing after everyone else has been knocked out of the game. Sounds simple, right?

Players take turns drawing cards, and there are different kinds of cards in the deck. Some are simple, some are diabolical. There are Exploding Kittens cards (which have the potential to knock you out of the game), Defuse cards (to stop your kitten from exploding), See the Future cards (which let you peek at the deck), Shuffle cards (which let you shuffle the deck), Nope cards (to stop the action of another player), and more. The cards are crazy and so is the game, but as our teens took turns reviewing the rules, they eventually got the hang of it.

Did the teens like the game? 

Remember all the yelling and swearing I mentioned earlier? Those were my biggest indicators of how much our teens enjoyed the game. Here’s some sample gameplay dialogue (cleaned up for the PG version) that reflects both the fun of the game and the joy of the teens plotting against each other:

Shuffle the cards under the table!

Wait … can you even NOPE a NOPE card?  [As it turns out, you totally can!]

We’re going to have a conversation in Spanish! You can use Morse code!

We’re going to start using secret codes and sign language!

I’m going to use an Attack card!

Who still has a Defuse card?

Where’s the bomb?  [aka the Exploding Kittens card]

Blink twice if we’re going to pick up the Exploding Cat!

Are you feeling lucky today?

You should try to kill THEM!

I’m, like, so scared right now!

I’m shaking!

A final sign that our teens loved this game? The next time we met, one of the teens showed me that she’d bought her own copy of the game so they could keep playing!

We can't connect this game to the NYPL catalog, can we?

Yes, we can! The madcap art style on the Exploding Kittens cards is courtesy of Matthew Inman, best known for his awesome web-comic The Oatmeal. We have many compilations of The Oatmeal available in our system, in both book and e-book versions. Check them out!!!

If you enjoyed this post, you'll probably enjoy what happened when our TAG played The Walking Dead board game!