Poor Taste
by

4–10 guests · one lap of the table

Table Manners

The joke is already on the card. The skill is choosing the wrong one for the right person.

  1. 1

    Seating

    Everyone is dealt 8 Dishes. The first Head of the Table is the seat after the room host, and the head of the table moves one seat round every course.

  2. 2

    The Menu

    A Menu card goes up on every screen and the telly: a sentence with one blank, or two. The Head reads it out loud.

  3. 3

    Serve

    Every guest serves a Dish from their hand, face down under a cloche — or two, in order, for a pick-2 Menu. You get 45 seconds (the host can set 30 or 60). Run out of time and the waiter serves a random Dish from your hand for you.

  4. 4

    The uninvited guest

    With the uninvited guest on (it is, unless the host turns it off), an extra Dish from the deck is slipped onto the table every course, with nobody's name on it.

  5. 5

    Reveal

    The Dishes are shuffled and land in front of the Head. The Head lifts each cloche in turn, on every screen at once, and reads the whole Menu out loud with that Dish in the blank. That reading is the game — please do it properly.

  6. 6

    Compliments

    The Head picks the Dish that made them laugh hardest. Only then are the names revealed, and the winner takes one Compliment. If the uninvited guest's Dish wins, nobody scores. The Head has 60 seconds for every tap — dither past it and the course is void.

  7. 7

    Next course, then the Guest Book

    Everyone draws back up to 8 and the next seat takes the head. When everyone has been Head once (or twice, if the host set two laps), the Guest Book opens. Ties are shared.

When someone leaves the table

The Head leaves the table
The course is void and the next seat takes the head with a fresh Menu. Come back and you rejoin the queue at the end.
A guest leaves before serving
No Dish from them this course. If that leaves fewer than two on the table, the course is void.
A guest leaves after serving
Their Dish stays, anonymous, and can still win — the Compliment waits for them.
Fewer than three left
The course plays out, then the Guest Book closes early.

Put it on the telly

The lobby has a telly link. The big screen shows the Menu, every Dish as it is lifted, and the Guest Book — never anyone's hand, and never who served what until the pick.

On a keyboard

Arrows move along your hand; Enter serves (twice for a pick-2 Menu, in order). As Head, R lifts the next cloche and Enter on a lifted Dish gives it the Compliment.

The packs

Office Hours is on by default: rude, but you could play it on a work call. After Dark is filthier and needs the host to confirm the table is 18 or over. Both are written for this game. You can add extra packs in the lobby, and build your own under Packs.

Licensed packs

Some packs are someone else's published work, shipped unmodified under their licence, off by default and 18+. They are credited here and wherever they are offered, and they are never edited, copied, or used to train the pack generator. Because at least one is licensed for non-commercial use only, gamefriday.party runs no ads and sells nothing.

Checking the pantry…