Agree to Disagree
- Board's Eye View
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
Designed by Ryan Mindell and published by Adam's Apple Games, Agree to Disagree is a party game where the 2-8 players are trying to find someone that takes an opposing view of a topic or statement. It's designed to be played cooperatively if there are just two or three players but it's competitive with a player count of four or more.
The game comes with a stack of 74 category cards, each of which shows three topics. Each round, one player takes on the role of moderator. They flip two cards and pick a category from the six displayed on the cards. They or another player then chooses a topic or make a statement related to the category on which other players are likely to agree or disagree; a helpful prompt card proffers guidance on the different options. The moderator really wants to come up with a topic or statement that will divide opinion among the other players because that stands them the best chance of scoring well; so if the topic were Board Games and the moderator had seen from previous rounds that some players were obviously enjoying the game more than others, they might state 'Agree to Disagree is a great party game'.
The USP for Agree to Disagree is the device each player has for choosing their secret 'agree or disagree' response to the topic or statement. This shows an agree and disagree symbol on one side. Players select their choice and lay their device face down on the table with their choice pointing forward. The player to the left of the moderator picks another player that they think will have a different opinion to them and without revealing their opinion, they connect the two face-down devices. If they do indeed disagree, the devices will connect fully; the player who made the choice gets 2 points and the moderator gets 1 point. If they'd both chosen the same answer, the devices won't fully connect and no points are scored. In either event, play proceeds clockwise around the table until there are just two players left, and those players both predict whether or not their devices will connect, with 2 points for a correct prediction. Again, the moderator scores 1 point for a full connection, in this case regardless of the players' predictions.
Agree to Disagree is at its best if all the players give honest responses. Tho' you can't see how others have voted, the connections or otherwise earlier in the round can help you to make reasoned deductions about other players' choices. If you play it as a cooperative game, you collectively win by all connecting over a succession of consecutive rounds, but we much preferred Agree to Disagree as a moderately competitive party game with a higher player count. The rules suggest playing until everyone has a turn as moderator, and we agree that's about right if you're playing with as many as eight players but in our plays at Board's Eye View with five and six players we'd disagree as we chose to continue playing until everyone had had two turns as moderator.
