Base price: $20.
2 – 10 players.
Play time: 20 – 60 minutes.
BGG Link
Buy directly!
Logged plays: 2
Full disclosure: A review copy of Everything Ever was provided by Floodgate Games.
A party game? In this economy? Apparently. I’ve had the chance to try a number of party games over the years, and I think I keep gravitating towards trivia-esque games for some reason. I think it’s because I did Quiz Bowl in high school, and so now the Knowing Random Things bug just lives rent-free in my brain. Even then, I think I’m still a ways off from a ten-player game night, but I appreciate the option of having one, to some degree. We’ll see. Let’s find out what Everything Ever has to offer!
In Everything Ever, players have to name just that. They need to name everything. Every single cereal brand. Every movie with “Love” in the title. Every Rebecca. All of it. If they can’t, well, they usually have to take a penalty. That’s the price for not knowing everything. I’m pretty sure that’s how real life works, as well, so that all checks out just fine. How many things do you know?
Contents
Setup
This one’s not a heavy lift in terms of setup. You’ll shuffle the Category Cards:
Then you’ll deal each player three. If they’re relatively new to the game, give them an extra card or two. It’s nice. After doing that, give each player one (double-sided) Judge Card, returning the rest to the box:
Now, make a draw deck. Take three cards per player and place them in a stack. Reveal the top two cards from the draw deck and place them face-up in the center of the table as the starting categories. Choose a start player and you’re ready to go!
Gameplay
Everything Ever is a party game! Very simple, one basic rule. Give an example of the category that nobody’s said yet. Once you’ve done that, do that for the other card! Easy. Probably.
If you can’t think of something, you either must play a card from your hand on top of the Category Card that you can’t come up with an example for or take that Category Card’s entire stack as a penalty! Neither are ideal. If a player is taking too long to answer, you can start a ten-second countdown before they take a penalty. Once a penalty is taken, flip the top card of the deck so that there are two categories visible again.
If a player manages to give a single answer that works for both categories, they can either discard one of their penalty cards or they can draw a card from the draw deck and then add a third category face-up. That third card stays in play until a player takes one as a penalty, then you’re back to two cards.
If someone gives an answer that’s questionable, you can slap your Judge Card on them. Start on the “I’ll Allow It” side, but should they goof again, flip it to “You’re Out of Order!” and make them take a penalty. Once that happens, all judge cards are returned to their owners.
Once a player takes a penalty but the draw deck is depleted (so you can’t refill to two categories), the game ends! The player with the fewest penalties wins!
Player Count Differences
In terms of actual player-to-player interaction, there’s not a ton of difference at various player counts. The one thing you have to watch out for is that with more players, there’s naturally more skepticism since there are more players that can judge your answer as only so-so. That’s just the nature of more people, though. You also may want to pay more attention, since a lot more answers will be given between your turns; you don’t want to repeat something someone else has already said! One problem with additional players is that the game doesn’t really do much in terms of mitigating playtime as the player count increases. With more players, the game will just take significantly longer, which is never my favorite. It’s why I kind of tend to the 3 – 5 player part of town, rather than 10 players. I respect that it supports that many players, but the commensurate increase in playtime isn’t my favorite.
Strategy
Don’t expect a ton of strategic advice here; Everything Ever is a party game and it should be treated as such. Go in to have fun, not just to win. You’ll live longer, probably (EDITOR’S NOTE: we can’t guarantee that.).
- I mean, there’s some strategy about when you play your cards. You would, ideally, like to hold on to your cards as long as possible since they’re effectively lifelines for you to bail yourself out when you get stuck. The sooner you play them, the sooner you start having to take penalties when you don’t know.
- You might just want to take a few early-game penalties before the piles start stacking up. If you do, you can hold on to your cards longer and use them when taking a penalty is a disaster, which might be nice.
- There’s no way to prep for this game, so don’t bother? You just have to go out there and have life experiences. Touch some grass. Read a book. Meet more guys named Jeff. I don’t know what to tell you.
- [RUDE] You can just make things up and hope you don’t get caught. No shame; I’ve done this. If someone challenges you on it, you’re 100% screwed, and it’s entirely your fault, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Pros, Mehs, and Cons
Pros
- I mean, truly, what really sold me on the game is the “I’ll allow it, but watch yourself, counselor” card. It’s just a genuinely funny thing that’s not really thematically related to the game at all. I love that. It’s fun to say, it’s effective, and it really grounds the game’s level of seriousness where it should be. It’s a very good and simple way to let people know what kind of game this is, and that they should take it as seriously as it takes itself. That’s good for a party game!
- This has a lot of the same vibes as Anomia, another one of my favorite party games, but without all of the terrifying, soul-crushing speed elements. I’ve been largely banned from playing Anomia (turns out my anxiety makes me super fast at some of those games), but here, there’s little-to-no time pressure. You’re just charged with naming every possible example of some random thing, which is super fun. If you can justify it, it counts! You love to see it.
- I like that players have a limited number of chances to change the card before they have to start taking penalties. There’s a press-your-luck element to it. Do you think that changing the card will force another player to use theirs? Or should you just take the penalty now before there’s a whole stack of cards there? These are things you have to think about in the moment, and I love that for players.
- I also really like the art style, generally? Again, they get what a party game is supposed to look like. Highly legible cards. Bright colors. Bold images. The whole thing just looks like a party already, and it’s a party you get to force your friends to attend. You love to see it. I’m not as familiar with Danielle Deley’s work, but she crushed it. Oh, wait, I’m looking at her BGG Page now, and she did Medium and That Old Wallpaper, both games that also look really good. Nice. I’m going to leave this bit of text here so you can go on the journey with me.
- It’s so easy to teach. There are hardly any rules! The points barely matter! You can just go for it.
- The box feels sturdy. It’s a nice box. Good color, good size, and it fits the cards nicely without a ton of jostling. I’m a big fan.
Mehs
- A lot of people dislike trivia games for perfectly valid reasons, and to that end, this can still trigger a lot of those super negative feelings for them. Nothing like getting stuck trying to think of another example of “EVERY JEFF” while everyone looks at you to stress some people out. As with most games, just be mindful of your group before you slam this one down. It’s still trivia-adjacent enough to cause stress for some players.
Cons
- That 20 – 60 minute timeframe is a bit of a doozy for a party game. I get how that happens, in that with more players, the game just takes longer, but that’s not necessarily a useful economy of scale. With party games, you’re just as likely to have everyone agree that the game is over, so I guess it’s fine, but it does make me a bit hesitant to play this with ten. There are just so many cards.
Overall: 8.5 / 10
Overall, I really like Everything Ever! I think, for me, it nicely threads the needle of being a trivia-adjacent party game without really requiring too much trivia knowledge. It’s more like cleaning the attic of your brain. Did you hear about a random character from The Office despite never watching it? You’re in luck. Did you watch a TV show and they mentioned Jeff Daniels? Fantastic. Did you learn about mooncat because your housemates watch a lot of nail polish videos? Well, that’s at least going to come in handy for this particular game. It’s nice to effectively have a game that rewards you for your brain being a nightmare rummage sale, and I, for one, think that’s all great. It also helps that the game just crushes the party game aesthetic. It looks like a party game through and through, and the excellent art / graphic design makes the game more inviting and more entertaining, especially with the “I’ll allow it, but watch yourself, counselor” cards. I love that kind of stuff. If you’re a fan of trivia but find it a bit stressful, you just know a bunch of random stuff, or you’re looking for a great new party game, I’d definitely recommend Everything Ever! I think it’s great.
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