Same Difference
2019.02.09
4 minutes read

The game where you say how two things are the same… or different.

Same Difference is a party game for 3-10 players, loosely in the vein of Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity. Two words are revealed, and the question is asked: “How are ____ and ____ the same, or different?” All players save one write their answers, and the player who is sitting out judges those answers to choose a best answer.

Components

1 Deck of cards with nouns on them. You can make your own with index cards or have all players contribute 5-10 nouns beforehand. If you own a copy of Codenames, the codeword cards work well.

Paper and pens for each of the players. Small dry-erase boards also work well.

Setup

Shuffle all the word cards and place the deck face down. Give each player a paper and pen.

Choose a starting player randomly. This player will be the first judge.

Gameplay

The judge flips over two cards, and asks the other players how the two words are the same or different. The players then work to come up with a good answer. The answer can be funny, profound, or something else entirely – ultimately your goal is try to appeal to the judge’s sensibilities.

Once all players have finished their answer, they pass them to the judge, who reads the answers aloud. The judge then chooses one answer as “best”, the player who submitted that answer receives one point, and the player to the left of the judge becomes the judge for the next round.

Note: While the judge is allowed considerable latitude in determining which answer is “best”, they should still measure it against how well it answers the question posed. If a response is funny or otherwise good, but is completely irrelevant to the question posed, it shouldn’t be considered the best answer.

Play continues until a predetermined number of points – 3 points seems to work well.

Example Play

Albert, Brenda, Carol, and Donnie are playing Same Difference. It is Carol’s turn to be the judge. She turns over the two cards, ANTARCTICA and CAMERA.

Albert, Brenda, and Donnie must now answer the question, “How are ANTARCTICA and a CAMERA the same or different?”

After a minute or two, all three signal that they have come up with a response. They pass their answers to Carol, who reads them out.

“How are ANTARCTICA and a CAMERA the same or different?” she says, and begins reading out the other players resposes:

“One freezes a moment, the other freezes water,” is Albert’s answer.

“You have to worry about exposure,” is what Brenda wrote.

Donnie simply wrote, “Polaroid Bears.”

Carol deliberates. Though Donnie’s answer made her chuckle, she knows that polar bears live in the nothern hemisphere not southern, so she decides she likes Brenda’s answer the best, and awards her the point for the round.

Variants

Round Timer

Same Difference is a slower, more contemplative party game than some. But, if you are finding the rounds taking too long, you can add an egg timer set to 1 or 2 minutes in which players must come up with their responses.

Voting

Instead of having a judge, all players participate in every round. Points are awarded by simultaneously voting for your favorite. You can do this by counting down from 3 and pointing fingers. If it’s a tie, all players tied for most votes receive 1 point. You’ll likely want to play with a higher number of points to win with this variant, using the number of players as a target seems to work well.

Last one in’s a rotten egg…

Sometimes two words come up and you’ve simply got nothing. Your mind is blank. To ease the pain of these situations, instead of rotating who the judge is, when all but one person have answered the prompt, that last person becomes the judge for the round. It can ease your suffering, but remember that you can’t amass any points when you’re the judge, so you’d better be quick!