How to play Ransom Notes: the full rules
Setup, the round, judging and both official variants. Everything you need before your first game, written by the people who printed the box.
Setting up the table
Open the box and dump the word magnets where everyone can reach them. Each player takes a metal submission card and grabs a few handfuls of magnets, somewhere around seventy five little words. Do not sort them. The mess is the point, and sorting would only reveal how few useful words you actually hold.
Shuffle the prompt deck and set it in the middle. That is the whole setup. If someone at the table is still asking about rules after a minute, they are stalling.
A round, start to finish
Flip the top prompt card and read it aloud. Something has gone wrong in the world of that card, and every player now has to respond to it using only the magnets in front of them.
Give the table about two minutes. Players snap words onto their metal cards, swearing quietly at the pile for not containing the one word they need. When time runs out, hands off.
Everyone reads their note aloud. This is where the game lives: a sentence that looked reasonable in your lap falls apart the moment it hits the air, and the worst grammar in the room somehow lands the hardest.
Who judges
The round needs one judge, and the box settles who. Spin the box lid; whoever it points at judges the round and takes no part in answering it. The judge picks the winning note by whatever standard they like. Funniest usually wins, but a judge who rewards sincerity is within their rights, and arguing with the judge is tradition rather than appeal.
Winning the game
The winner of a round keeps the prompt card. Five prompt cards wins the game. Between rounds, everyone tops their pile back up with fresh magnets from the middle, so the pool keeps shifting under you all night.
The Party Gamer variant
For tables that want a steadier rhythm, the judge role passes around the circle instead of following the box spin. Submissions go in face down and get shuffled before reading, so the judge grades the note, not the friend. This version plays a little fairer and a little quieter, which some rooms count as a loss.
The Shrink City variant
Play with no refills. Whatever magnets you start with are all you get, and every word you spend is gone. Sentences get shorter and stranger as the game goes on, and by the last round players are answering life questions with three words and a preposition. Ruthless, and our favorite way to end a long night.
Small habits that help
Keep the swap rule loose: if two players want to trade magnets between rounds, let them. Read every note aloud even when the author begs you not to. And when a round produces a truly awful sentence, the kind that gets quoted at breakfast, stick it on the fridge. The magnets are already there.
