Setup
Players
- 4-8
Materials
- Deck of 52 standard playing cards (can use more than one deck for larger groups)
Objective
The objective of B.S. is to run out of cards before your opponents and to avoid being caught lying.
Gameplay
First, deal out the entire deck to the players. Play begins with whoever is holding the ace of spades in their hand. They place it face down in the center and say “one ace.” The player to the left then places a number of cards down and says “x 2’s.” Each player continues to go in ascending order around the table, announcing that they have played however many cards of the next number in the sequence. However, players can lie about the identity or the number of cards they played. For example, a player can play two kings and declare “two 6’s” when their turn comes.
Every time someone plays their cards, anybody else can call “B.S.” to show they think that player is lying about what they played. The most recently played cards are turned over. If the player lied, they pick up all of the cards that have been played. If they were telling the truth, the person who called “B.S.” picks up the played cards. You can only call “B.S.” before the next person plays, so think quick!
Calling “B.S.” does not restart the sequence, so if someone lies about playing 8’s and gets caught, the player to their left will restart the game by playing 9’s. Once you reach kings, the sequence starts over with the next player playing aces.
Endgame
The game continues until someone runs out of cards in their hand.
B.S. Variations and Alternate Rules
“Peanut Butter”: In one variation, if someone gets away with lying, they say “peanut butter” to let everyone know. This is a fun variation if you want to keep track of who is playing which cards and who is bluffing.
