How to Play That Escalated Quickly

This past Christmas I was looking for a game to continue our tradition of a new game and I found That Escalated Quickly.

The box says: A card game where you work together to put absurd thins in the right order. It’s for ages 10 and up, 3 to 5 players and should take 15 minutes to play. I should note that we have the Grab & Game version. There’s a full box game that can play up to 8 players.

It sounds crazy enough to be a great game for our family, but did it live up to our expectations? Is it a good fit for your family?

In this post we’ll cover how to play, the rules and if you should add That Escalated Quickly to your Family Game Shelf. Let’s get to it.

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Setting Up That Escalated Quickly

The set up is pretty simple. You pull out a number card for each player (in order) and shuffle them together. Next, you take five question cards out of the box and put them in the middle of the playing area. You will also need some space for a score pile and a discard pile. That’s it, now you’’re ready to play That Escalated Quickly.

Playing That Escalated Quickly

To start, you need to pick a player to be the first organizer. On your turn, you shuffle the number cards and then deal them to the players, including yourself. Everyone looks at their number card but keeps it secret.

Next, you turn over the top question card and read it out loud.

These cards have a variety of questions on them along with the scale that you are to use to answer the question. Next, each player in turn has to answer the questions, trying to tell the organizer what number they have based on not only the question but also the other player’s answers.

Last, the organizer has to guess who has what number card. No one is allowed to flip over their number card or give any directions to the organizer.

If the organizer correctly guesses the number order, the group wins the round. On the other hand, if she makes a mistake then the group lose the round.

The role of the organizer moves to the player on the left. The new organizer shuffles and deals the number cards to the group and you play again with a new question.

The fun is in the answers. You can get as creative or outrageous as you’d like.

An example question is “I found something forgotten in the back of the fridge and ate it for lunch. What was it?” The scale for that card is 1 least likely I’ll need a doctor to 5 most likely I’ll need a doctor. Some answers might be: A – a piece of cheese that had a corner of mold on it. B – a piece of chocolate. C – some soggy looking carrots. D – a container containing fuzzy mold of three different shades of green.

Could you guess who has the number one card? How about the 2 and 3 number cards? Card number 4 seems to be held by player D.

Another question is “I ran out of toilet paper. What should I use instead?” The scale for this one is from 1 the least comfortable to 5 the most comfortable. Possible answers could be: A – sandpaper. B – newspaper. C – wadded up tissue. D – your finger.

Who do you think has what card? Is your finger or sandpaper more uncomfortable? This could start quite the debate but only the organizer can answer!

Let another question is “A co-worker stole my sandwich. How do I get my revenge?” What would you answer if you had the 1 card which is least elaborate? What if you had the 5 card the most elaborate? And what would you say to tell the organizer that you have the 2 or 3 card?

Winning That Escalated Quickly

After you have played the last card, look to see how many cards the group has in the win pile. Then you look at the scoring guide to see how you did. The score chart ranges from 0 you really don’t know each other all the way to 5 you’re mind readers!

That Escalated Quickly is a game where you win as long as you’re having fun. You can play again to see if you can beat your last score if you didn’t get all five cards.

What We Like

First, we like that this is a garb and game game. I love being able to play a scaled back version of games to see if I want to invest in the bigger game. Next, I love the creatively of this game. You really can get a silly as you’d like. In the sandwich stealing example above, my answer was that I would set up an eye detector on the work fridge that would detect the thief and then when they opened the fridge, a cream pie would fling out of the fridge and smack them in the face. Pretty elaborate, don’t you think?

We also like that it takes only about 15 minutes to play. It’s fast and makes a great waiting game. I also like that it opens up conversation in a way that normal conversation doesn’t. How many times to do get to talk about what would cause you to burn a house down by finding things in the walls? You can learn a lot about people playing this game.

As you would expect the quality is good, the box is a great size and all the cards are double sided so there is tons of playability.

What We Don’t Like

The ones in the group who don’t love creative, out of the box thinking struggled a little bit. When you had the most and least cards it was easy to come up with an answer most of the time. But the times when you have the middle cards it can be a challenge. When playing with only four people and you’re the organizer and you have one of those middle cards it’s pretty easy to get the order correct.

The next thing that the group though was that it was a bit repetitive. Remember, we’re a close family and therefore we know each other pretty well. We did play a round with a friend (who we also know really well). That game was a little more challenging as she thinks differently than we do. We were going to play with even more players (we were going to use playing cards in order instead of the ones that came with the game) but we ran out of time that night. (Too many games is a rough problem to have!)

Overall, there was nothing wrong pre say, but we didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought we would. I don’t know that that’s enough of an issue to list but it does mean that we’re likely to pull a different game off the shelf.

Should You Add That Escalated Quickly to your Family Game Self?

If you should add this game to your shelf really depends on what type of games you like to play and who you’re going to play it with. I would recommend this game if you love to be creative and you’re going to play with other creative-minded players. If you’re going to play with a varied group it also sounds like fun. If you have middle school aged kids, this could be a great problem-solving thinking game for them.

To get your copy of That Escalated Quickly, shop here. Canadians can get theirs here.

If you’re looking for more creative thinking games, check our Scattergories, Word Hunter and Fish Bowl. Check out our games in our Family Game Shelf shop for favorites like Whacky Putt – dice mini golf, Fish Bowl and more!

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