While drinking games may break up the party monotony of loud rap and repetitive techno music, or give you something to do rather than talk to that guy in your econ class about yesterday’s homework, tried and true drinking games can easily become stale after too many rounds. Trust me – there are only so many times a night you can play kings before you just stop caring what you pull.

Allow The Daily Orange feature section to add some variety to your Friday nightlife … or at least work to get you drunk in new and creative ways.

Ride the BusAmount of Players: 2+Buzz Level: 8 Complexity: 6

While there are many different variations of Ride the Bus out there, this is definitely the best one. And by the best, I mean it will get you drunk quickest.

You begin by building a pyramid of cards with a single one in the first row, two in the second and so on until four rows are made. The rest of the cards are then dealt out to the rest of the players.

The dealer flips over the card in the first row. Anyone who has the matching number places it down and dispenses a drink to a player of their choice. If you have more than one of the cards, then an equal number of drinks are given out.

Then starts the next round, and the first card in row two is flipped over. Anyone who matches now gets to give out two drinks to a player (or one to two players). Same goes for the cards matched in the third and fourth row. This means that if you hold all three of one card in the fourth row, you get to distribute 12 drinks. Play until you flip over every single card, 10 rounds in all.

Here’s where it get interesting. At the end, whoever has the most cards left in their hand ‘rides the bus.’ If there is a tie for cards, then both people get to ride.

Deal out 10 cards face down in a line. The rider flips over the first card. If the number falls between a two and a 10, then nothing occurs and they move to the next card in the line. Yet, if it’s a face card, then they have to drink and add cards to the end of the pile. One drink and one card for a jack, two for queen, three for king and four for an ace.

Keep going until the entire line is gone and everyone is nice and drunk … then set the pyramid up again with a new dealer to play again.

Published on September 28, 2005 at 12:00 pm