Few of us realize it, but one of the best ways to bond with a group of strangers is shared peril. The peril, for example, of hurtling through space on a ship that is in dire need of repair. This sort of peril doesn’t come often, and probably isn’t worth risking just in the name of new friendships. But now you can simulate this horrifying scenario from the comfort of your own home thanks to this new card-based Spaceteam game.

Spaceteam, which is based on the popular mobile game of the same name, lets you and up to five other players (more with the expansion packs) take control of a spaceship that must be repaired before it explodes, leaving you to die in the cold, indifferent vacuum of space. In order to do this, you’ll have to cooperate and coordinate the distribution of “Tool Cards” with names like “Centrifugal Disperser” or “Kilobypass Transformer,” each of which goes towards repairing a specific “Malfunction Card.” Malfunction Cards are randomly drawn and the team has to pass the appropriate Tool Card from each player's five-card hand around the circle, but never across. If it sounds too simple to be a fun game, you'll be relieved to know that it’s both harder and more fun than it sounds, and a guaranteed icebreaker for almost any party. As one satisfied Amazon reviewer put it:

"Brought this to a game night where I didn’t know many of the people and by the end of the third round we were screaming at each other like we’d known each other for years.”

Spaceteam: A Fast-Paced Cooperative Card Game With Lots Of Shouting

Spaceteam

That’s because half of the fun of Spaceteam is in learning how to play it together, especially if everyone in the group is figuring it all out at the same time. It’s designed to be extremely easy for new players to pick up and learn. And if you need a little advanced training, you can get it from the tutorial video below:

When you purchase a basic Spaceteam game, you’re getting 90 playing cards, a game timer, and game-play instructions. But let’s get into those expansion packs I mentioned earlier. Not only do they let you add more players to the game, but they also add some extra components to the game that make it even more interesting.

Spaceteam Expansion: Triangulum

First off, there’s Spaceteam Expansion: Triangulum expansion set, which like the original game, is totally family-friendly. It adds 38 Malfunction Cards, 15 Tool Cards, and 1 Instruction Card, expanding the size of the ship, and increasing the game’s difficulty.

Not Suitable For Space (NSFS)

But if your Spaceteam crew are all 18 or older, you might be interested in the Not Suitable For Space (NSFS) expansion pack, which is purportedly “for people who are into shouting inappropriate things at friends.” It adds 32 Malfunction Cards, 15 Tool Cards, and 1 Instruction Card, all of which are of a somewhat suggestive nature.

The Spaceteam card game was a smash from its inception on Kickstarter, where it managed to nearly ring in $200,000 from enthusiastic members of the game’s loyal cult following. To join up with this informal fraternity of spaceship repair-people yourself, head over to Amazon to get your copy of the game right now.

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