Do you love riddles? How about coming up with your own answers to riddles? If you said yes to either of these you need to check out Smug Owls, a riddle based party game.
A deck of cards gives you a riddle to solve except there is no answer. Instead, it’s up to the players to each come up with the best answer they can with the slowest player getting assigned as the “Smug Owl” who has to judge everyone else’s answer.
Disclosure: Thanks to Runaway Parade for giving us a review copy of this fascinating party game. Some links in this post are affiliate links, using them costs you nothing extra and helps support this website. As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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Smug Owls Details
Smug Owls is an Origins Award winning party game from Runaway Parade Games. It was co designed by Grace Kendall and Mike Belsole. This is the second game from Runaway Parade Games who most people know from their game Fire Tower.
This riddle based party game can play with up to fifteen players, but you do need a minimum of three for the voting system to work. It’s designed for gamers ages eight and up, which seems about right to us.
Games of Smug Owls are quick, usually clocking in at well under half an hour. I would even go so far as to say within the fifteen to twenty-minute mark.
Physically, Smug Owls comes in a small, two deck card box stuffed full of cards. The cards feature cute owl artwork on one side and plain black text on the other. There’s also a short six panel rules pamphlet which is clear, well presented, and easy to learn from. Finally there’s a Smug Owl standee and base.
We originally reviewed Smug Owls on The Tabletop Bellhop Gaming Podcast Episode 249: Great Board Games From Women Designers. Since then we’ve played Smug Owls many more times, especially at our local public play events.
How to Play Smug Owls
Set up a game of Smug Owls by blindly drawing eight conjunction cards from that deck and placing them face down between a split stack of blue backed riddle cards. Place the “What” card at the left end of this set and the “?” card on the opposite side. You should end up with a row that looks like this: What Riddle Conjunction Riddle ?
In each of the games eight rounds, you will flip up one card from each card stack to form a riddle. Once the riddle is revealed, players each come up with their own answer to the riddle as quickly as they can.
Once someone has an answer they slap their hand on the table. When all but one person has slapped, you stop. The player who didn’t slap, the one that didn’t come up with an answer quick enough, gets to become the “smug owl” for that round.
Next each player, in the order that they slapped, gives their answer to the riddle. Then, the smug owl player gets to play as judge, and players are encouraged to defend and explain their answers. The smug owl player takes the three random cards from this round (the two riddle cards and one conjunction card), and awards them to the other players as points.
They can do this however they want, awarding more than one card per player if they wish, splitting them evenly, etc. We encourage the smug owl player to explain why they are awarding points where, as that often leads to fun discussions.
The game continues like this until you run out of conjunction cards, which will happen after eight rounds. At that point everyone counts up how many cards they’ve collected and the player with the most cards wins.
That’s it, that’s all there is to the party game Smug Owls. Reveal a riddle, players come up with an answer for that riddle, the slowest person becomes the judge and awards points. Repeat eight times, and whoever has the most cards wins.
The rulebook also includes a few variants to try out.
You can try playing without the scoring system and just cheer each other on for how clever you all are. If players are taking too long to think, toss in a 30 second timer. When it runs out the players who haven’t come up with an answer share the role of smug owl. Finally, the game comes with a bunch of blank cards so you can add in your own riddle and conjunction cards. I recommend letting the winner add in a new card at the end of a game.
Riddle, Party Game Fans, and Quick Thinkers Love Smug Owls
One of the great things about Smug Owls is that it plays exactly like you expect it to. The pitch for the game, a riddle based party game where players have to come up with the answers, pretty much explains the entire game and it’s just as fun as it sounds. The key to this are the two decks the designers have created and just how well those decks work to magically come up with interesting riddles every single time!
The riddle and conjunction decks are very well crafted and clever. There are a huge number of possible riddles. While some might be a bit wacky and others may take a bit of thinking to come up with a good answer to, every single card combination works. It’s brilliant.
Something I was wary of when we first picked up this game, was how well it would work at lower player counts. Often, games that play more than ten players don’t work as well with only three, but that’s not the case here. I really enjoy how intimate, and somewhat cutthroat Smug Owls is with only three or four players.
The game is also faster the fewer players you have, as everyone has to think more quickly. The more players you have the higher chance someone will be slower than you and you will have some time to think. At the lower player counts players are often forced to go with the first thing that comes into their head. I personally really like that, and actually prefer the game with less players.
One concern with Smug Owls is people’s aversion to feeling dumb. There can be some hesitation and worry over giving the wrong answer, even if there’s no such thing in this game. There’s also the potential of people feeling bad if they are always the slowest and get stuck playing the Smug Owl.
Having to quickly come up with riddles is the games biggest downfall. Smug Owls is a real time, improv game where you have to answer riddles you’ve never heard before, and answer them as fast as you can. Not everyone is going to like that. Some very smart players don’t do well under real time constraints and not everyone is good at coming up with answers out of almost nothing.
An alternative I’ve used at some public play events is to rotate the Smug Owl role, and let everyone have as much time as they need to come up with answers. Instead of playing eight rounds, I let everyone be the Smug Owl once or twice depending on the group size.
The other issue I’ve had with Smug Owls is getting people to play it in the first place. It doesn’t look like much and just having the game out at an event isn’t usually enough to get it played. This changes once I can get one group playing. Smug Owls is not a quiet game once people get into it and the fun one group is having will often lead to other groups wanting to give it a try.
I think another part of having to convince people to play, is the anxiety of playing a game involving quick, clever thinking with strangers. No one wants to feel like a fool, though every person who has expressed this concern to me, has enjoyed the game once they started playing. With a group of friends or family who already know each other, the game is a much easier sell.
Overall, Smug Owls has been a hit for us, even though it may take some convincing to get people to play. Instead of being something we play multiple rounds of in a row and make a game night out of, it’s become a good filler and something to get people started when they first show up to an event. The game works well as an icebreaker, as well as a good final game when you have half an hour or less left in a game night.
We aren’t the only fans of this game. The only reason I know about Smug Owls at all, is that they won the Origins Award for best party game. Watching the Runaway Parade team accept the award is what got us to look into the game a bit more. Smug Owls was also named a Polygon Best Game of the Year and is an American Mensa Recommendation. It really is a very clever game.
If you and your friends or family love riddles, you need to pick up Smug Owls. The fact everyone is coming up with their own answers here is fascinating, especially since there’s no wrong answer. With riddle fans every round leads to a fun discussion on whose answer is best, and what other answers people could have used.
Smug Owls can be a great get to know you game, as the answers people choose, and their justifications for choosing them can be great way to learn about the people you are playing with. If we had played it in time Smug Owls would have been included in our game recommendations for Episode 242 of The Tabletop Bellhop, Getting to Know You
Fans of fast playing, quick reaction based, party games should also check out Smug Owls. If you like improvisation, thinking on your feet, and being clever, you will dig this game. On the opposite end, if having to come up with answers off the top of your head quickly sounds like anxiety in a box, you will want to skip Smug Owls.
For general party game fans, and people who host larger game nights, it’s always great to have a game that plays up to fifteen players on hand, especially one that’s so easy to teach, like Smug Owls. Also there’s no real reason you have to limit this game to fifteen. At game conventions we’ve seen hundreds of people post answers to a Smug Owls riddle on a cork board, which makes me think this could be a fun office lunchroom game as well.
For us, we continue to play it as a family, most of the time at parties and events where we have a big group, especially with a mix of gamers and non-gamers. I continue to bring it out to our public play events where there’s a few groups that return to it month after month, and also new people continuing to discover it (though it still does take some convincing to get people to play).
What I’m excited about now, is that three expansions were announced at GAMA Expo earlier this year. These include Pompous Owls, Smut Owls and Poser Owls. As of right now you can get them separately or in a bundle direct from Runaway Parade.
FAQs
How Replayable is Smug Owls?
With 89 Riddle Cards and 17 Conjunction Cards you end up with over 130,000 possible combinations. So while it’s possible that you may get the same riddle twice it is not likely.
Do you have to play Smug Owls in real time?
While the rulebook doesn’t mention this, we have found the game to work well by having players take turns being the Smug Owl and giving the other players as much time as they need to come up with answers. The drawback is that the game can become much longer as everyone searches for a perfect answer.
Are there expansions for Smug Owls?
There are three expansions for Smug Owls that were announced at GAMA Expo this year and which should be in stores soon. You can currently purchase them directly from Runaway Parade individually or in a bundle.
Do you enjoy riddles? What’s another game that features riddles that you enjoy? I can’t think of many riddle based games, so I would love to hear your recommendations. Comment below or start up a discussion on the Tabletop bellhop discord.
- SOLVE RIDDLES GENERATED BY A MAGIC DECK: Flip cards to create a riddle and then try to come up with the best answer. There are over 130,000 possible riddles in the box!!
- YOU ARE HILARIOUS…OR A PROFOUND GENIUS…OR COMPLETELY NONSENSICAL: Maybe there isn’t a RIGHT answer to any of these riddles, but there is definitely an amazing one! Impress the Smug Owl with your answer to the riddle to earn cards and claim victory!
2 Responses
Based on your review, I went to the linked company page, and left them the message below. I was a little caught off guard when you surprised us with Medium a year or so back, but when you brought this game to the table, I knew it would be fun.
Our first introduction to this game was with Moe of the Tabletop Bellhop, at the monthly Walkerville Brewery event. Moe popped by our table and presented us with this game to play, telling us how easy the rules are (note, Moe remembers the rules to every game like he has a eidetic memory for game rules). Of course we gave it a try and it was just a perfect little game. At three players, it plays in 10-15 minutes, and no one person felt any more foolish than anyone else. This reminded me to put up a 10-star review on Board Game Geek. Thanks for getting this game to Tabletop Bellhop, so we could play it. I will recommend this game to people who like to play party games. Honestly, sometimes I will just drag out my time so I play the Smug Owl, as I find that just as much fun. I see from his recent review that you now have expansions. Hopefully I can pick those up in the future, to play with my friends. I hope this one explodes in popularity, and many more expansions come out for it.
Hey David!
Thanks for the comment. I love it when I show a group a new game and it hits just right. I don’t always get them right and love it when I do. Thanks for reaching out to the publisher as well, that’s a step above.
Moe