Party game · 3+ players

Rage cage rules

Rage cage in plain English: a cluster of cups in the middle, two balls going round the table, and whoever gets stacked drinks. Read it once and you can run the game.

How to play rage cage

Everyone stands around a table with a cluster of cups in the middle. Two players start with an empty cup and a ball each and bounce the ball off the table into their cup. When you make it, the cup and the ball go to the player on your left. If you make yours while the player on your left is still bouncing, you stack your cup on theirs, and they have to drink a new cup from the middle. The game ends when the middle is empty.

What you need

Plastic cups, two ping pong balls, a table and at least three players; it is best with six or more. There is no fixed number of cups: use at least 10, and add about 10 more for every five extra players.

Fill each cup about a third full. Anyone can fill their cups with water instead, and nobody has to drink alcohol to play. Rage cage is fast and the cups add up, so keep water on the table and pace yourself.

Setting up

Put the cups in a tight cluster in the middle of the table and fill the one cup in the very centre to the top. It is often the last cup to be drunk, unless someone bounces a ball into it first. Everyone stands around the table, and two players standing opposite each other get a ball each.

Starting the game

Count down from three. The two starting players each take the cup nearest to them, drink it, and start bouncing their ball into the empty cup.

Bouncing and passing

The ball has to bounce off the table before it lands in the cup. Keep bouncing until you make it, then pass the cup and the ball to the player on your left, who starts bouncing. If you make it on your very first bounce, you can pass to any player you like.

Stacking

This is the heart of the game. If you make your shot while the player on your left is still bouncing, put your cup on top of theirs. They are stacked: they pass the stacked cups and their own ball to their left, take your ball and a full cup from the middle, drink it, and start bouncing into that cup.

The stack keeps going round the table and gets taller each time, and a taller stack is harder to land a ball in.

A ball in the middle

If your ball lands in one of the full cups in the middle, you have to drink that cup, stack it on your own cup and keep bouncing.

How the game ends

The game ends when the last cup in the middle has been drunk. If you keep score of how many times each player stacks someone, the most stacks wins.

Other names

In Sweden the game is also called Gas Gas, after a Goran Bregović song that is played during the game. Rage cage is often mixed up with slap cup, but that is a different game: in slap cup you knock the other player's cup away instead of stacking on it.

Variations

Speed rage cage: play with three or four balls instead of two, for more chaos and a faster game.

Questions

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