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No.11 — Arrrgue! Classic

The main event — defend your item, head-to-head, out loud

Crew 3 and up (needs a real crowd) Runs ~20 min Best for when the argument should be between people

Every other mode is a fight about items. Arrrgue! Classic is a fight about people. It’s the main event, and it needs a real crew (3 and up). The room is paired off, each defender is dealt an item to champion, and then — one bout at a time — two hands stand up and make their case aloud while everyone else votes head-to-head on who argued it better. It’s not about which snack is best; it’s about who can sell it. The crown goes to whoever defended the most.

How it plays

  1. The crew is paired off, and each defender is dealt an item to champion — you don’t pick it, you’re handed it.
  2. One bout at a time, the two defenders make their case out loud to the room. This is a real argument, performed, not a silent vote.
  3. Everyone else votes head-to-head on who made the better case. The winner advances the honor of their item; the loser sits.
  4. Bout after bout, the crew works through the pairings, and the game crowns whoever defended the most. Odd counts leave one player defending twice — a hero’s burden.
Worked example

Subject: "greatest decade for music." One defender gets the ’80s, the other the ’90s. They stand up, trade thirty seconds of increasingly heated evidence, and the room votes. The ’90s wins — not because it’s objectively better, but because its defender did a devastating impression of a dial-up modem that the ’80s camp simply could not answer.

Ideal crew size

This is the one mode that genuinely wants a crowd: a minimum of three, and it’s at its best with five to ten so there’s a real audience voting and a proper bracket of bouts. With an odd number, one lucky (or unlucky) player defends twice. Don’t run it as a duo — it needs spectators.

Captain’s tip

Set a short, hard clock on each defense — thirty seconds a side. Classic lives or dies on pace; a rambling defense kills the room, while a tight one forces defenders to lead with their best shot. Encourage the crowd to react between bouts. This is theatre.

Ready for the main event? Take the wheel and pick No.11, or see all eleven modes.