No.10 — Parley
File a position, then merge it — pair by pair — into one accord
Voting lets you disagree in private and never have to look anyone in the eye. Parley doesn’t. Everyone files an opening position, and then the crew has to actually negotiate: pairs merge their two lists into one, then pairs of pairs merge again, and so on up the chain until the whole crew has signed a single accord. It’s the most diplomatic mode in the game and, not coincidentally, the one most likely to end in a treaty nobody is entirely happy with — which is how you know it worked.
How it plays
- Every hand files an opening position — their own ranked list of the subject.
- The crew is paired off. Each pair has to reconcile their two lists into one agreed order. This is where the horse-trading starts: "I’ll give you No.1 if you drop that from the top three."
- Merged lists merge again — pairs of pairs — round after round, the negotiating tables getting bigger each time.
- It ends when the whole crew has merged into one signed accord. Odd counts get a rotating bye; a table that stalls out can be force-signed so nobody deadlocks the room.
Eight people rank "best pizza toppings." In the first round of pairs, a pepperoni hardliner and a veggie partisan have to produce one list; they compromise by burying pineapple together out of pure spite. Three rounds later that anti-pineapple pact has survived all the way into the final accord — a coalition built entirely on a shared enemy.
Ideal crew size
Four, six, or eight works cleanest, because the pairing chain resolves neatly — though odd counts are handled with a rotating bye. Bigger even crews give you more rounds of escalating negotiation, which is the best part; aim for at least four so there’s a real chain to climb.
Make pairs negotiate out loud and give them a soft time limit — Parley is a talking mode, and a silent merge is a wasted one. If a table genuinely locks up, use the force-sign; a stalled negotiation shouldn’t hold the whole crew hostage.
Call a parley and choose No.10, or browse all eleven modes.