Have you ever wondered what underwear your dad wears? No? Me neither, but it’s these types of important questions that keep me up at night and what this game endeavours to answer for everyone involved. With that crucial question burning foremost in my mind, we cracked open Top Secret Briefs so my curiosity could finally be quenched.
At heart, Top Secret Briefs is a social deduction game. Each player is given a top-secret envelope containing a clear plastic card on which is printed their type of underwear, with categories ranging from pantaloons all the way to a thong. I personally got frilly knickers—a staple of my weekend, for sure. Then, each player is given a top-secret pattern to slide behind the card to complete their look. All hail my frilly knickers with donuts printed on them!
Taking it in turns, you either place a card in front of yourself that DOES NOT match your top-secret underwear, or you play it in front of a devious, boxer-short-hiding enemy. If your card matches their underwear, they place it in the discard pile and you get punished by having to lay down more of your own cards. If it doesn’t match, they leave it there, proudly displaying your failure and announcing to the world that they aren’t, in fact, wearing boxers with a duck pattern.
Nitty Gritty Stuff
Okay, so maybe I wasn’t wholly truthful before. I didn’t play Top Secret Briefs with my dad to find out his choice of undergarments; I played it with my wife, whose secretive underpants proved far more devious.
Each turn, you play one of the three cards in your hand. Each card has two sections, which can be any combination of underwear type or pattern. Both halves could be patterns, types, or it can be a mix. If either side matches yours, it would have to be discarded, or played in front of another player.
If you discard a card, you are announcing to the others that one of those two elements (type or pattern) matches you. If neither matches, you can place it in front of you, announcing to the table that you are not wearing boxer shorts covered in hearts, Carl (a cheeky nod to DCC there for those of you who are big nerds like me).
If you play one of your cards in front of another player, one of two things will happen. If they leave it in front of them, your guess was incorrect, and play continues. If one of your guesses was correct, they will discard the card. Now, it’s important to say that whilst the discard is communal, it can never be gone through, so you have to remember both what was on the card and who discarded it—a real challenge for me, as I have a memory like a sieve that’s been battered by 34 years of relentless abuse.
If they do discard, you will have to play two more cards pertaining to you. You will always have three cards, even during the multiple discard section, as you pick up a new card between the discards.
The final action you can take is Accuse (this is a whole turn, so only do it if you’re sure). This is where you point at a beloved friend or family member and state loudly and clearly, “Your underwear is super massive granny pants with avocadoes on them!” If you are correct, you win! If you’re not, well, you get to discard even more cards, giving more information about the secrets covering your privates.
Tips and Tricks
· Memory is Key: Try to keep track of who has discarded what. We played this with two (even though the recommended is three), and I still had to have a mantra in my head to keep track of what my wife had discarded.
· Force the Discard: If you only have cards in your hand that would be a discard for you, consider placing them in front of an opponent instead. This forces them to discard if you’re right, allowing you to narrow down exactly the style of what they are wearing.
· Don’t Get Your Knickers in a Twist: If someone forces you to discard, it’s not the end of the world. They have to both remember what you have discarded and figure out which element is the actual match for your secret underwear.
Likes & Dislikes
Likes
· The box has fuzzy underwear, which I just LOVE. It’s an excellent tactile touch.
· The artwork is great and fun.
· The cards are good quality, and they use clear cards. I love clear cards—Gloom is one of my favourite games, and that is all clear cards.
· It sounds like a simple game, but there is much more strategy to it than I anticipated.
· Simple, easy to teach, and quick to learn.
Dislikes
· There were no fuzzy underwear cards, and while the logistics behind that would be impossible, I want my fuzzy underwear now.
· But in all seriousness, there wasn’t anything I truly disliked about this game.
Final Verdict
I found that Top Secret Briefs filled my pantaloons of social deduction quite nicely. It is not an overly complicated game; it would be a perfect, light opening or closing game for the evening. The game itself is small, so it could easily be a travel game, fitting easily into your luggage if needed. It’s not going to be a game you play all night—maybe two or three games before moving onto something beefier—but it’s a very pleasant little time-filling game.
