Cups is a smoking game, for two or more people. Its primary advantages are that it's very laid back and (provided you're not overly
monged) it's possible to hold a conversation while playing cups, which is not the case with other smoking games such as
traffic lights. As well as all that, cups will, in the immortal words of
Withnail And I's Danny, "tend to make you vewwy, vewwy high".
There are a few things you need to play a game of cups, but not to worry, they are all items readily available in the average
stoner household (probably because the game owes its mysterious origins to a case of "
Hey dudes, let's grab some shit from around the house and make a game out of it"). The items in question are as follows:
A pint glass (drink the pint first, and then if neccesary steal the glass from the
pub)
A hair
bobbin (at least
one of you must have long hair)
A coin of appropriate weight (here in
Europe the 5c coin is perfect, I imagine
Americans would use a 10c or a 25c)
A single ply sheet of
tissue paper (if you're a victim of affluence then tear apart a piece of two-ply)
A long, hand-rolled smoking device which may or may not contain the
psychoactive substance of your choice (hereafter referred to as the
joint)
Preparing to play:
1. Stretch the tissue over the pint glass so that the entire
opening at the top of the glass is covered, secure it in place with the elasticated hair-tying-device.
2. Place the coin in the very center of the tissue.
3. Seat all players in a
circle around the glass.
4.
Ignite the
joint.
Playing:
The basic premise is simple. Each player
tokes, touches the tissue with the joint to burn a hole in it, takes any penalty-tokes incurred (penalties will be detailed shortly), passes the joint to the next player and then exhales. The game is over when the coin falls and the player who's turn it was is the
loser.
Penalties:
Additional tokes must be taken for any of the following actions.
Creating a "
bridge", that is to say burning a hole beside another so that the two join up. This is 5 tokes the first time it happens, 4 the second time and so on (after the fifth time there is no penalty because the game has probably reached a stage where this is unavoidable). If more than two holes are joined then the number of tokes is multiplied by the number of holes joined.
"Dabbing", or touching the tissue with the joint but not burning it - 3 tokes.
Passing the
joint the wrong way - 5 tokes.
Exhaling before you have succesfully taken your turn - 5 tokes (on top of any you hadn't taken yet).
Taking a toke before the previous player has exhaled - 5 tokes.
Being the loser who causes the coin to fall - 13 tokes.
Players of cups traditionally invent penalties to cover new eventualities as they occur.
Additional notes:
The first joint will probably be finished before the game is over, when this happens light another, switch the direction of
rotation and continue.
Once they have been passed the joint, there is no pressure on players to take their turn until they feel like it.
Players can not burn "dead paper", that is to say that the piece of paper burned must be connected in some way to the structure supporting the coin.
So there you have it, cups. The game may appear stupid on paper, but try playing it. It becomes genuinely challenging towards the end, when all players are trying to avoid making the coin drop. This is my first ever attempt at recording the rules of cups, and as such I'm certain I've forgotten one or two things which I will ammend as soon as I remember them. Please msg me if you spot any glaring omissions.