Sneaky Cards 2: Bridge the Social Distance

In this time when we’re being urged to stay socially distant, it may seem odd that I would review a game designed to bring you together with strangers. But more than ever, we need ways to connect with the people around us, even as we wash our hands, cover our faces, and try not to touch each other.

Like its predecessor, Sneaky Cards 2 is intended to make you “a secret agent of joy”, encouraging you to make art and spread fun in your neighborhood.

How to Play

Sneaky Cards (and Sneaky Cards 2) is a deck of cards and a website; give away cards while doing certain activities, then track where the cards travel!

There are seven types of Sneaky Cards. Each category encourages you to interact in a different way. You can:

Solve puzzles that give secret messages.

Create art and share it.

Grow by trying new things.

Care and help the people around you.

Surprise someone by leaving a card in an unusual place for them to find.

Connect with people over simple things, such as song titles and clothing.

Engage with strangers, or with friends in new ways.

All the cards have QR codes and access codes. When opening up your deck for the first time, you can register it at sneakycards.com. In the future, if anyone finds a card from your set, they can type in its code and find out where it’s been.

With 54 cards, it will take you quite some time to run out of missions to try!

Impressions

When we first received Sneaky Cards 2 to review, it was merely a novelty. We’d bring a few to a convention and try to find ways to pass them off. It was fun to track a few of the cards this way, but most never saw the light of day.

But after being cooped up at home for months this spring, we turned back to Sneaky Cards, trying to figure out if it was even possible to keep playing this “game” while staying 6 feet apart. Although some Sneaky Card missions have become nearly impossible (there is no way we’ll high five strangers right now), we’ve gained new appreciation for how most of the missions can stretch us out of our comfort zone.

Our Sneaky Cards 2 deck has been especially helpful for our preteen. It presents a set of tools to interact with people. She needs this now more than ever since the double whammy of pandemic shutdown and puberty-heightened self-consciousness. It’s exciting to track the cards, and rewarding to see faces light up with the desire to play along.

She goes out of her way to accomplish at least one mission a week, most often on the rare in-person school days in our odd hybrid schedule.

Feeling isolated when everyone is wearing masks? Use the “Walk around holding this card out in front of you” card and wait for someone to ask about it. Feeling a little intimidated by a teacher you don’t know yet? Connect with the card that says “Give this card to someone taller than you” – maybe it can start a conversation. Leave some flowers on your neighbor’s doorstep along with the matching Care card, and brighten their day.

I’d recommend either of the Sneaky Cards packs as tools for your family. (Find both on Amazon or at your local game store.) Acting on them will grow your comfort zone and inspire you to reach out. Spread some joy into someone else’s day – and you’ll find yourself smiling, too.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Sneaky Cards 2 from Gamewright for this review.

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