Christopher Klinge
Drew Mueske (“ME-ski”) arrives early at Working Draft Beer Company on the near-east side. He props up a sign — “Game Play Happening Now” — and pulls out a shiny gold box reading Trump Roast: The Tremendously Huge Tasteless Party Game. The image on the box resembles a meat roast in the shape of Donald Trump’s iconic hair pierced with a meat fork.
Mueske is a graphic designer who operates his own printing business, Offbeat Press, in Oshkosh. Most of his trips to Madison are to summer festivals where he sells political T-shirts. But lately he has been making the rounds with Trump Roast, beta testing the board game in Oshkosh, Appleton, Green Bay, Stevens Point, Milwaukee and Madison. The idea is to generate interest and raise money via Kickstarter to print and distribute the game.
Six punctual people show up at Working Draft, and we introduce ourselves and meet Mueske, who wears a gray Offbeat Press baseball cap. “This is your brainchild?” asks Nichole Goecks, who found out about the event on Facebook. “This is my messed-up brainchild,” Mueske replies. “It’s a light-hearted spin on politics.”
Trump Roast is a party game similar to Apples to Apples or the naughtier variant, Cards Against Humanity. But Mueske’s spin is employing an arsenal of Donald Trump quotes as answers to fictitious policy questions.
It’s easy to catch on to the rules.
To start, the players each draw six Position cards. They are actual Donald Trump quotes, like “BUILD A WALL,” or “IF IVANKA WEREN’T MY DAUGHTER, PERHAPS I’D BE DATING HER.” There are others such as, “I THINK VIAGRA IS WONDERFUL” and “WHY ARE WE HAVING ALL THESE PEOPLE FROM SHITHOLE COUNTRIES COME HERE?” Occasional cards have a “Fake News” stamp on them with false quotes, such as “I LOVE DOGS. I OFTEN WISH I WAS ONE.” We take a moment to read them silently to ourselves. “We can play a one-term game to four points or a two-term game to eight, but the joke is, no one wants a two-term game,” Mueske says.
Per the rules, the oldest person at the table starts, so we all share our ages, and I start the game by reading a Policy card: “What does Donald have tattooed on his lower back?”
The question makes players Lydia Symchych and Ian Peters smile at each other. They are indie board and card game enthusiasts who came out for the opportunity to test the new game.
The players slide their Position cards (Trump quotes) in my direction. I read each response aloud and must decide which is my favorite answer to the question. A wave of awkwardness hits me as I have to read out loud in a public space: “I HAVE A GREAT RELATIONSHIP WITH THE MEXICANS” and “GRAB ‘EM BY THE PUSSY.” But I choose, “ROSIE O’DONNELL IS DISGUSTING” as the winner.
“It’s funnier reading the quotes than playing them. It’s almost like it isn’t real,” says Noah Young, a 20-something Epic employee. “This game is genius.”
After the game concludes, the gamers share their critiques with Mueske. “Trump Roast is disgusting,” Symchych says. “Awful things are being said, and yet it’s very cathartic. These verbatim words have so much power, and that adds so much to the game.”
Ian Peters says he admires the creativity that went into creating the Policy cards. “I really think the game shines with the prompts,” he says. Some overall favorites at the table were “Dear Diary…” and “What was overheard when Donald butt-dialed FOX News?” The one that got the biggest response: “What did Donald text to Stormy Daniels?”
Throughout the course of the evening, 15 more people express an interest in playing Trump Roast, and Mueske leads players through three more games. While not much Trump support is evident in tonight’s crowd, Mueske says even more conservative audiences have enjoyed the experience of testing the game.
“We’ve had a great reaction from dozens of people across the political spectrum,” says Mueske. “If your love for Trump is above your sense of humor though, this game is not for you.”
Special cards in Trump Roast:
VETO (undoes the winner of the round)
MAGA (automatic win)
COLLUSION (allows player to read someone else’s hand and keep their favorite)
Kickstarter goal: $15,800
Money pledged so far: $5,329 (campaign ends Feb. 28)
Number of players: 4-10+
Game creators: Drew Mueske and Adrian Mulloy
Number of cards made so far for demo versions of Trump Roast: 600
