Well, I hope we are. Though there is a certain amount of “hey, stop stealing my stuff!” Why? Well, Chums is a SimplyFun take on Go Fish!
I’ll admit I haven’t really played Go Fish recently to compare the two, but Chums works like this: you start with five cards (seven for 2 players), and on your turn you pick a card you already have, let’s say number 8, and ask one of the other players, “[Person], do you have any 8s?” If they do, they have to give you all their 8s, and you get to ask again. Once someone says no, you have to draw the top card of the deck. If that card is the most recent card you asked for, you show it to the table and get to ask again anyways; if it’s not, your turn is over, and play moves to the next person. Once you collect all four of a set, you place it face up on the table in front of you — when someone no longer has any cards in hand, or when the deck runs out, the game ends immediately and whoever has the most face-up sets wins.
Where Crazy Ates is mostly the luck of the draw, Chums has that strategic element, trying to remember which other players have what; there’s been many a time where one of us has asked another for something they didn’t have, only for the next player to turn around and ask for that card.
As a bonus, every number (1-12) has its own colorful species of fish! I used to make a point of collecting 4s and 10s, because I liked the lionfish and pufferfish illustrations best.
