It’s sometimes the most mundane things that cause the biggest rifts in relationships. Your partner not understanding the importance of making the bed every morning, for instance. Or someone drinking all the milk and not replacing it again. Or even your significant other not stacking the dishwasher correctly.
It was the latter issue that led Greg Mulligan to create Servd, a card game that takes everyday annoyances and spins them into entertainment.
“In the 2015 Fisher & Paykel dishwasher user guide, the diagram shows plates stacked on the right,” Mulligan tells Broadsheet. “My partner, Dan, puts them on the left. It was this moment that led to the creation of Servd … which makes light of nuisances and completely flips them on their head.”
To play the game, players agree on a time frame (one week, a month, a year), and divide the deck of cards up. Each card lists a different action or behaviour that the holder can perform themselves, or force their partner to. There’s the My Way Today card, which means your partner has to do everything the way you like to do it (for example, stacking the dishwasher) for an entire day.
You might also pull out the Food Envy card and force your partner to swap meals if their order looks more appetising than yours. If you’re feeling a little hung over, you might pull the hangover-cure card and force your partner to deliver your favourite hangover food to bed. Each card has a witty description of what it means, so even if you’re annoyed about having to crawl out of bed to fry some eggs, you’ll still get a giggle.
The bold yellow-and-black cards are available in his and hers, his and his, hers and hers, and friendship decks, each tailored to suit the nature of each relationship. (For example, the same-sex decks includes a card that can force your partner to change their outfit if it’s too similar to yours.)
