Game of Thrones Drinking Game Season 6 Update: Three Episodes In, Very Hungover
Alllllright everyone, time to see how our drinking game rules have been treating us. In a word: roughly. In many words and numbers and charts:
Results
The CLEAR killer is the Birdwatching rule. I thought it would be fun to make a stacking rule, increasing with each occurrence, but underestimated the piling-on potential of an hour-long show. This was most evident in Episode 3, where Qyburn, Cersei, and Varys's "little birds" said the b-word four times in less than two minutes. With three other occurrences, Birdwatching contributed 28 drinks (1+2+3+4+5+6+7) in Oathbreaker. If you were following the rules closely, you probably had a tough morning.
Birdwatching is also the most unpredictable rule. With 3 drinks in Episode 1, 10 in Episode 2, and 28 in Episode 3, it demonstrates a statistical variance of 166.33. The next closest rule, Kinslaying (0,12 [nice triple kill Ramsay],0) has a variance of 48.
The second-most intoxicating rule has been Scenery. The show moves between locations with remarkable consistency (12,8,8), allowing this rule to provide a steady flow of drinks each week. I was wrong to worry the other rules wouldn't be enough. In response, we're scratching Scenery from future episodes.
There are a few surprises in the data. Creepy Littlefinger, Winter is Coming, and White Walker have contributed zero drinks to-date. I thought they might delay the arrival of the White Walkers, but never anticipated this trio being shut out through three weeks.
Scenery isn't the only one change. Here are some other modifications going forward:
Rule Modifications
- Removing the male- and female- evil-eyes rule. It's just too difficult to determine if every look or none of the looks should count.
- The original Brienne rule has been expanded to include anyone talking about oaths, honor, or traitors.
- One new rule: Eye Contact. One drink every time a character talks to another character who determinedly looks in a different direction. It's great for TV, but damn would I be irritated if I was the one talking.
- Birdwatching is being revised. Rather than adding a drink for every occurrence, it's a one-drink rule. This will reduce the overload we saw in Episode 3 (1+1+1+1+1+1+1 instead of 1+2+3+4+5+6+7).
Were you hoping for a visual representation of the results so far? Great!
Thanks for playing, everyone! Keep up the good work! Here's a list of the updated rules:
1 Drink
- "Good" character suffers a setback
- Nudity
- Tyrion says "drink", "drunk", "drank"
- A character discusses honor, oaths, or traitors
- Horses in a scene
- Birdwatching - every involvement of birds (Littlefinger's sigil, Varys's spies, the High Sparrow, Crows, Ravens, etc.)
- One character talks to another who doesn't look at them
2 Drinks
- "Bad" character suffers a setback
- White Walker sighting
- "Winter is Coming"
- Littlefinger creeps (on Sansa or in general)
- Direwolf sighting
3 Drinks
- Dragon sighting (per dragon)
- Kinslaying
- Tyrion or Cersei appear in a scene but do not drink
Special Rule
- Bastard Builder - number of drinks increases every time someone says "bastard"
