Give and Take Drinking Game

Truths, dares and drinks dealt from a pyramid of fate.

Also known as: Take or Give

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Players 3-10

You needDeck of cards, drinks

DrinkAnything

Intensity

Time20-40 min

Give and Take deals your fate from a pyramid of face-down cards split into two moods: the Give side, where matching a card lets you hand out drinks, truths, or dares, and the Take side, where you receive them. Each player guards four private cards, the dealer flips the pyramid one card at a time, and whoever matches must act. It is part card game, part truth-or-dare, and entirely a machine for generating stories nobody will confirm tomorrow.

The pyramid climbs in value as it narrows, so early matches cost a sip or an easy question while top-row matches demand serious dares or serious drinks. Because your cards are dealt face up for all to see, there is no bluffing and no escape - when your Queen comes up on the take side, the whole table already knows it is yours. That inevitability is exactly what makes the flips so deliciously tense.

What you need & setup

Build the pyramid face down: a base row of four (or five) cards, shrinking by one card per row to a single card on top.
Mentally split every row down the middle - left cards are Give, right cards are Take (the top card is both).
Deal four cards face up in front of each player.
Agree on the row values: row one = one drink or an easy truth; each row up adds a drink or hardens the dare.
Pick a dealer to run the flips and referee the dares.

How to play Give and Take

Lay out the two-sided pyramid

Arrange the pyramid so every row has a clear Give half and a Take half - many groups place Give cards on the left and Take on the right, alternating flips between sides. Announce which side each card belongs to before flipping it, because the same 9 of hearts means opposite things depending on where it sits.

Show your hand to the world

Your four cards sit face up in front of you all game. There are no secrets in Give and Take: everyone can see that you are holding two Kings, and everyone is waiting for a King to hit the Take column. The transparency is the fun - your fate is public knowledge in advance.

Flip and match by rank

The dealer flips one pyramid card at a time, bottom row first. Every player holding that rank is involved - matches trigger by rank, not suit. If nobody matches, the card is dead and the game moves on. If two players match the same card, both act, in seat order.

Give: dish out the row's value

Match a Give card and you choose: assign the row's drink count to any player, or ask any player a truth question scaled to the row. Row one is 'what is your most-used emoji'; row four is confession territory. The target can swap a truth for drinking the row value, always.

Take: absorb the row's value

Match a Take card and the table decides your fate: drink the row's value, or accept a dare invented by the group and dialed to the row's height. Low-row dares should be silly and instant; top-row dares can be all-night rules like speaking in an accent. Dares must never be dangerous, destructive, or involve leaving the building.

Climb to the peak card

The final single card at the top is both Give and Take at maximum value: whoever matches it hands out the biggest penalty of the game AND takes one themselves - usually a big dare plus finishing a healthy portion of their drink. If nobody matches the peak, the last player to have taken anything inherits it. Then rebuild and run it back.

The rules

The pyramid's left column is Give, the right column is Take; the peak card is both at once.
Row value climbs with height: row one is one drink or an easy truth, each row up adds one drink or one level of dare intensity.
Player cards are dealt and kept face up - matches are by rank and cannot be hidden or denied.
Every player holding the flipped rank must act; multiple matchers resolve in seat order.
Give match: assign the row's drinks to anyone, or ask anyone a row-scaled truth question.
Take match: drink the row's value, or perform a dare invented by the table at that row's level.
Any truth can be dodged by drinking the row value; any dare can be dodged by drinking double it.
Dares must be safe, legal, and doable on the spot - the dealer can veto any dare, no debate.
A matched card is removed from the pyramid; dead (unmatched) cards flip face up and stay.
The peak matcher gives the game's maximum and takes a table-chosen finale themselves.

Variations & house rules

Truths-Only Table

Strip out the dares and the drinks-as-default: every Give is a question you ask, every Take is a question you answer, with drinking only as the opt-out tax. The pyramid becomes an escalating interview, and the top rows produce genuinely revealing answers. This is the version for new friend groups and first dates with an audience.

Hidden Hand

Deal the four player cards face down and let players memorize them Beeramid-style, opening the door to bluffing: claim a Give match without proof unless challenged. Wrong challenges drink double; caught bluffs drink double. It grafts Pyramid's lying engine onto Give and Take's truth-or-dare stakes, which gets chaotic in the best way.

Category Rows

Assign each pyramid row a theme before flipping: row one is childhood questions, row two is dating, row three is work, row four is 'things you would never post.' Matches must give or take within that theme. The pre-labeled dread of watching row four approach is worth the extra setup minute.

Speed Pyramid

The dealer flips on a strict fifteen-second timer, matches or not, and anyone who fails to notice their own match before the next flip takes the row value doubled. It converts a laid-back parlor game into a reflex test and stops the mid-game dare committee meetings from stalling the night.

Team Give and Take

Split into pairs who share a combined eight-card hand and split all consequences: one teammate answers the truth while the other drinks the dodge tax, or one performs the dare while the other narrates. Matches happen constantly with eight cards, and shared punishment builds the fastest alliances in party-game history.

Pro tips

Bank easy questions in advance - the game stalls hardest when a Give matcher goes blank on what to ask.

Keep a dare ceiling everyone agreed to while sober; row-four inspiration at midnight is not a reliable judge.

Put loud personalities on dare duty and thoughtful ones on truths - the table learns each player's currency fast.

Flip Give and Take sides strictly in alternation so nobody claims they lost track of which column was which.

Four-row pyramids suit school nights; five rows plus a peak is a weekend build.

If someone keeps taking, quietly hand them your Give drinks' targets elsewhere - piling on ruins the game.

Where Give and Take fits on the shelf

Give and Take lands mid-table for intensity (9th of 17 cards games), rated 3 out of 5.
The sweet spot is 3-10 players - enough for chaos, few enough that every turn matters.
A typical session runs 20-40 min - a solid middle act for the evening.
Browse the full card drinking games shelf to compare all 17 games side by side.

A little history

Give and Take appears to be a folk descendant of pyramid-style college card games, with the truth-and-dare layer likely borrowed from slumber party classics somewhere along the way. No inventor or origin date is recorded, and rule sets differ noticeably between countries - some play pure drinks, others pure dares. Its structure suggests it evolved as a gentler, more social remix of Beeramid sometime in recent decades.

Drink responsibly: Give and Take's dodge-by-drinking rules can quietly stack sips on shy players. Keep dodge taxes small, offer a free pass per player per game, and never dare anyone toward risky stunts or drinks they did not pour. Comfort is a rule, not a courtesy. See our safety guide for pacing tips and alcohol-free versions.

Give and Take FAQ

What's the difference between the Give side and the Take side?

They are mirror images. Match a card on the Give side and you distribute the row's value - assign the drinks or ask someone a truth. Match on the Take side and you absorb it - drink the row's value or perform a dare the table invents. Same card ranks, same values, opposite direction. The top card of the pyramid famously does both to whoever matches it.

Can you refuse a dare in Give and Take?

Always - no dare in any drinking game should ever be mandatory. The standard escape price is drinking double the row's value, which keeps refusal on the table without making it free. The dealer should also veto any dare that is unsafe, illegal, humiliating beyond fun, or impossible to do on the spot. A good table dares to entertain, not to punish.

What happens if two players match the same card?

Both act on it, resolving in seat order from the dealer's left. On a Give card that means two rounds of assigned drinks or two truth questions fired off; on a Take card, two dares or two drinks. Some houses instead rule that simultaneous matchers face off - rock-paper-scissors, loser takes both - which is a fun option worth agreeing on beforehand.

How is Give and Take different from Pyramid or Beeramid?

Pyramid deals hidden cards and runs on bluffing - you claim matches nobody can verify without a challenge. Give and Take deals cards face up, so matches are public and undeniable, and it swaps pure drinking for a menu of drinks, truths, and dares. Think of Pyramid as the poker player's version and Give and Take as the truth-or-dare crowd's remix of the same layout.

How many people do you need for Give and Take?

Three players is the minimum for the truths and dares to have an audience, and the game peaks with five to eight. A four-row pyramid plus four cards per player fits eight players on one deck comfortably. Past ten, matches become constant and turns drag - build two pyramids and split the room, or move to a double deck with a taller build.

Give and Take Drinking Game

What you need & setup