Conversation Cards

On September 27, 1784 the following game ad appeared in the newspaper the Baltimore Intelligencer: 'Just published and for sale ... a new and elegant edition of the much admired Conversation Cards, containing a variety of amusing, entertaining and innocent questions and answers in the art of courtship. Each pack contains sixty-four cards, thirty-two questions in black and thirty-two answers in red. Apparently one player would read a question and another of the opposite sex would follow with a randomly-drawn answer, to everyone's amusement. While it may not sound like much of a game, it may well be the first American commercial game design ever.