Here’s How To Play New Girl’s True American Drinking Game

New Girl introduced a fun but mysterious drinking game called “True American”, and while the exact rules of it were never revealed in the show, a dedicated fan managed to break it down, and here’s how to play it. The 2000s and 2010s saw a lot of sitcoms that quickly won the audience over thanks to their sense of humor and relatable characters, and among those is New Girl, created by Elizabeth Meriwether. New Girl premiered on Fox in 2011 and came to an end in 2018 after seven seasons full of ups and downs and a bunch of inside jokes that became part of pop culture.

New Girl followed Jess Day (Zooey Deschanel), a young, bubbly teacher who found out that her boyfriend was cheating on her, so she quickly moved out. Jess found an ad online of three strangers looking for a roommate, and even though some of them were initially reluctant, they decided to let her stay. After a period of adjustment that wasn’t easy for anyone, Jess became very close to her roommates Schmidt (Max Greenfield), Nick Miller (Jake Johnson), and Winston (Lamorne Morris), with her best friend Cece (Hannah Simone) also joining the fun and becoming part of this peculiar family. Together, they went through all types of trouble and adventures and came up with their own concepts and games, the most notable one being “True American”.

The gang from loft 4D hung out together a lot, either at the bar Nick used to work at, at Schmidt’s fancy work parties, or at the loft, where they used to play a very special drinking game they called “True American”. The game appeared a couple of times throughout New Girl, and while the group knew the rules by heart (or at least that’s what it seemed), there was almost always someone new that didn’t know what was going on, just like the audience. Jess and friends had a lot of fun playing “True American”, more so as the purpose of it was to get as drunk as possible, but the rules to it were never revealed on the show, just bits of it that don’t make much sense, but the people at Wide Open Eats managed to break down how to play “True American”.

The game is described in New Girl as part drinking game, part life-size Candy Land, and “the floor is molten lava”, so that says a lot about its loose and confusing structure. Now, at the center of the game area is a castle made of beer cans (which are the Pawns and Soldiers of the Secret Order) and with a bottle of alcohol in the middle, representing the King. The point is for players to win moves so they can navigate through the game area without touching the floor (because it’s lava, of course), and they have to grab beers from the Castle as they go. When all the beers are finished, the person who makes it to the Castle’s bottle and takes a swig straight from it wins, though it’s important to remember that by then, everyone is very drunk. Now, there are four zones and inside those are five spaces where each player can stand. The center of each zone is where players can grab Pawns and thus is the closest area to the Castle, and there are only four center spaces, one per zone. In each zone, there have to be chairs, cushions, tables, etc. where players can stand and not die in the lava.

The game begins with either teams or each player for themselves and is kicked off with players shotgunning a beer to see who goes first. Once the winner is determined, players shout “one, two, three, JFK!” with the rest shouting back “FDR!”, grabbing a Pawn, and running to any space far from the floor. They then move around in a clockwise direction and the player whose turn it is moves one space, while the rest can win spaces even if it’s not their turn, but that depends on the player whose turn it is. Now, players can win moves in different ways. First is the count, where players shout “one, two, three” and hold up a random number of fingers between one and five on their foreheads, and whoever holds one that’s not repeated can move one spot. Then there’s completing a quote, where the player whose turn it rightfully speaks a quote while moving, and whoever completes it can move two spots. Another one is by word association, where the player whose turn it rightfully can yell out two people, places, or things, and whoever replies with what these have in common can move three spots.

As mentioned above, the winner is the player who, once the Pawns are gone, gets to the King, “beheads him”, and takes a swig, but anyone can lose if caught without a beer or with an empty one or if you step in the lava, though losers can re-enter if they drink a full beer and will start on a space chosen by the rest. Surely, “True American” will get messy no matter how closely you follow the rules, but that’s what made it so fun in New Girl and can also make it fun if you decide to play, just do it responsibly.

About The Author

Adrienne Tyler
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Adrienne Tyler is a features writer for Screen Rant. She is an Audiovisual Communication graduate who wanted to be a filmmaker, but life had other plans (and it turned out great). Prior to Screen Rant, she wrote for Pop Wrapped, 4 Your Excitement (4YE), and D20Crit, where she was also a regular guest at Netfreaks podcast. She was also a contributor for FanSided’s BamSmackPow and 1428 Elm. Adrienne is very into films and she enjoys a bit of everything: from superhero films to heartbreaking dramas, to low-budget horror films. Every time she manages to commit to a TV show without getting bored, an angel gets its wings.

When she’s not writing, you can find her trying to learn a new language, watching hockey (go Avs!), or wondering what life would have been like had Pushing Daisies, Firefly, and Limitless not been cancelled. Breakfast food is life and coffee is what makes the world go round.

Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once. It was great.

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