Bondage 101 is a kink-related board game marketed to beginners to get them interested in bondage. The set comes with 36 playing cards, an instruction manual, a scarf, a paddle, a blindfold, and two different colored die. This game is a two player game, and it'd be very hard to adjust for multiple players. The game was written for a heterosexual couple. This game is intended as a "sexual idea" game - not as a game to sit down and play.

The box is pretty sturdy. You should be able to rest other items on top of the board game without being worried that the game is going to crumble. All of the pieces on the inside fit into a little storage tray. It's a big pain to get everything back into the storage tray. I ended up taking the storage tray out, getting a rubber band for the cards, and just tossing everything right back into the box in a giant pile. Dealing with attempting to re-fold the scarf into the really small area is just a pain. The packaging does say "Bondage 101" all over it, so it's not discreet.

I'm not sure what took me so long to try out this game. I love bondage. I love board games. This seems like a natural progression from my love of things. However, I haven't tried it yet. It's worth stating that the boyfriend and I are part of the local BDSM groups, and we own enough kink toys to make a local dungeon jealous, so we aren't 101-material. However, who better to decide if a game is doing a good job educating newbies that someone who knows what should be educated?

This game wasn't made to be difficult. The instructions state that you randomly shuffle cards and pick one, or you can use the dice and one dice is the first number, and the second dice is the second number and you pick a card from there. Almost all of the cards are full-blown scenarios, though, so this game was not meant to be sat down and played. It is intended to sit out, you pick a card for later, then you act it out. It's a one-card-at-a-time type of game.

The blindfold is one of my favorite pieces of this kit. The outside is covered in a faux-leather that looks really kinky. The inside is a soft cotton. Inbetween the two layers, there is a nice bit of padding that keeps the blindfold comfortable. The two elastic bands grip the head comfortably but not tightly. The boyfriend could see a slight bit under it, but it actually worked pretty well. He said it's not amazing, but it comes about 3/4 of the quality of our favorite blindfold. Considering our favorite blindfold is $10 more expensive than this *entire* game set, it's a pretty good blindfold.

The paddle is giggle-tastic. It's *tiny*. As in, imagine your average playing card, and that's the size of the spankable portion of the paddle. It wasn't meant to be expensive, and it does end up working decently as an impact toy. It mostly ends up being just a sensation. It isn't horribly stingy nor is it thuddy. The boyfriend compares it to being hit with a flat piece of cardboard. You know you were hit, but it isn't painful. The paddle can get really painful if swung with a lot of force, but for the most part, it ends up being very managable, pain-wise, for a newbie. It's a bit silly-looking if you are paddling a bigger butt. (This thing is like 1/16 the size of my ass.) Since they needed to make something that would fit in the box, it ends up working though.

The scarf is a single layer of satin. The edges of the satin pieces are sewn shut, but there still are some flyaway strands off the sides. It's relatively soft, and it's about two and a half feet long. It works okay for bondage. It's pretty unremarkable and most women probably own something more high-quality, but for just bondage, it's easy to use and you don't have to be afraid of cutting it.

There are 36 cards in the board game. (Ignore the video when I say 99. I'm lame at math.) The cards describe longer, roleplay scenarios. They aren't one-sentence things like "Spank Him" like I had an issue with on our other kink-related game. (Dominance and Submission was the game, I think.) The cards aren't amazingly high-quality, but they aren't bad. They will withstand quite a few uses before bending, and they are made out of cardboard with a glossy finish. I will state that whoever wrote these cards must have been against spellcheck. The grammar (blatant whoring of commas) and spelling is acky.

I'm not sure how I feel about the cards. Some make a lot of sense and seem arousing, but others are awkward in the "wtf-am-I-doing?" type of way. Most of the cards seem to focus on awkward roleplaying scenarios, but some of the cards are decent. Not to mention, whoever wrote these cards *really* was enthusiastic about bondage. There's a lot of capitalizing and "GO GET HIM/HER!" thrown in. Along with this, each card is male-focused or female-focused while assuming that the reader is the opposite gender. The stereotypes are rampant too. Girls love make-up, and guys are selfish. It's horrid.

Examples (Grammar included as originally written.):
Good Card: "Paddling doesn't have to be painful... it can just be playful. Give her the paddle and now the chase is on. She has five minutes to paddle your ass. You should try to fend her off as best you can. If she is able to paddle your bum, then you are to become her sex slave for the rest of the evening. If you safely protect your butt from her paddling efforts, then she is your sex slave for the rest of the evening."

Bad Card: "Little girls love pony rides. But now that you are all woman, you need more...MUCH MORE!! Order your stallion to strip and get on all fours. Then get on top of his back and ride him around the house. Order him to make horse noises, and if he does a bad job, slap his ass with a riding crop (or the paddle.) Where's his stable? You decide. Ride him there.... then RIDE HIM THERE!!!"

So is this for the beginner: I'm not sure. I have a hard time recommending this because some of the cards are so out there that you're going to find yourself turned off and wondering "what the hell do those kinky people do?". I expected cards that told you to tie up your partner or paddle them gently - not pretend to be a dog and "rub his nose in the carpet" or riding your partner like a pony. For beginners, I think this would frighten you off. However, if you are intermediate and want new roleplaying ideas, it's worth looking into.

I'm still not fond of this game. I think the two ends are just too extreme (non-kink and extra-kink) for the average person to really get into it or the kinky person to get into it. It's like they split the audiences down the middle. Non-kinky people are going to find that the really-kinky stuff is odd while kinky people are going to find the non-kinky stuff too generic - it just doesn't seem to work well.

As for the items themselves, we honestly don't use them much. They did seem to hold up okay for purposes of the review and beyond though.