Origins and Comparisons

The official game began as an activity aboard a Canadian couple’s yacht in 1954 (dubbed “the yacht game” and later amended to Yahtzee). They soon asked their friend Edwin Lowe (a toy enterpriser) to make some sets of the game that they could use as gifts. Lowe agreed, in exchange for the rights to the game. By 1956, Yahtzee was being marketed as a thinking-man’s dice game.

With such a simple concept, aren't you a little frustrated you didn't think of it first?

Yahtzee bears many resemblances to “Generala” and “Yacht,” dice games from different areas of the world. A consistently popular game for families, Yahtzee was owned by Lowe until Milton Bradley bought his company. Currently, Hasbro owns the game, and estimates 50 million sets sold each year.

So Many Dice

Ironically for me and my recent article, the concept of Yahtzee came from a type of “dice poker” game, and consists of five dice and a scorecard. Players attempt to roll a three-of-a-kind, four-of-a-kind, full house, straight, or a yahtzee (all five dice are the same amount) in order to score higher. The poker-themed combinations are recorded on the lower part of the scorecard, while the higher portion scores you on the sum of the dice. Sorry, no bluffing. That’s called Liar’s Dice.

And this is a wholesome game; there's no room for liars.

The best part of Yahtzee for mathematicians is the probabilities and score possibilities that come from the five dice, three-roll setup. The maximum score is 375, but if the players are using Yahtzee bonuses it can be as high as 1575 points. The lowest theoretical score is 5, but that would require some special strategies of the player.

Since every turn in Yahtzee is three rolls, the probability of a yahtzee (five of a kind) in one turn is 1 in 22 attempts. When thinking about specific yahtzees (like five 2’s), that extrapolates to 1 in 75.

My History with Yahtzee

As a small child, I had no idea such a game existed. I called it the Mickey game, because my family’s set was a Disney collector’s set with Mickey Mouse in his sorcerer getup all over it. In fact, the dice had Mickey in the sorcerer hat instead of 5’s. I didn’t really know the rules until later.

Math was never, and shall never, be my strong suit. But I do remember learning my multiplication tables on the dice from a Yahtzee set. First we would play a fun game, then my father would ask what 5 times 5 was. I initially answered, “It’s a yahtzee. I win!” But I got better.

Even ol' Spud Head seems to know the value of Yahtzee.

It was later still that I applied my mad Yahtzee skills to a casino table. Yep, that family-friendly game taught me the initial concepts of poker, as well as how to calculate the probabilities of craps. Essentially, craps is just Yahtzee with an unnecessarily complicated betting system.

Value of the Game

With all the substandard board games out there today (“Twilight Scene-It” anybody?), I still take comfort in two particular classics: Scrabble and Yahtzee. One teaches vocabulary and spelling, while the other is an entire class on statistical math.

Yahtzee is a game that kids will find fun because of the dice, but as they get older it will become more fun because they are thinking, and Lowe originally marketed Yahtzee as the “Fun Game that Makes Thinking Fun!”

Maybe Lowe should have played more Scrabble. Yahtzee sets go for $10 to $20 depending on the vender and the version. Look for my personal favorite, Elvis Yahtzee, and the elegant Super Mario Yahtzee.

Want some more about classic games? Check out these articles:

-“Ain’t” Is Not a Word: A Scrabble Guide For The Lazy

-Like Capture The Flag With Bombs: A Stratego Retrospective

-Computers Must Be Stopped: A Short Chess Retrospective

This counts for my daily fruit intake, right?

For a while in high school I had friends that became obsessed with the game Apples to Apples. It was the only game anyone would bring to parties anymore and the only game people would specifically ask for at said parties. In fact, people would plan parties around playing this game. So for me, I was hesitant to enjoy this game, assuming it was a fad. But was it? It still sells well to this very day. Let’s learn more.

Rules and Context

Apples to Apples came out in the significant year of 1999, famous for being the year everyone wanted to party like it was. It also managed to win a number of awards, such as Party Game of the Year and Mensa’s Mensa Select award. What did this mean to me in high school? Still not enough. I’d have to learn how this game was played first.

Apples to Apples is played with a group of 4-to-however many people all sitting in a circle. Each player is dealt seven red apple cards that have nouns, noun phrases, or gerunds written on them. No, don’t ask me, an English major, what a gerund is because I can’t tell you. You have to be in a special club to know what it means, probably called Mensa. The important thing to note is that these red apple cards will say something like “Rome,” “Bill Clinton,” or “Horseshoes.” One player designated the judge of that round draws a green apple card that has an adjective written on it like “Ridiculous” or “Amazing.” Players look through their red apple cards, pick one that they think best represents the adjective, and anonymously submit their card to the judge.

These are what the cards look like in case you weren't familiar with what cards look like.

Then comes the real fun. The judge reads all the red cards aloud and then decides whose card best fits the adjective. Now, the game can go in two ways here. Either the player picks the one that literally does match closest with no nonsense, also known as the “boring way to play,” or they correctly choose the most interesting card based on other players’ reactions of laughter. One of our personal best when playing was “Helen Keller” for “Lazy.” Politically correct? Nope. Hilarious? Absolutely.

There are tons of variations to this game by the way. Common variations include the judge selecting a red card at random and then seeing how ridiculous it is, awarding the point to the least likely red card, or having to judge from the point of view of someone else like Zack Effron or Barack Obama. I think all of these ways, the official way included, are boring. How do I play the game? I play it like Scattergories.

I learned this variation from my wife and her family. Instead of playing normally, everyone selects their red card and holds onto it, reading aloud their own choice and then making a case for why it is clearly the best. I find this way of playing to be far more entertaining because it places the importance of the humor on everyone in the round rather than just the judge and pretty much ensures that even if you have a dull judge for the round everyone is guaranteed a great show.

With both the official rules and my family’s variation, the most important aspect of play is not the actual box but rather the people you’re playing with. If you are playing in a group of people you either don’t know or aren’t completely comfortable with, everyone is more likely to play it safe and not take greater risks for the sake of comedy. And of course, there is the risk that there is that one boring person in your group that just can’t think of something really funny to submit for their turn. They are unfortunate, but this isn’t the game for them. They should go sit in the corner until everyone else is done having fun. But remember, it’s just a game. With that in mind, it’s only $17 on Amazon.

How can they still be so hungry? This is why America's kids are so obese.

Alright, we’re nearing the end of the week and I’ve talked about video games, Dragonball Z, and some random dude’s CD (albeit he is a talented dude). To round out the week, I should talk about board games, shouldn’t I? It’s all part of the new program my doctor placed me on in hopes that’d I’d enrich my diet. Hey, and how topical, because I figured I’d talk about Hungry, Hungry Hippos.

Our Childhood’s Eating Problem

So what kid hasn’t played Hungry Hungry Hippos at some point in their life? It was quite the publicized game on TV during cartoons and every kid had at least one friend or relative with the game, so it was easily accessible. Something about seeing those cartoon hippos dancing and singing just made the game look and sound amazing. Oh the shock we’d discover.

Hungry Hungry Hippos is one of those games with absolutely no strategy whatsoever. There is no way to outdo your friends short of luck and perseverance or just simply smacking them while playing. The entire game is played in the span of maybe a minute or two and consists of two to four players attempting to make their hippo characters gobble up more white pellets than the others. Whoever has the most pellets at the end of the game wins.

Hippos are fun, and eating is fun, so why is this game so boring?

Yeah, it was just that simple. You just slam on the back of the hippo as fast as your hands can muster without breaking the stupid plastic hippo and hope that you’re doing this motion faster than anyone else currently playing. Sure it’s possible to play by yourself, but you always win. I suppose you could place bets on which hand is going to win, but at that point you just need help. Or a friend. Maybe both.

Regardless, the game was and still is incredibly popular despite it’s simplicity and annoyance. You probably won’t find yourself hosting any Hungry Hungry Hippo tournaments any time soon, but I guarantee you’ll have to play it again when a younger relative, possibly your own child, decides they wish to play.

I myself didn’t have my own game. Rather, I got something similar but different one Christmas called Frog Soccer. It is exactly what it sounds like. Just instead of the game being hippos that eat pellets, you slam your dongle to make a frog smack a soccer ball into another frog’s goal. Whoever had the fewest balls in their goal would win, so pretty much it was the opposite of Hungry Hungry Hippos.

Did you know that the hippos actually have names? Lizzie, Henry, Homer, and Harry Hippo. Except every so often the names get changed. There are versions with Lizzie replaced with Happy Hippo and the newest version calls them Sweetie, Bottomless, Picky, and Veggie Potamus. Why the name changes? Well, you gotta do something with this product over the years to feel like you did something I guess. Lucky for you, the game doesn’t run you too much whenever your child decides it’s hippo time. You can find a version for under $20 on Amazon. As for me, I think I’m gonna go get a snack. I suddenly feel hungry for some reason.

This right here was the coolest game I had in my closet.

If you listened to yesterday’s episode of the Too Much Awesome Podcast, you’d currently be jittering with anticipation to learn what my favorite board game growing up happened to be. The time has come and the secret is out. My favorite childhood board game was…the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pizza Power Board Game. Surprising? Not really. Awesome? You bet your sweet bippy it is. So let’s rock!

Sweet Memories of Pizza

I first got the Pizza Power Board Game during the height of the TMNT craze, or rather, the original craze separate from the more recent resurgence. The first cartoon, however, had a much more devastating force on merchandising all around though. There was literally a Ninja Turtles item for any occasion, so it really wasn’t all that strange when a personalized board game came along that included the Ninja Turtles in some way.

The rules were pretty simple, if I remember them correctly. You start by selecting one of the four Turtles to play as, then go around the board trying to get Good Guy Cards, cards that had one of the four Turtles, April, or Splinter on them. They had a rating to tell you how good they were when battling. That number was important because you’d also have to go around the board landing on Bad Guy Card spaces wherein you draw a card, selected one of your Good Guys to fight, and battled. Pretty simple.

Seriously, I need to find this again and play it right now.

The battle system was actually pretty creative for the time. You couldn’t just wander around the board without needing at least some level of skill when it comes to the battles. During a fight, you had a little blue flipper thing that you had to use. How? It had four slots in it; you’d place a die in the first slot, and then try and flip it into the other spaces, preferably the space that had a 3 in it. If you were fighting Shredder, you’d need to have a Turtle Good Guy Card, and then you’d still usually have to hit the 3 space to defeat him.

Now, I’ve been looking around the Internet a bit and I’m getting the sense that this battle flipper thing is what either made or broke the game for most people. Half of the time people think the flipper was really cool, an opinion I share, because it required at least a bit more skill beyond just rolling dice and hoping you got a higher number than the card. This way, you still have to work on getting the technique correct. Regardless, a lot of people hated the game purely because of this feature.

Anyway, dice flipper aside, you had to have defeated at least three Bad Guys and have at least four Good Guy Cards before you’re allowed to take on the Technodrome in the middle, which consisted of basically flipping the dice into each of the three spaces. Nothing too difficult, but nothing overly exciting I suppose. It still worked for my childhood needs just fine.

One thing I always found odd about the game has nothing to do with the way it’s played but rather how the Turtles looked. They looked awesome, and the artwork on the box and the board was really cool, but the color of Michelangelo got me every time. See, the Turtles are typically all the same green color except when they’re action figures. Each Turtle had a different shade of green with Donatello being a brown/olive color. However, the Pizza Power Board Game gave Mike the brown/olive color instead of Don. It wasn’t a big deal, and it never dawned on me until just recently, but it was always in the back of my mind when I played that something was wrong somewhere.

Is it the best game in the world? Nope, not by most people’s standards. But was it my favorite? Absolutely. I’d still play it to this very day if I could find it again. I think it’s somewhere buried in my parents garage, so we can only hope it’ll turn up again someday. Until then, I’ll just have to remember the good times and forget how much the battle flipper sucked.

So simple yet so wonderful. Perhaps the perfect kid's game.

When was the last time I covered a board game? Too long I’d bet. After much soul searching I decided it was time to talk about a game that was near and dear to my heart: Guess Who. Or rather, Guess Who?, as it was commonly spelled. I played this one quite frequently as a child, partly due to seeing the advertisements on TV. But I’ll get to that in due time. First, a light history lesson.

Your History Lesson for Today

The year is 1979 and the world is once more ready for a new board game to enter into circulation. At this time, Ora and Theo Coster decided it was their duty to invent something new yet incredibly simple. While they called themselves Theora Design, it was Milton Bradley that distributed their game in Great Britain as Guess Who?, a simple game of questions and answers. It wasn’t until 1982 that the US would get in on the action.

The Rules, I Guess

The standard version of Guess Who? consists of two tablets of character faces containing 24 faces each with single names under them. Players draw one card each from a pile containing the 24 faces and then take turns guessing which character the other player has. This is done by asking simple elimination questions like “Is your person a girl?” The original version had most characteristics breaking the 24 into groups of 5 and 19 such as 5 girls, 5 people with red hair, or 5 people wearing red shirts. There’s a whole mathematical equation to figure out your probability with each guess, but more recent editions make thing trickier by making the genders equal 12 to 12 or having the blue set all have blue shirts and the red set all have red shirts.

Also a good idea for hair designs in case you've been looking for something new. "Give me the Felix" you'd say to your barber. Happens all the time.

Most games of Guess Who? don’t last past seven questions or so. You can play ten rounds super fast, making this a good game to play with kids right before they have to go to bed. “Just one more game” isn’t too difficult a request to accept. Things can get very funny when playing against kids who don’t exactly understand the function of logic. This example involves my 8-year-old cousin Alex, last seen being tricked into giving me his copy of Pokemon Sapphire. I’d always win by one question because he’d ask, “Is your person a boy?” to which I’d say, “No.” He’d flick down all the boys and then ask, “Is your person a girl?” I’d say, “Yes” and he’d stop, look at his tiles, and say, “Okay, good.” He’s older now, so I doubt I could pull the same simple tricks, but it may be worth a try.

Apparently there are variations of the standard rules that allow you to guess assumptions based on personalities, such as, “Is your person a bad driver?” or “Is your person divorced?” While this way of playing is frowned upon for being offensive, it sounds like a whole lot of fun and a great way to change the game from being a kid’s game to an adult party game. Personally, I can’t wait to try that out for myself with Kyle.

When I was a kid I’d see the advertisements for Guess Who? on TV all the time where the cards talked to one another. I didn’t own the game yet, so when I went to my cousins’ house to play with them, I kept asking, “How do you make them talk?” They insisted that the cards don’t talk and I just assumed they were either lying to me or didn’t have a very good version of the game. That’d be why Milton Bradley had to start printing the disclaimer “Game cards do not actually talk.” Seems I wasn’t much better at age 8.

So how are you going to play from now on? Are you going to just play with your kids or younger relatives? Or are you going to try out the more adult version with the offensive rules? Either way, it’s not like the game costs too much. In fact, here’s the Amazon link where you can find a copy for under $20. Who could have guessed?

A simple concept sometimes goes a long way.

I’m a fan of good party games. You’ve caught on to this already being the intellectual readers that you are. I’m ready to talk about yet another fantastic game to break out when friends and family come to visit. Time for Catch Phrase.

You ever played Catch Phrase before? I’d be shocked if you hadn’t, since Catch Phrase is a fairly popular game among the masses as it’s simple to grasp, fun to play, and can require zero set-up if you have the electronic edition, as I’m about to recommend. If you choose to buy Catch Phrase, I recommend getting the electronic version (see, what did I just say?). Either way though, you’ll find yourself having a lot of fun, but there are a few catches (oh puns!). I’ll get into those later. For now, rule time.

How To Play The Fair Way

The rules are brutally simple: Teams are designated, usually no more than two, and the game starts once someone sets the timer from “Safe” to “OMG I Lost!” The first player grabs either the word disc (in the non-electronic version), or the whole Catch Phrase game (in the electronic version), and sees a word/phrase. This is the word he needs to get his teammates to guess. He’s allowed to use anything to get his teammates to say the word, including gestures and impressions and such, though using any part of the word is forbidden (no saying “It contains peanuts” if the word is “Peanut Butter”), as well as giving the first letter of the word, the number of syllables, or a word that rhymes with the word. I mean, come on, you have to have some challenge to the game, right?

Once the player gets his team to figure out the word without cheating, he passes it to a player on the other team where they are tasked with figuring out a new word. Play continues like this until the timer runs out and someone throws the Catch Phrase disc in terrified surprise. Whichever team isn’t holding the disc when the timer goes off gets a point. You can play to whatever you like, but 10 seems to be a fairly standard number even though I’d recommend taking the less-conformist path and playing ‘til 17, just because.

When playing Catch Phrase, you have got to remain cool and collected, otherwise you’ll look like a goober and no one will like you. Or maybe you’ll just flub through your turn and cost your team a point, but the important thing is that you look cool to other people, so take a deep breath and picture everyone in their underwear if that sort of things helps you to relax. If that doesn’t work, you might as well get down to your underpants to relieve the tension.

Don’t Lose Your Cool

If you aren’t remaining cool and collected, you’ll have a hard time getting your brain to think of the perfect connection to help your team guess that your ramblings are actually pointing them toward saying “Richard Nixon.” If you happen to be a teammate guessing, you have an equally important job to manage since you need to be synced up perfectly with the guy trying to get you to say the Catch Phrase. Do not, and I repeat DO NOT keep guessing the same thing if it was incorrect. It doesn’t matter how much you THINK the other player meant to be saying “Rutabaga,” it matters that he was actually trying to say “Jimmy Stewart.” You’ve got to keep calm as well, and in fact, you’ve got to be the one insuring that your teammate holding the Catch Phrase disc is relaxed, so throw in a joke here and there and generally be encouraging.

Chances are you're probably more familiar with this version, of which I recommend.

Now we get to the seedier part of my article here: Cheating, also known as Advanced Strategies, though some will probably call you on cheating unless you have the quick comeback of, “No YOUR face is dumb.” No one can recover from that one.

Childish insults aside, you need to be synced up with your teammates on a level deeper than I may have implied earlier. You guys need to basically have a mind-meld, otherwise you’ll have to rely on pure skill, and who has time to attain that in today’s age? You have got to know the exact thing that gets your teammates to guess the proper word or phrase. If your friends have an inside joke about Jell-O pudding and the word happens to get brought up, bust out your inside joke. Your group will instantly know what to guess, plus the connection adds to team morale and that in turn makes everyone play better while simultaneously making the other team wish they were as good of friends as you guys are. If you have more time than you need, go through the game with your friends and develop code words for each word or phrase so you already know that if “Circus Tent” shows up your first clue is to say “Elephant Surprise.” Is this cheating? That’s for the other team to decide.

So as I also mentioned, there’s some hiccups in playing the game to it’s fullest, and they come as a result of the people you’re playing with. I’ve been attacking this article from the angle that the people playing are all close friend, but in the very likely situation that you are forced to play the game with unknowns for one reason or another, you may find yourself and the others in dangerous risk of losing. Why? Because someone who’s afraid to take risks in front of strangers is going to have a very tough time when they’re up to bat. They stumble over words more, they can’t think of connections with phrases, and they spend too much time bypassing words or phrases they don’t think they can do, ultimately resulting in the timer flipping out from the awkwardness.

I can’t quite do much to advise in these situations as I typically have no problem making a fool of myself, but I’m not everyone. Public speaking can be straight up horrifying for some people and the only advice I can give is to, once again, take a deep breath and try to relax. Besides, it’s just a game. What’s the worst that could happen, other than people thinking you’re a goober? I rest my case.

You want to be as relaxed and successful as Rich Uncle Pennybags here? Follow my advice and you'll be closer than you think.

Okay, so you’ve been reading my articles about board games. You spend meticulous time reading and rereading any little bit you can about these games, only to then discover that when it comes ‘round to game time, you’re the one guy at odds with everyone else and treated as the whipping boy. Sounds to me like you could use some strategies to increase your skills. The good news is that I’m here to deliver just that. Pull out a pen and take notes here, ‘cause I’m gonna give you the rundown on how to beat your friends in board games.

There are really three sorts of board games here: strategy based games (Monopoly, Chess, Risk), creative based games (Scattegories, Cranium), and trivia based games (Scene-It, Trivial Pursuit). I can’t do much to give advice on games of chance such as Candy Land since it all depends on the luck of the draw, but I can tell you to always hang in there and never give up, because you never know what’ll be drawn next (though mathematically if you’re down going into the second half of the game, you aren’t winning that game). So let’s get started, eh?

Use Your Friends

First things first when it comes to games where there are multiple players in a free-for-all, such as Risk: Make allegiances. Risk is vital for this play strategy. You’ll never be able to hold onto the larger continents if you try to do it all alone. You need people to back you up. You need that extra rule that plays in your favor that the rulebook doesn’t mention. You need to coast on your friends’ good fortune and backstab like no tomorrow when the time presents itself. Take Risk, as I said. Find someone with some decent weight in the game and do something nice for them, such as attacking an army that’s putting pressure on them or purposefully leaving a territory with one army on it so that they can take it the next turn, pointing out it is a gift to them. Storm the world with your chum, then strike when you find the right chance.

Also, pick the black pieces. They look tougher than the rest.

Monopoly works well for alliances also as you can donate money to players, trade properties, and allow them to stay in certain hotels for free. Get them to trust you so you can eliminate other players, then suddenly stop giving your friends a break when it looks like it’ll soon be you and them left to battle it out. Just be careful that they don’t get you first.

Outsmart Your Friends

When it comes to creative games, you need to know your friends. If you’re playing a round of Scattegories and the letter is P for a City name, you should have a good idea whether you have any friends that are about to answer “Pittsburgh” instead of something more original. It can be possible to out-think your friends to the point that you’re confident none of them would try an answer so basic, so you are then able to get by with simple answers. Also, make alliances in Scattegories, too. They will come in so handy when those inevitable challenges come your way, so give points to other players even if you could out-argue them, because there’s a chance they’ll have to vote for or against you for one of your double and triple-word bonuses and you want to be on their good side when they do.

You'd better be in sync with your teammates, otherwise things will get real rough real fast.

Knowing your friends, as I said, is vital in these creative games. My review of The Game of Things was practically all about the difficulty of standing out too much, so put that into practice here as well. You need to know the people you’re playing against to hope to outsmart them, such as in Scattegories when you could put “Salisbury Steak” as either a “lunchroom food” or a “thing you’d find in a catalog.” You’ve got a double-word score on the line, so know which other friend would think of that and then where they’d think to place it. Plan accordingly.

Having certain words, phrases, or actions already in place before a game like Cranium or Pictionary start is borderline cheating but you’ll thank me later. Having inside jokes with friends makes things simpler to work with, creating a nice shorthand to work with. Did you draw Jim Carrey as an actor you have to silently impersonate in Cranium? You better know which reference is the best to get your friends to know instantly who you’re supposed to be, because if they haven’t seen The Grinch, there’s no way they’ll know you’re supposed to be Slunking to the icebox. Playing Taboo or Catchphrase and have a word that you need to describe? “Kyle’s favorite movie,” or “I ate twelve of these at 7-11” make for really quick references, plus the better mood you have your team in, the higher morale is and the quicker they’ll be able to think. Keep your team of friends limber and calm.

Fake Failure

Possibly the most important strategy that you can use is your friends’ inability to know when you’re a threat or not. This works even better with people you’ve never played with, but it’s vital to use to your advantage. Never let your opponents know just how smart you really are. You must lull them into a false sense of security by causing them to believe that you’re an idiot. I’ve become very good at it over the years.

Who would suspect this foolish creature could be so powerful in a board game setting?

Take Chess, for example. There is a four-move Checkmate that only the rookiest of players fall victim to. Always attempt this when you begin a Chess match, even if your opponent is extremely good. I beat the best kid in school in four moves because he thought I sucked and didn’t expect me to know what I was doing. Four moves. Checkmate. And it was for a qualifying match in a tournament. He beat me for sport in the very next round, but it didn’t count towards the tournament. The deed was done. What’s done could not be undone.

Here’s a perfect example of playing dumb: Ever play the game BS? Well, I’m not going to tell you what BS stands for since if you’ve played it in school, you already know. The point of the game is to place cards from your hand into the middle pile in sequence, hoping to be the first to empty your hand. If you see an eight, you can place down either a seven or a nine. If you have neither a seven nor a nine in your hand, you must lie and say you’re placing down a seven or a nine. If no one believes you, they say “BS!” and you get all the cards in the pile. I’ve found it works every time to trick them by saying you’ve never played the game before, forcing them to explain the rules. Stay inconspicuous about your lying for a while until the pile builds up to a ridiculous number, then ask in your most dumbfounded way, “Uh, what do I do if I don’t have a card I can put down?” This only works if you DO have a card though, otherwise you deserve any ridicule about to come your way. The other players will kindly explain that you’re supposed to lie, so when you place down a seven and say in your best false voice, “Seven,” everyone will be in a hurry to yell “BS!” When you flip the card over and they discover you’ve duped them, you instantly because the king of the game for all time.

When it comes to trivia, obviously playing dumb isn’t going to help you. You need to know what you’re talking about, otherwise you simply can’t win. If you’re playing Scene-It? and the version is one you’re unfamiliar with, always select the most diehard fan in the room to be on your team. You will now win. If you happen to be that diehard fan, you better know your stuff or else no one will want to be on your team ever again. If you’re caught in Trivial Pursuit without a real answer (which will happen frequently), fake it to the best of your knowledge. Heck, you might even get away with convincing your friends that the card was a misprint (“No I’m sorry, it was the ‘Moops.”’). You’ve just got to know your friends well enough to know if they’ll fall for it or not. Most won’t, but you need to know if they will.

Don't lose your nerve when it coms to that final push, either. Only rookies choke in the last leg.

If you haven’t figured out enough by now, my main piece of advice isn’t to play the game; it’s to play your friends. In Risk, make a big show about invading Asia, a generally foolish thing to do, while all the while building up an unstoppable force in Australia for a legendary blitzkrieg of the world (“You cheated!” “Nah, that’s fair dinkum mate”). Purposefully build hotels on the purple spaces in Monopoly to make your friends think you’re daft, but save some cash to royally ruin them when you’ve bought the blue spaces from under their noses. And then of course there’s the dropping of the die on the floor so that only you can see it, only to grab it and raise it up saying, “Oh hey look at that, double sixes!” Build the trust and then ruin it in epic fashion, such as trading false information for something of value in Clue or purposefully throwing people off in Stratego by pretending your Marshall is scared of an inferior piece.

Have you got some winning strategies I didn’t mention here? I want to know some of your secrets (it’s only fair since you just learned all of mine). Post a comment and let me know how sneaky and diabolical you can be when it comes to board games. I really want to know, fair dinkum.

I like to imagine world leaders looking like this man while they play Stretego.

So chess is a classic game of strategy and checkers is a classic game of “I Wish I Were Chess.” I was always good at chess (checkers, not so much), but there was another game I was addicted to beyond those two: Stratego. Have you played Stratego? You really should. Don’t believe me? Oh ye of little faith. Follow me then. It’s time for a history lesson.

A Cultured Past

Stratego as we know it was first a game called “Game of the Fighting Animals (“Dou Shou Qi!”), “Animal Chess,” or simply “Jungle,” and it came from China. The main difference between “Jungle” and “Stratego” was the in “Jungle” the identities of the pieces were known and the initial starting locations of everything were always the same. I haven’t gotten a chance to play “Jungle” for myself, but it sounds like a heck of a game, what with the pieces being animals rather than army personnel (“My Tiger attacks your Hippo for MAXIMUM DAMAGE!”).

Eventually a one Mademoiselle Hermance Edan decides to make the version of Stratego that we all know and love (unless you’re one of “those guys”). She patented her version at the end of the year 1908 with the year 1909 becoming the official first year of Stratego and 1910 being the first year it was sold all around under the name “L’Attaque,” which means, to my knowledge, probably “The Attack.” I don’t know, it’s French. I dropped French after a week and a half of feeling stupid. Oh right, we’re talking about Stratego. Well, that’s the short history. You can probably guess the rest.

Rules Shall Be Rules

Pretty basic yet so much fun.

Now that we’ve got the origins out of the way, let’s discuss the rules, shall we? You know the rules by now, but let’s go over them again in case you just don’t know yet. Stratego is all about deception and clever strategy. The game is played with two players as they set up their inconspicuous board of pieces. Each player gets 40 pieces to set up as they want (just don’t do it wrong) on their side of the 10-by-10 board. There are two lakes placed in the middle of the board, causing a funneling of pieces to make the game more dramatic. One of the pieces each player gets is a flag, the most important piece in the game. If it gets captured then the game is over.

The whole concept of the game revolves around the rank of the individual pieces. The pieces have a rank between 1 and 9, plus a Spy, the flag, and six bombs. The lower the number on the piece (number 1 is called the Marshall), the stronger it is. So if a 9 runs into a 5, the 5 wins and the 9 is removed from the game (he goes to “Number Heaven”). The Spy is a very special piece though as it’s the only one that can kill the Marshall, but only if the Spy is the one that attacks. Also important are the 8’s, called the Miners. They are the only pieces that can defuse bombs. And 9’s, called Scouts, are the only pieces that can move in as many spaces in one direction as they’d like (oh those crazy 9’s).

That’s basically the game there. Players take turns moving pieces, discovering what their opponent’s pieces are, and trying to find the all-important enemy flag. But you’ve got to use strategy. If you don’t, then what’s the point of playing a game called Stratego? Here’s a simply strategy I always use: Place your flag in the corner and surround it by bombs. Then all you’ve got to do is find your enemy’s Miners and it becomes impossible for them to win. Can’t get through bombs if all the Miners are in “Number Heaven.”

Ain't nobody getting to that flag.

Also, don’t give away the location of your Spy. You’ll need that sneaky little bugger for when your opponent is trouncing your troops with their Marshall. Keep your Spy hidden, but in a place that it can quickly rush out and assassinate Mr. Number One. After enough times playing against someone while using my “Flag in the Corner” strategy, I barricade a Scout in the corner and let my opponent kill themselves just to let him out. The classic look on their face when that happens makes it all worth it.

Yeah, you can find some variations of Stratego with all the usual brands, such as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Transformers, and Marvel Comics (no Twilight version yet, but give it time). For me, it was all about the classic version though. You don’t even need to buy the game if you don’t want to as long as you have the time to make some cardboard pieces yourself. Just remember though that when you finally do get the flag, it’s important that you scream, “That’s Numberwang!” as loud as you can muster. You won’t understand why, but that’s probably because you just don’t appreciate Stratego like I do.

A deceptively conservative box. What could the contents include?

I’ll be downright honest here and let you in on a little secret: Before I got The Game Of Things for Christmas I had never heard of it before. Does that make me a bad person? Probably not. What it did manage to do is make me feel kind of stupid since there’s a pretty decent game here for parties with the right group of people. Let’s get into this review then.

Playing With Things

So how do you play this game? It’s actually rather simple. You’ll need at least four players (though I can see it working with a few as three, but honestly you want half a dozen or more, preferably). Everyone gets a slip of paper and someone reads a card that contains a thing, such as “Things you wouldn’t want to do in a cemetery” or “Things that annoy you.”

The players then scribble their response and pass them to the reader who in turn waits for all the slips to come in before reading them aloud, saying that the responses for “Things not to do in a hospital” are “Smoke,” “Hold up,” “Have an operation,” or “Look for dates.” It doesn’t matter the answer or how true it is because the next part is where the actual game comes into play.

The person to the left of the reader is the first to guess. They may say that “Chris said ‘Look for dates’ in a hospital,” and the reader would either confirm or deny this. If the person was right, they get a point and get to go again. However, Chris (that’d be me for this example) is out for the rest of that turn since he made it too simple for people to guess his answer. Play continues until all the slips are guessed, though you aren’t allowed to guess the reader’s answer since they don’t get a chance to get points in that round anyway. And basically that’s the game. Copy/paste, lather-rinse-repeat.

It’s a Party Game for a Reason

This is where I’m saying that more people are better. If you have a group of four playing, one person is automatically excluded from getting points that round since they are the reader. The person to their left has all the advantages in the world as long as they know the rest of the players really well. But even if they do, they can only get a total of two points that round since they can’t guess the reader’s response and it’d be counter-productive to guess their own. I played with a group of five people and the final score after ten rounds was ten to nine to eight to six to one. I…I had the one point for the following reason: I played the game like Scattergories and that’s a mistake.

This is all you need to get a night of deception going.

See, you don’t want to play this one like you would a lot of creative games where the most creative answers are the best. That actually works against you since you’ll give yourself away every time as it becomes pretty obvious who among your group is most likely to think of hilarious responses and who is most likely to be your father and trick everyone into believing down and out lies. Yeah, he won the game, but only because he cheated like every game he ever plays (except TrueQuest, because you can’t lie about history).

What you want to do is play things very conservatively, assuming you’re the only usual goofball in your group. If you have a whole band of off-the-wallers then you’re fine to make up the most random responses you can think of, but otherwise you’ll have to hold yourself back to vanilla answers to questions like “Things not to do while driving,” a question that could be something so awesome as “Juggle penguins” but should probably be “Put on make-up.” See? Boring. But that’s the trade-off you make when you want to win.

Overall The Game of Things is a good game. You’ll find a lot of fun in this wooden box, but to play it right you either have to have a whole group of rowdy creative types or a group of people that don’t exactly think outside the box.

I’m not saying that’s a bad thing having a non-out-of-the-boxers group, I’m just saying it’s required to play The Game of Things and not instantly lose because you’re the one person throwing waterfowl into every response you can.

The Ultimate Simpsons Trivia game?

I had a pretty darn good Christmas (and thank you for asking). I came out of it like a bandit, partly because my family listened to my list and got me a lot of what I had written down, such as No More Heroes for the Wii, Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for the DS, and The Simpsons Scene-It? Deluxe Edition. I discussed  Scene-It? last fall but I didn’t cover a specific edition of the game in great detail. I’ll be darned if I do the Twilight edition (because I didn’t get it of course!), but now that I’ve played the Simpsons version a few times I can tell you what works well and what doesn’t.

So Hard To Please

To make one thing very clear right away: Scene-It? is extremely tough to find a group that matches perfectly for the game to be really fun. I’m assuming it’s much easier if you have a whole party devoted to the loving of the subject of the game, such as Harry Potter or Twilight, but otherwise you’ll always have the two extremely well versed players competing against each other while everyone else watches and interjects every so often with shaky answers. This is unavoidable, even if you’re a diehard fan of the series.

Also, I'm kind of disappointed the pieces aren't actual Simpsons characters.

The Simpsons version of Scene-It? is naturally for fans of the show. I happen to be one of those. I recently spent the past half a year showing my wife the first 12 seasons currently on DVD. I had seen them many times before but this was her first go-through. We played The Simpsons Scene-It? and found that she could answer roughly a third of the questions, but only because they weren’t noggin-scratchers. I, however, was getting bored with extremely simple questions on the one side and questions that no one in their right mind would ever know on the other. This can make the game very uneven and at times downright dull.

Like Watching a Really Good Clipshow

The highlight of the game comes down to the My Play and All Play challenges that appear on the DVD. The My Play challenges are great because they show clips from the show, so everyone gets a funny clip to see before either answering the question that comes afterward or providing the line that comes next. But there’s a problem here as well. They’ll pick extremely well-known scenes from the show for the “Know Your Lines” questions, so much so that I’m able to correctly identify the next line before they even ask it (“The answer will be ‘I’m not gay, but I’ll learn.’ Yeah, I know this, I’ve seen this episode a dozen times.”).

Also, for the scenes where they ask a question “regarding the scene,” most of the time the answers are pitifully simple (“What was the first word Bart said in this scene?”), to questions that had nothing to do with the scene at all (“What’s Reverend Lovejoy’s first name? No, we didn’t mention it in the scene, but he was in the scene, so what’s his first name?”). It kind of just makes me want to see a compilation of the best scenes from the show instead of struggling through the questions.

Yeah, I guessed that after the first hint.

The All Plays can be really hit-or-miss as well. Instead of a scene to watch, you’ll have a variety of games such as a guess-the-pixilated-character game or a crossword puzzle to solve. There are probably close to a dozen different types of games, but they don’t offer much of a challenge to any fan of the show as audio clips become apparent instantly, quick bios are obvious, and fill-in-the-quote sections still fall into the “Yeah, I’ve seen the episode multiple times so this is simple.”

Then come the cards. If you haven’t seen all 20 seasons of the show thus far, good luck. I kept pretty faithful up until around season 17 or 18, but there are questions thrown at me from episodes I’ve never even heard of, so my only response can be, “No, I have no clue what that episode is a spoof of.” The questions also fall into two categories between “Any fan would know this” to “You could only know this if you worked on the show.” I love the show, but how am I expected to know the writing teams? Yeah, I respect good writing, but I don’t typically get a chance to sit down and admire all the names in the credits.

The Simpsons Scene-It? is not a bad game by any means. I highly recommend getting it just for the Party Play feature that allows you to just sit back and play all the My Play and All Play questions you feel like without having to worry about the actual game. Then maybe sprinkle in some trivia card questions and call it a night.

No need to play by the rules, just have fun flexing your Simpsons trivia muscle.

But just because something is great just the way it is doesn’t mean that it can’t be improved!

Connect 4 x 4 is essentially the same game as the original, but with the ability to play with up to four players instead of just two. The object of the game still revolves around trying to get four of your pieces to line up in a row, only now there are more players to stand in your way. The grid is now double-sided, so there are twice as many spaces in which to play in about the same amount of space. There are also special new pieces that allow players to block both sides of the grid.

More Strategy Brings More Fun

The addition of two more players adds both fun and challenge to the original concept. Rather than battling wits with one opponent, you must now pay attention to three. Sure, it’s a little trickier, but it is now much more family-oriented, as everyone can now join in.

And if you want to stick to basics, you can just as easily use one side of the grid to play the original two-player classic.

So whether you like things the way they are or you want a little variety, Connect 4 x 4 is the perfect middle ground. It adds a new level of depth to a great game, but stays true to its original form. Just as the original Connect 4 left a lasting impression, Connect 4 x 4 will undoubtedly be a success and have a spot in any family’s game collection.  The game retails for less than $35 on amazon.

Someday I'm going to run this world while atop a noble steed and then we'll see who's laughing!

I am not very good at Risk. Ever lost Risk in two turns? I have.  I’ve seen friendships nearly break up as a result of Risk games going bad. It’s even worse than Monopoly with the amount of hate you seen thrown about. Regardless, never let your friends dissuade you from utter conquest of Asia or Europe, as you can’t take over the world without them. They’re impossible to hold onto, but still.

Risky Business

Risk was the brainchild of one French film director Albert Lamorisse who created the game in 1957 and called it something in French (or “La Conquête du Monde,” which means, naturally, “The Conquest of the World”). Why would someone decide to make a game that revolves around world domination? If you have to ask that question then you’re probably not a man. Every man hopes to someday rule the world with an iron fist and a glorious hat.

A standard game of Risk begins with a group of friends deciding their friendship has reached its limit. A few tears are shed and players are given their share of armies depending on how many total players there are. For instance, a two-player game has each player start with 40 armies, a three-player game has 35, a four-player game has 30, and so on. Each army is represented by a piece that looks like a solider. Cavalry pieces count as five armies and Artillery pieces are 10 armies.

Get used to seeing this because it's gonna be a long night.

Once everyone has their armies they take turns claiming territories to place an army on, just like in real life. Once the world is divided up, players place their remaining armies on their territories as they see fit to fortify them for the inevitable attacks from their former friends. Thus begins the bloodshed.

Like The History Channel Come Alive

The first player decides where he wishes to attack by looking at where his territory touches another and saying he’d like to attack for possession. It never sounds this formal though as most of the time they just scream, “Prepare for battle!” and toss dice in your face. Each turn you are given at least three additional armies to do what you will with, so when he means to tackle a territory, he’ll have some extra firepower to do so with.

These attacks are conducted as follows: The attacker gets up to three dice depending on how many armies he has in a territory. He can only attack with as many dice as one less than the number of armies that he has. The defender gets a die for however many armies he has, up to two. The once-friends roll their dice and compare the highest dice together. One army is lost when you lose a roll. The same goes for the second highest dice rolled. You can keep attacking as many times as you want even if your army is getting destroyed, but you have to stop when all your men are dead (unless you have necromancer powers or something, but I don’t think that applies to most games of Risk).

The rest of your turn can be spent fortifying your troops, getting Risk cards that can be turned in at the beginning of your next turn should you make a set (they give you more armies), and then apologizing to your friends. The game just keeps going until someone controls every territory in the world or someone thinks of something better to do with their time.

Maybe You Prefer Orcs

One Ring to Rule Them All!

Not everyone likes the idea of world conquest. Some people may prefer conquering a fictitious land, like Middle Earth or the Star Wars galaxies. Luckily there’s an edition for each of you as Risk has a few Lord of the Rings editions, a few Star Wars editions, a Transformers edition, and even a Halo edition. There are just too many worlds out there to be conquered, aren’t there? Better get to it.

Before you depart, let’s talk about what you’ll hear from your friends when you play. Don’t forget, they aren’t your friends anymore. So whatever they say is a dirty rotten lie. When someone says “Are you crazy? You can’t hold Asia,” make the attempt anyway. You’ll get seven additional armies at the beginning of every turn when you hold all of Asia, so you can fortify like nuts and stomp any that oppose you. But yeah, it’s easier to hole up in Australia and build a massive army to unleash during the best Blitzkrieg ever seen this side of WWII. I’ve seen it happen, and it is amazing when it does.

Delightful fun for the English major in all of us.

Few games take advantage of an overactive vocabulary the way Scrabble does. In fact, Scrabble is all about knowing difficult words in the hopes of showing up your family with a massive triple word score for something with a Z in it. Apparently, Scrabble is also the proud owner of a sordid past, but let’s not get too hasty! Okay, we can get hasty. Let’s learn about Scrabble!

The History of The Scrabble

Scrabble was created all the way back in 1938 by an architect named Alfred Mosher Butts. Mr. Butts (yes it’s funny), had previously come up with a game called Lexiko that basically followed the same principle, but he decided to try something different by adding the 15-by-15 tile board and the crossword-style gameplay. And while we can’t think of the world without Scrabble, at the time, Butts had no luck whatsoever getting the game made.

In 1948 another man with an only slightly less-humorous name came along. This was James Brunot. He had bought a copy of Butts’ game, then called “Criss-Crosswords,” and made a deal wherein he would give royalties to Butts in return for the rights to do whatever with the game. The first thing Brunot did was change the name to “Scrabble,” a word meaning “to scratch frantically.” Then he switched some bonus tile locations around and started making some sets with his family to distribute that year. Somehow he lost money on this venture, but then the tale goes that Jack Strauss, the president of Macy’s, played the game and decided this needed to be a hit. Eventually the game would become a household sensation and by the 1950’s Scrabble was here to stay. I’m leaving some stuff out, but really it’s only legal issues that aren’t all too interesting.

On With The Rules

Look familiar? I mean, I'm used to smaller words, but still familiar.

So how’s this game played? You get together some friends or family and each pull seven tiles out from the bag o’ tiles. Each tile has one letter on it that you place on your tile rack. Naturally, don’t show anyone else what letters you have-it’s supposed to be secret. Then someone decides on a word to form out of some of their tiles. A word must consist of at least two letters and go either horizontally or vertically (none of this diagonal nonsense), plus the first word must always go over the center tile, which just so happens to be a double-word scoring tile. It pays to be first, doesn’t it?

As the game goes, players can either pass for the turn, scrap all their tiles for seven new tiles, or play on the current words on the board. If someone sees the word “Biggest” horizontal on the board, they can play the word “Stilts” vertically off the ’s’ or “Imp” off the ‘i’ or any number of things they can think of and create with the letters they have. And if the new word passes over a bonus square, then naturally they get more points.

How to Cheat at Scrabble without Really Cheating

The trick to the game is to constantly steal the hard work of other players. If someone has a long word going like “payment,” just add an ’s’ and make it “payments.” You get all the points for the word other than the double- or triple-point scores (those only count once). This is cheap, but it gets results. And if you can somehow manage to use all your letters you get a great 50-point bonus for being awesome. This is where inventing words comes heavily into play.

Some people take Scrabble too seriously.

You can get away with anything as long as you’re convincing enough. Make the other players feel stupid, because no one wants to sound stupid. “What do you mean you’ve never heard of the word ‘bigrymp’? I hear it all the time in daily conversation!” “Oh, is that so…? Well then, sure, it MUST be a word! I was just kidding…” If someone decides to challenge you after all, the good old Dictionary of Truth is busted out and if your word doesn’t appear, well then you’re out of luck and you lose a turn, plus your bogus word is removed. Nice try there, Bucky.

The game is over when all the tiles are gone or people get bored of spelling for an hour. Points are added up and whoever has the highest score is the victor, as you may expect by now. The sad thing about Scrabble is that since the game is only about making words, there’s no room for any real different editions. You just have words, words, and more words. I suppose you could make any game of Scrabble any edition you’d like. I want to see some of you playing Lord of the Rings Scrabble and Nintendo Scrabble, using only words associated with the various franchises you select. But no Twilight Scrabble, please. Scrabble is dry enough as it is.

I still plan to live here some day.

I’ve been talking about board games a lot lately but I’ve been too caught up with the serious world of competition to remember some of the most classic and wonderful games of our youth (or in some cases our present if that’s how you roll). Two words for you here: Candy and Land. Put those together and you have Candy Land, a game that requires no skill but demands you enjoy it and when the game revolves around a land made of sugary treats, how can I say no?

A Sweeter Time

The world before 1940 was a dark and gloomy place. Everyone was depressed and there was probably a war going on at some point around there. But this didn’t stop Eleanor Abbott from deciding she needed to make a game wherein players race to save the King of a Candy Land. How did she find time to create this game? She was recovering from polio. Pretty sure this one selfless act brought us out of the Great Depression, (of maybe another war of some kind, I can’t be expected to keep all these facts straight).

By 1949 Milton Bradley bought Candy Land and began distributing it to kids all over the nation, only wanting in return a smile, dedication to candy, and money.

If Candy Land doesn’t seem that big to you anymore, keep in mind that it was the most popular toy during the 1940-1949 decade. That’s pretty big, let me tell you. It defined the decade’s toy purchases. What’s the second biggest toy from then? Don’t know, don’t care, it isn’t Candy Land.

So Simple an Adult Could Play It

Based off visions of sugarplums dancing in heads.

The gameplay is pretty simple here. Players choose a piece and place it at the start of the gameboard, then draw cards from a pile. Each card has one of six colors on it corresponding to a square on the board, of which there are 134. The player moves his piece to the closest square matching the card and the next player draws.

Sound simple? Well yes, unless you’re colorblind. You want to make it tougher and you add a hint of danger to the game, like a timer that signifies the end of Candy Land should no one save the king in time or force kids to read the color on the card with their eyes closed. With a few simple changes, Candy Land can turn into something far more exciting. Also add snakes.

This is how Candy Land was played in my home.

Some Delicious Notes

Keep in mind that there are two sets of rules in play. There are rules from the pre-2004 edition and rules from the post-2004 edition (apparently 2004 was a big turning point for the citizens of Candy Land). Some cards force players to move backward, though players decide before starting whether they’re going to follow this rule or not (as with most games).

Also, the final space used to just be the end and it was implied that you had to draw the same color card as the last square to win the game, though all editions past 2004 have a rainbow space, putting an end to this debate once and for all. I recommend that the player be forced to collect one of each color before winning the game, unless I’m playing and about to win in which case any single color is acceptable.

You won’t find a whole lot of variations of Candy Land out there, though there are a few such as Winnie the Pooh and Dora the Explorer. Actually that’s it for variations on the game. Who needs more though? As long as there is candy and a land in which this candy exists, you’re set.

I’ll leave you with a few random tidbits about the game. First, there used to be a section of the board called “Molasses Swamp” that has since been changed to “Chocolate Swamp,” most likely because children don’t eat molasses anymore. Also, the game is an example of a Markov Chain, a mathematical random process wherein all information about the future is contained in the present. Confused? Well then maybe Candy Land isn’t a child’s game after all.

As classic as they come.

Have you ever played Cluedo? I bet you have, but you might have just called it Clue. Surprised to learn that Clue isn’t originally from the US? Yup, first came from the UK and was called Cluedo, (pronounced like Clu Du). The classic murder mystery game is always a smart and sophisticated option for individuals looking for a game to play as a group. Also, it works wonders to reveal which of your friends are actually idiots.

The Original Murder

Anthony E. Pratt, (a right good Englishman), filed a patent for a murder/mystery board game called “Murder!” This took place in 1944. Pratt and his wife went ahead and had the game purchased and trademarked as “Cluedo” in 1947 but wouldn’t make it to the public until 1949 due to the war and the shortages that came along with said war. Parker Brothers distributed the game as “Clue” in the US and since then people have been investigating the murder of a one Dr. Black (Mr. Boddy for you Yanks), for years to come.

As we know it now, the game involves up to six players assuming the roles of Miss Scarlet, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. White, Mrs. Peacock, Professor Plum, and Reverend Green (or Mr. Green in some editions), and searching a mansion for clues regarding the murder. The original concept for the game involved 10 characters, one of which was the victim of the murder (which probably wouldn’t be a very fun piece to play, really), but the number was cut back to the standard six that we’ve all come to know and love and suspect (it’s always that lying Miss Scarlet though, as if you couldn’t tell by the way she acts). There were also more rooms and more weapons in the concept version but as things stand today we have just enough to be manageable.

I Suspect Everyone

So much mystery, so little time.

The average game consists of first having the evidence cards shuffled and a suspect card, location card, and weapon card placed in the envelope. This combination is the solution that all players are trying to figure out. They do this by keeping track of clues they find or have been given since at the beginning of the game the remaining cards are dealt to the players. You would be wise to write down all this information on your little notepad as it’ll come in handy. This is the first sign that one of your friends is an idiot, assuming they don’t properly keep track of anything.

As the game goes on, players move into a room and then make the claim that “someone did something in this room!” Since there are six characters, six weapons, and nine rooms, there are 324 possible solutions to the murder. Once a claim is made, let’s say I accused Miss Scarlet of murdering Dr. Black in the library with the dagger (because she totally would, that liar). Players would go around the table clockwise to disprove my claim by showing me a card that contains one of the elements I mentioned since if they have the card it can’t possibly be in the envelope. Only one card is shown per accusation, otherwise the game would whip by and everyone would know clues too easily.

Becoming A Master Detective

The trick is to work within the matrix problem of the game. You mark off your three cards and anything you get from anyone else. At a certain point you can start making obvious claims, assuming you’ve been paying attention (the second aspect that points to your friends being idiots).

As with all games, cheating isn’t allowed. But that shouldn’t stop you from cheating. Players must never leave their cards unattended or in a position to be viewed by anyone else. You should constantly be scanning around the table to see if your friends are exposing their status as an idiot by leaving cards exposed. And whenever someone is having his or her suggestion refuted, always make an attempt to see the card as well. You must be sneaky, like that liar Miss Scarlet, otherwise you’ll be beaten by your much smarter friends and learn that you may, in fact, be an idiot.

I think I just love The Simpsons too much.

Cluedo has multiple editions backing it as the years have gone on. It is constantly being updated with facelifts and revisions here and there since it is a classic board game. There are multiple editions based off of some of pop culture’s most noticeable franchises, such as Scooby Doo, The Twilight Zone, Harry Potter, and The Simpsons. The basic gameplay is the same but you get to do it as different characters. Isn’t that exciting?! Of course it is.

Now remember, if you make a deciding claim and open the envelope to discover that you were very much wrong, you are both out of the game and probably an idiot. But never let that stop you from your fun. How do you think I can recognize the symptoms of being an idiot? Sadly, I suffer from the same affliction. Naturally, I blame Miss Scarlet.

No, not "Genius" Edition. "Genus." You just learned something.

If you’re talking Trivial Pursuit, you mean the Genus Edition, the classic edition, the hardcore edition. I’ve never met anyone that can play Trivial Pursuit Genus Edition at a masterful level.

I have found people that know a few things, but no one that destroys lives via their pursuit of the trivial. So should you play Trivial Pursuit, knowing darn well that you may not be very good at it? You’re darn right you should.

Trivial History

Let us go back a few years to 1979, (you remember 1979, right?). One night two Canadian gentlemen by the names of Scott Abbott and Chris Haney wanted to play Scrabble, but they discovered that too many pieces were missing. So they did what anyone else would have done and invented their own game.

Okay, just think of how smart these guys must have been, alright? When you can’t find all the pieces to Clue, do you think to yourself, “You know good chums, I do believe we shall play a game that tests our knowledge at a level beyond the heads of most learned men!” No, you search for Candyland and call it a day. These two guys went ahead and invented a game that made an entire generation feel stupid and STILL people play it. Genius!

Trivial Pursuit Rules

Fun fact: This actually ruins families rather than brings them together.

If you haven’t played Trivial Pursuit in a while here are the rules: Someone asks you a question and you fumble around unless magically you actually know the answer.

Okay, yes, you roll a die to move and when you land on a colored space you must answer a trivia question relating to the category. Blue is Geography, pink is Entertainment, yellow is History, brown is Arts & Literature, green is Science & Nature, and orange is Sports & Leisure, (remember those in case one of the questions is, “What color is History associated with?”).

If somehow you answer a question correctly, you will be given a colored wedge to fit into your marker. When you have one wedge from each category you must move into the center of the board and answer a trivia question selected by the other players before you can win the game.

Naturally, the other players always select the category you know the least from because they aren’t really your friends and don’t really want to see you succeed.

Trivial Editions

Disney equalizes everything.

I am not very good at Trivial Pursuit. I enjoy playing now and then, but I don’t know much about anything (unless I give a recommendation; those are spot-on). I do my best but most of the questions blow right over my head. There is hope for me yet as there are multiple editions geared towards more specific things, such as Lord of the Rings, Saturday Night Live, and the always popular Disney Edition, also known as the Great Equalizer since I stand by my claim that everyone knows enough about Disney to hold their own in a game based around Disney knowledge.

Kids will always have a harder time than most when it comes to Trivial Pursuit, but not to worry as there are editions made specifically for kids, such as the Junior Players Edition or the Kids Nickelodeon Edition. You can and will find a version that suits your needs, but don’t expect a version for absolutely everything like Scene-It? or Monopoly will deliver.

Go ahead and get this one here.

Okay, I’ve found a game that comes close to Monopoly’s sheer empire of editions: Scene-It. Actually, it should be spelled “Scene-It?” but I can’t bring myself to use a question mark in a name on a constant basis.

Mixing board games with being lazy on the couch, Scene-It is the quintessential DVD game for our generation. The previous generation didn’t have a quintessential DVD game, though checkers do somewhat look like DVDs, so it’ll have to count.

This is usually the point where I give a bit of history, but there isn’t any history to give. Scene-It popped up on the scene (I swear I didn’t intend that pun), not too long ago and descended upon group gatherings like vampires are currently descending upon tween girls and Hot Topic.

A Simple Concept

Posting this picture inflicted vast amounts of pain upon myself, but this version will sell better than all versions combined.

The core game revolves around the usage of the included DVD that contains clips from movies both mainstream and obscure. These video challenges are broken into single team events and “All Play” challenges that allow any team to guess the correct answer. You’ll move your team’s piece around the board and compete in these challenges to continue moving, though it isn’t just based on the DVD as there are trivia cards about movies and such that will weed out the average moviegoer from the guy with his own seat in the theater.

Typically, every group has at least one guy that insists upon playing Scene-It, and typically that guy is a master of all things relating to movies. Luckily for everyone out there, a version of Scene-It exists that you probably excel at more than anyone else. A good equalizer is the Disney Edition of Scene-It since most everyone has seen enough Disney movies to hold their own in any test of said knowledge (and if they can’t then they cry themselves to sleep on a regular basis).

Pick What You Know

Ah, now this is a good version to play with.

Personally, I’m torn between a few editions to recommend. Of course there are the Harry Potter and Twilight editions, though I’d find those extremely limiting in scope. I tend to lean more towards either the Seinfeld edition, or definitely the Simpsons edition. Seriously, they have 20 seasons of material to choose from, so you’ve got a lot to work with.

Most versions of Scene-It will run you between $20 and $40 depending on where you go shopping. You may even find them as cheap as $15 if you look around, but make sure you know which version to look for. The standard Scene-It will include a mixed bag of movies, whereas something like the Friends edition will, naturally, limit itself to Friends-related trivia.

Oh come on, you've played this game already, right?

Sitting down with people is difficult to do. Who likes to talk anymore? Too hard. In today’s world people need something to ease the awkwardness of social interaction, and while there are many options both legal and otherwise, I’d say the smartest comes down to a party game. You may have read my previous review of Scattergories, but there is another game that gets the job done just as well: Cranium.

Cranium is the answer to the unanswerable question of “Hey, what game do we play?” where everyone has a different answer. Cranium is what happens when Hasbro sneezes and all sorts of games come out in a spray of randomness. You have some Pictionary, some Charades, some Trivial Pursuit, and some word puzzles to appeal to just about any and all skill groups.

I Know This Game, Right?

The basis of Cranium revolves around teams of players taking turns rolling the die, moving around the board, and completing challenges based on four different categories which are: Creative Cat (drawing or sculpting), Data Head (trivia and fact-based questions), Word Worm (word puzzles), and Star Performer (performance-based). A good team obviously needs to have people adept in at least one of the four categories, if not more.

That looks like oodles of fun. Yes, I said "oodles."

Richard Tait created the game in 1992 (oh by the way, history time), when he played some games with another family and decided there needed to be a game that appealed to multiple player-types. He pulled in Whit Alexander, a friend of his, to join in on creating what we now know as Cranium. A few deals with Hasbro later and you can pick up Cranium for $24.99 wherever board games are sold.

Basically what you have here is a way to please everyone at a social gathering. While some people would be embarrassed to pantomime a famous actor, others would be more than willing. The same goes for individuals better with word puzzles. Everyone is able to get something out of the game.

There are multiple versions to choose from, though nothing like Monopoly’s edition-fest (when will we see the Monopoly Edition of Monopoly?), but mostly what you’ll see are spin-offs from the main game. There are editions geared towards kids, computer game versions, and of course refill packs when you’ve played so much that you’re out of cards to choose from.

Which version is right for you? That’s something I can’t answer, though I’d recommend the standard edition to get you going. If you haven’t played, it’s time to start.   If you’ve already played, then you know all too well what I’m talking about.

This equals a party right here.

Please tell me that all of you have played Scattergories at some point in your life. If you have not, I will find myself extremely saddened and may not be able to be your friend anymore. Still, there is some hope, because then I will get a chance to tell you about my favorite party game. But first, as always, some history.

Scattergories is still relatively new compared to other classics like Monopoly but when played correctly can provide much more entertainment value. Milton Bradley first produced the game in 1988 through Hasbro and since then there haven’t been a whole lot of developments in the Scattergories front.

You won’t find an edition for everything and everyone. The most creative example I’ve found is a Bible-themed version of the game, though once I explain the rules, you shouldn’t find it difficult to create a version to suit anyone.

These Are The Rules As You Know Them

The game goes as follows: 2 to 6 players (or more if you’re hardcore/love parties), each take a Scattergories folder containing paper, pencil, and the categories for the round. There are 3 rounds and multiple lists of categories to pick from. Once a list has been selected someone rolls the 20-sided die and a letter is selected. The 6 letters excluded are Q, U, V, X, Y, and Z. If you want a challenge, take your best shot with those letters instead.

The Bible Edition, not the Green Edition.

Once a letter is rolled, such as S, the timer is started and players must fill out the list with only things starting with the letter that’s been rolled. Each list has categories such as “A Boy’s Name,” or “Type of Sandwich” and players must write in something that fits the category. Things get tricky when you get abstract, such as a State Capital for the letter S could just be the letter “S.” Double points would go to someone that uses multiple words, like if the category was “Child’s Toy” you could put “Space Ship” and get two points.

Players take turns reading their lists at the end of each round. Anyone with the same answer crosses it out and no one gets the point, so if everyone has “Scott” for “A Boy’s Name,” no points for them. Basically, the game challenges your creativity and pushes you to think of something no one else would think of. You can dispute words and if the group agrees, you get the point anyway. If you can think up standard words and win the game, you are probably doing it wrong.

I Am Better At Scattergories Than You

Yes, I ride a turtle and I can still ruin lives via Scattergories.

Here’s the thing about Scattergories: I could destroy you at Scattergories. Anyone that reads my articles on a regular basis is probably familiar with the fact that I’m borderline ridiculous at best. This all leads to the most epic games of Scattergories imaginable in which every word is a double, triple, and quadruple word, just because I can.

For instance, the category of “Fictitious Character” is basically an open invitation for the most powerful multiple point score ever. If you don’t at least attempt something like “Sir Simon Su Su Spumoni the Second from South Sussex,” an eight-point score, then you aren’t trying very hard at all. I mean come on, the category is “Fictitious Character.” No one can dispute the name! Instant points.

Scattergories has turned out to be one of the best icebreaker games I’ve ever encountered, but only if people are attempting to get away with every silly word rather than play the game as it was intended (the wrong way). Watch people’s faces light up and laughter circle the room eight times over, all for between $29.99 and $39.99. You can thank Sir Simon for the good evening.

This guy will always beat you at chess.

The cliché is true: Chess is the game of kings and gentlemen. Of course, don’t think that excludes women though. All this means is that the game of chess has been around for quite a long time yet contains such depth in its simplicity that people still play it at a highly competitive level till this very day.

Do you have a chess set?

First, some history.

Quickest History of Chess Ever

You might be interested to learn that Chess as we know it first appeared in the later half of the 15th century in Southern Europe, though it was based off of an even older game called Shatranj that comes from India and Persia.  Shatranj has been popular around the Middle East for over 1000 years.

Kinda puts things in perspective.

Chess evolved from Shantranj into what we understand today. You may also have heard that a computer named Deep Blue trounced Garry Kasparov, arguably the best chess player in history, in 1997. Well you would have heard right. Currently we as humans are second best to computers when it comes to chess. Time to start training then, huh?

Affordable For Anyone

This is hardcore chess right here.

Luckily, you’ve got plenty of options to choose from that won’t actually break the bank. Chess sets are found pretty much everywhere and range in price form simple affordable models around $10 to extravagant decorative display sets that’ll set you back a few hundred dollars.

Chess is also one of those games that has multiple versions for fans of popular stories and characters.  As usual you’ll find a Nintendo version or a Disney version with the classic chess pieces replaced with the other classic pieces like Mickey and Mario and such. Just like the new Monopoly special editions.

However, I recommend going with the Lord of the Rings version since it just seems far more impressive and relevant to the game of chess all around. Retailing for $500, you can’t get any… chessier.

Honestly, this is all you really need.

There are also a few variations of chess out there, such as a 3-player and 4-player option, though for real chess you’d best look for something basic.

As I mentioned before, plastic chess sets are cheap but work just as well as any other set. It’s not like the more you spend the better you’ll be. Find something to practice with already!

We need to reclaim the chess title from the machines and Lord knows I’m not going to be the one to do it.