Tuesday, August 27, 2002
More Victorian Parlor Games - Crambo and Boiticelli
Searching for a Victorian game called "Crambo," I came across this pleasant repository of Victorian games.
And here, should you be so interested, are the rules of Crambo as found within the abovementioned:
It" leaves the room, and the players chose a word. Let's say the word is "fickle." When "It" returns, one player must give "It" a hint by giving him/her a word that rhymes with fickle, i.e., "pickle."
Now it gets interesting.
"It" will ask one player whether the word is, say, tickle, NOT by asking straight out but by forming a question about the word in mind. "It" will ask, "is it something that someone does by holding one's fingers to another person's side and moving them about quickly?" The player who has had the question put to them must respond, "No, the word is not tickle."
This continues until "It" guesses the word, OR... if "It" is really good, he or she will create question for a word the player can't guess. Then the player winds up being "It."
Which reminds me of a game called "Boiticelli" that we played in college. I found the game described in a rather enlightened collection of car games described as follows:
One player thinks of a famous person and says the first letter of the last name. The other players try to guess the person by "defining" people with that initial. If the first player can think of someone X matching the definition, he says "no, I'm not X". If he can't, then the guesser says who they're defining, and is entitled to ask a yes or no question.
Example:
A: I'm thinking of a person starting with "P".
B: Are you a Greek philosopher?
A: No, I'm not Plato.
B: Are you a French composer?
A: (pause) I give up.
B: Poulenc. Yes or no: are you living?
A: yes
...
(two hours later)
...
B: Are you a somewhat depressing female poet?
A: Yes!! I'm Sylvia Plath.
Some fine points:
Definitions can be as obscure as you like.
You can guess people who don't conform to the information already obtained via yes/no questions.
The "famous person" should be someone all the guessers are reasonably certain to have heard of. The usual penalty for violating this rule is ejection from the car at high speed.
The use of domain-specific guesses (e.g. sports figures) is discouraged, but is OK if you're desperate.
Guesses of the form "Are you another X?" are not allowed. Each guess must supply additional information.
Any response that matches a definition is valid. It doesn't have to be the person the guesser was thinking of.
If you think that a particular guess is right, don't say "yes, I'm ___". Make the guesser say who they're thinking of. Half the time it will be someone else.
High-risk/high-yield yes/no questions of the form "are you a living American male?" are valid.
Yes/no questions can be "banked".
Fictional names can optionally be allowed; players must agree on this beforehand.
Any number can play Botticelli. The longest game on record (spanning the state of Montana, with me guessing and Matt Ginsberg answering) was "Casper Milquetoast".
And here, should you be so interested, are the rules of Crambo as found within the abovementioned:
It" leaves the room, and the players chose a word. Let's say the word is "fickle." When "It" returns, one player must give "It" a hint by giving him/her a word that rhymes with fickle, i.e., "pickle."
Now it gets interesting.
"It" will ask one player whether the word is, say, tickle, NOT by asking straight out but by forming a question about the word in mind. "It" will ask, "is it something that someone does by holding one's fingers to another person's side and moving them about quickly?" The player who has had the question put to them must respond, "No, the word is not tickle."
This continues until "It" guesses the word, OR... if "It" is really good, he or she will create question for a word the player can't guess. Then the player winds up being "It."
Which reminds me of a game called "Boiticelli" that we played in college. I found the game described in a rather enlightened collection of car games described as follows:
One player thinks of a famous person and says the first letter of the last name. The other players try to guess the person by "defining" people with that initial. If the first player can think of someone X matching the definition, he says "no, I'm not X". If he can't, then the guesser says who they're defining, and is entitled to ask a yes or no question.
Example:
A: I'm thinking of a person starting with "P".
B: Are you a Greek philosopher?
A: No, I'm not Plato.
B: Are you a French composer?
A: (pause) I give up.
B: Poulenc. Yes or no: are you living?
A: yes
...
(two hours later)
...
B: Are you a somewhat depressing female poet?
A: Yes!! I'm Sylvia Plath.
Some fine points:
Definitions can be as obscure as you like.
You can guess people who don't conform to the information already obtained via yes/no questions.
The "famous person" should be someone all the guessers are reasonably certain to have heard of. The usual penalty for violating this rule is ejection from the car at high speed.
The use of domain-specific guesses (e.g. sports figures) is discouraged, but is OK if you're desperate.
Guesses of the form "Are you another X?" are not allowed. Each guess must supply additional information.
Any response that matches a definition is valid. It doesn't have to be the person the guesser was thinking of.
If you think that a particular guess is right, don't say "yes, I'm ___". Make the guesser say who they're thinking of. Half the time it will be someone else.
High-risk/high-yield yes/no questions of the form "are you a living American male?" are valid.
Yes/no questions can be "banked".
Fictional names can optionally be allowed; players must agree on this beforehand.
Any number can play Botticelli. The longest game on record (spanning the state of Montana, with me guessing and Matt Ginsberg answering) was "Casper Milquetoast".
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