Monday, October 28, 2002
Brainstrain
And yet another Major FUN Award is most joyfully presented to Brainstrain - a delightfully challenging guessing game combining competition and cooperation with some significant silliness.
For three to six "adults of all ages," Brainstrain is played in two stages. The first is a kind of Twenty Questions on speed, high speed, actually, because you only have a minute to guess. Next, if you haven't, by sheer coincidence, psychic power or genius, managed to guess correctly, you play a kind of Password game, where other players give one word clues. And, if you are successful, you, and the player who gave you the clue, both advance.
As in Twenty Questions, the object of the search is a person, place or thing. Each player is given three write-on, wipe-off plastic cards, one for each category. Each then decides what to write on which. This is a very efficient way of avoiding having to deal with a deck of hundreds of cards. The players get to make up their own. It also makes the game more in control of the players. They can each determine how difficult to make the game. Depending on their level of compassion or competitiveness, there are enough rounds played to make sure that everything evens out.
There's a race-track-like board, a die that determines whether a successful guess will advance the guesser 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, or 14 spaces, and, silliest of all, headbands for wearing the card you're guessing on your forehead. These headbands, it turns out, are a perfect touch. They add at least 40 gigglewatts to a game that is challenging enough to get almost too serious about.
All in all, Brainstrain is a delightful game. Writing your own cards and wearing them on your head give the game an almost homemade feel - making the game a warmer, more personal experience. The two phases of guessing create a perfect tension and balance, psychologically and socially. The race to be the first to earn 16 points in all three categories adds just the right focus and intensity.
For three to six "adults of all ages," Brainstrain is played in two stages. The first is a kind of Twenty Questions on speed, high speed, actually, because you only have a minute to guess. Next, if you haven't, by sheer coincidence, psychic power or genius, managed to guess correctly, you play a kind of Password game, where other players give one word clues. And, if you are successful, you, and the player who gave you the clue, both advance.As in Twenty Questions, the object of the search is a person, place or thing. Each player is given three write-on, wipe-off plastic cards, one for each category. Each then decides what to write on which. This is a very efficient way of avoiding having to deal with a deck of hundreds of cards. The players get to make up their own. It also makes the game more in control of the players. They can each determine how difficult to make the game. Depending on their level of compassion or competitiveness, there are enough rounds played to make sure that everything evens out.
There's a race-track-like board, a die that determines whether a successful guess will advance the guesser 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, or 14 spaces, and, silliest of all, headbands for wearing the card you're guessing on your forehead. These headbands, it turns out, are a perfect touch. They add at least 40 gigglewatts to a game that is challenging enough to get almost too serious about.
All in all, Brainstrain is a delightful game. Writing your own cards and wearing them on your head give the game an almost homemade feel - making the game a warmer, more personal experience. The two phases of guessing create a perfect tension and balance, psychologically and socially. The race to be the first to earn 16 points in all three categories adds just the right focus and intensity.
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