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Safety: It's Not Jeopardy
Jan. 28th, 2016 03:12 pmYou may recall that I complained last year about how male-dominated the after hour games at the NPL con were. In the interest of lighting a single candle, I’ve been working on developing a trivia game. I could just do a Jeopardy game, of course, but I thought it would be fun to devise a slightly different game mechanism. I want things to be less dependent on buzzer-pushing reflexes and also to have a little element of chance. (Recall that I am the person who loves backgammon on the grounds that it is a game of skill when I win and a game of luck when I lose.)
Here is what I’ve figured out. I’d love some feedback on whether this looks like something you might like to play. And, of course, I invite ideas for tweaks, though I feel free to reject them.
This is a 6 player game. At the beginning of the game, a die will be tossed to determine which player will start. Assuming the players are in a curved linear seating array (i.e. more or less around a table, facing me as the moderator) the play will then move to the next person on the previous player’s right.
There will be a total of 42 trivia questions which will be, for convenience, on index cards. The questions will cover a wide range of categories. That deck of index cards will be shuffled before the game starts. The cards will then be gone through in order.
The player whose turn it is will roll a die to determine how many points his or her question is worth. On hearing the question, the player has the opportunity to either answer or pass. Incorrect answers lose points, but passing does not. Either a pass or an incorrect answer gives the next player the opportunity to answer the question. The point value of the question does not change as a result. If no player answers correctly, the game will move to the next card. Note that getting a card as a result of an incorrect answer or passing does not count as one’s turn.
Each player will also have one safety token. This can be traded in for the opportunity to answer a question with no penalty for being incorrect. Note that each player can only use his or her token once during the game.
At the end, the player with the most points wins.
So, what say you?
Here is what I’ve figured out. I’d love some feedback on whether this looks like something you might like to play. And, of course, I invite ideas for tweaks, though I feel free to reject them.
This is a 6 player game. At the beginning of the game, a die will be tossed to determine which player will start. Assuming the players are in a curved linear seating array (i.e. more or less around a table, facing me as the moderator) the play will then move to the next person on the previous player’s right.
There will be a total of 42 trivia questions which will be, for convenience, on index cards. The questions will cover a wide range of categories. That deck of index cards will be shuffled before the game starts. The cards will then be gone through in order.
The player whose turn it is will roll a die to determine how many points his or her question is worth. On hearing the question, the player has the opportunity to either answer or pass. Incorrect answers lose points, but passing does not. Either a pass or an incorrect answer gives the next player the opportunity to answer the question. The point value of the question does not change as a result. If no player answers correctly, the game will move to the next card. Note that getting a card as a result of an incorrect answer or passing does not count as one’s turn.
Each player will also have one safety token. This can be traded in for the opportunity to answer a question with no penalty for being incorrect. Note that each player can only use his or her token once during the game.
At the end, the player with the most points wins.
So, what say you?
