Unplug Play

MAKE IT DIFFICULT FOR EVERYONE TO CHOOSE FROM THREE GREAT OPTIONS!

Each player comes up with a multiple-choice question and three specific, equally popular answers. Possible questions might sound like these: “If you could only have one type of food for the rest of your life, what would it be: (A) Italian, (B) Chinese, or (C) sushi?” Or “Which of these three vacation options would be your first choice: (A) Hawaii, (B) an African safari, or (C) Paris?”

The player leading each round must come up with a question and three answers that will make it difficult for the other players in the game to determine the obvious popular choice, while the other players try to guess the most popular choices for everyone else’s questions.

Starting with Player 1, all players take turns revealing their multiple-choice questions and answers. Each player in the game (including the player who came up with the question) then silently writes down the answer he or she thinks most people would say.

IMPORTANT: Note that your answer isn’t necessarily what YOU would say. Try to predict what you think MOST people would say—people in general, but more importantly, the people in the game! Of course, as with most games in this book, never let anyone see your answers until they are all revealed—and do not peek!

Once Player 1 has posed his question and all answers have been written down, all players reveal their answers. The person who asks each question should keep track of how many people voted for each possible answer. When all the answers are revealed, tally the scores for that question. Play continues as Player 2 asks her question, and so on until all players have had a chance to ask their questions.

Each player (including the player who wrote each question) gets one point for each matched answer. You don’t get any points if you are the only one who picked a specific answer, and you don’t get any points for YOUR OWN question if everyone in the game picks the same answer! However, all the other players will receive points equal to the number of matches, including the question-asker’s answer.

The player who asked the question has the opportunity to earn bonus points. The number of bonus points is equal to the number of players in the game. If no single answer from the three possibilities was chosen by MORE THAN HALF of the players, the player who asked the question gets the bonus points.

IMPORTANT: These bonus points can give a real advantage in the game, so when you write your question, be sure that your three options are all equally popular rather than having one overwhelmingly obvious choice that might lead more than half the players to choose it.

At the end of the game—whether after one round or multiple rounds with different questions from each player—the player with the most points wins.

Let’s say there are six players in the game. Player 1 asks, “If you could only have one type of food for the rest of your life, what would it be: (A) Italian, (B) Chinese, or (C) sushi?” Everyone reveals their answers at once, holding up a paper that says A, B, or C. Three players chose Chinese, two players chose Italian, and one chose sushi. Player 1 earns 6 bonus points because NONE of the three possible food choices was chosen by MORE THAN HALF (in this case, more than three) of the players. The players who chose Chinese each earned 3 points; the players who chose Italian each earned 2 points; the player who chose sushi did not earn any points because he did not match with anyone. After the scores are tallied, the game moves on to Player 2’s question. She asks, “Which of these three vacation options would be your first choice: (A) Hawaii, (B) an African safari, or (C) Paris?” All six players put down Hawaii, so the five other players each earn 6 points but Player 2 earns no points because all six players in the game picked the same answer.