The problem with most trivia games is that they reward the person who has the biggest stockpile of useless, obscure knowledge. Sometimes this can be alleviated by having multiple categories - thus allowing players to draw from areas of knowledge that they have a better grasp of. Still, they usually leave me a little cold, simply because they lack the "fun" that I look for in a trivia game. Wits and Wagers (Eagle and North Star Games, 2005 - Dominic Crapuchettes) advertised that it was "The Trivia Game for Everyone". Well, games advertise such stuff all the times, but Dominic did design the excellent Cluzzle party game, so my hopes were high (an interview I did with Dominic further confirmed this interest).
And Wits and Wagers was indeed quite fun. It doesn't matter if you know anything about trivia (well, a little might help). But the meat of the game is betting on the answer you think is closest to the right answer. It has a bit of "Price is Right" feel, a bit of gambling, and a healthy dollop of fun. It's most enjoyable with more people; the full complement of seven players/teams makes for the best games. It's certainly the most popular party game I've introduced to people over the last several months and has had people demanding repeated plays.
Each player is given a small whiteboard with a border of their color, along with two cubes of their color and an erasable marker. Players also receive eight points worth in chips, which come in "5" and "10" denominations, with the remainder of the chips placed in the bank. A thirty-second timer is placed near a very large player mat. One player is chosen to be the Question Reader and is given a stack of question cards. The game involves seven turns.
On each turn, the question reader draws a card and reads the question number on the card (out of seven) that matches the number of the round. Each question has a numerical answer and usually involves some statistic that few people know (How many gallons of water it takes to fill up an Olympic-size pool, in what year was the film Casablanca first released, etc.) The timer is then flipped over, and all players have thirty seconds to write down a guess on their cards. When the timer runs out, everyone reveals their cards, and they are placed on the large answer mat. The mat has seven spaces, each with different payout odds. The middle space is 1:1, then the two surrounding it are 2:1, then 3:1, then 4:1. The answers are arranged on each space, from smallest to largest, with the middle answer placed on the 1:1 space. Depending on how many players / duplicate answers, the arrangement might vary; but the rulebook explains how to do it.
Once all the answers are placed, then the timer is flipped again, and players may bet on the answer they think is correct. Players can bet on one or two payout spaces, betting five or ten points total. (Players can also refuse to bid, but I've never seen this happen). Players can also bid on a space that says, "The correct answer is smaller than all given answers", which has a payoff of 5:1. Players place their bids, putting a cube of their color on top of each bid to identify it. After thirty-seconds is up, players stop betting, and the reader reads the answer to the question. The answers on the table are examined, and the answer that comes closest to the correct answer without going over is the "correct" answer. All bets not on this answer are removed from the board, and each player who did correctly bet on the "correct" answer gets a payoff according to the odds. The player who was the author of the correct answer also gets ten points as a bonus (unless of course, all the answers go over - in which case no one gets the bonus, and anyone who bet on the "Correct answer is smaller than all given answers" receives a payoff).
The next round then begins, with a new question from a new card. This continues until the seventh round, which is the same as the prior six, except that players can bid as much as they want. After the winners are paid after this round, the game ends; and the player with the most points is the winner!
Some comments on the game…
1.) Components: The first thing that you'll notice is the very large board. It's like a huge, giant mouse pad, made of very nice felt and looking remarkably similar to a table at the casino. The board folds up easily and manages to fit into the box somehow. The boards are small and nice, although it would have been nice if they had included something to erase the boards - although tissues work quite fine. The cubes are quite large and fit nicely on top of the poker chips, which are just large and plastic blue and red chips (I may replace them with actual poker chips). Still, the components are nice, and all fit in the nice plastic insert in a fairly large box.
2.) Rules: There are quick start rules, and more detailed rules. Honestly, there's not much difference, since the game is simple enough. Most of the rules involve a color pictorial of how to place answers with different amounts of players. I actually found this rather simple, but not everyone I played with always understood it. Still, the game is a breeze to teach and learn.
3.) Guessing: Most of the questions are impossible for most people to know. For example, how many people know how many knives were discovered during U.S. airport passenger screenings in 2004? Probably no one, and that's the point. If no one knows, then it's very interesting to see who comes close. Of course, every once in a while, you'll have someone who - just like in the Price is Right - will bid 1, just to have the lowest number, because they just might win. Or, and this is what the designers intended - someone just might know the answer.
4.) Bidding: But why would they want one person to know the answer? It's because of the bidding. See, the person who is the winner is not the person who knows the most information, but the person who knows which of their friends knows the most information. Some people know a lot about certain topics, and it's up to you to guess which ones. Of course, this leads to a lot of bluffing - "I know this one!" is shouted in many games. Sometimes, and this is funniest, people are not bluffing, and certainly are sure that they know the correct answer. Then, they are shown that they are wrong by the card, and usually after they've convinced several others to join them in their folly. Of course, at that point there's a lot of laughter and /or a denouncement of the facts on the card.
5.) Questions: With seven-hundred questions in the game that allows one hundred games of Wits and Wagers to be played. Unless this is the only game you'll ever buy, that is certainly plenty enough to be satisfied with. The selection of questions is very well done; I know that they took great care and had a large group of people look them over before producing the final game. Many of the questions are obscure, but some of them are actually easy enough to guess close to. And often they lead to interesting discussions.
6.) Time and Players: The game plays best with more players. The game states that it can be played with three to seven players. In my opinion, seven is the perfect number; because if you have more than that, people have to be on teams. Teams are certainly fun to play with; but the game has an "individual" feel about it, especially when betting. Games are quite quick - with only seven questions. This allows the game to be played quickly, without getting stale; and if you like it, you can play several games in a row.
7.) Fun Factor: While not the most fun party game I've ever played, it certainly is a good one, and I can state unequivocally that it is the most fun trivia game I've ever played. It has elements of betting, and players can sometimes bet on the most unlikely answer, simply because of the odds. When one player is the only person to bet correctly, there's a lot of laughter and yelling. When everyone gets it wrong, hilarity ensues (and arguing with the cards again). I guess that it could be argued that the last round (as in Jeopardy's "Final Jeopardy") invalidates the previous six, but the game is fun enough that no one really cares. Betting all your money on a big payoff can give you the game or lose it all. Because Wits and Wagers is a party game, no one cares; they're having fun.
If you don't mind the large box, then I recommend getting Wits and Wagers. It's a party game about trivia that the most ignorant person can play, and possibly win. In games I've played, the canniest better sometimes won, the most clueless person sometimes won - but never the smartest person. And that's a bit of a relief to me. Sometimes (rarely) I want to play a game to see who's the smartest. But more often, I want to have fun, and that's what Wits & Wagers provides.
Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"
www.tomvasel.com
