Review: Hollywood Shuffle Publisher: All Things Equal, Inc. Year: 2007 Tagline: THE MOVIE PLOT GAME
how we met
I have no memory of picking up Hollywood Shuffle, but it’s a nice, light party game that is a perfect fit for our group. So who knows where it came from. I feel like it’s possible I picked up Hollywood Shuffle based on their NT “No Trivia” rating, prominently displayed on the cover. I do not love trivia.
how it plays
Hollywood Shuffle is a roll and move game, where your goal is to be the first to the end. Then you win!
Regardless of the space you land on, you flip up a card from each deck. The decks are THE LEAD, THE ACTION, and THE TWIST. This will give you the outline of a movie! Read the cards aloud as you flip so all players are aware of this movie outline.
Based on the space you land on, one of three different challenges will be required of other players. If the active player landed on:
CAST IT then the other players must write the name of who they envision to be cast as the Lead Actor in this movie as well as one of either the love interest, the nemesis or the sidekick
TITLE IT then the other players must write the name of this movie
END IT then the other players must write how the movie ends in a short phrase. The rules recommend 5-10 words
CRITIC’S CHOICE then the active player gets to choose from the three options above that other players must follow
What do you think happens in this one?
Once all players except the active player have completed their answer sheets, one of them will collect all the answer sheets, mix them up, and read them out loud. It’s important for the reader to not give away which answer was theirs.
Then the active player both chooses their favorite answer and guesses which player they think gave each answer. The player that submitted the favorite answer gets to move their pawn ahead two spaces! The active player moves ahead one space for every correct guess on which player submitted which response.
NOTE: do not give it away if the judge is choosing your answer as their favorite, or if they have not finished assigning players to their answers. Don’t ruin everything.
Play continues in this way until one lucky pawn reaches the end. That player wins!
how it went
You have heard me say time and time again that party games often suit our game group. We can really unleash our humor, and we almost always have a really nice time full of laughs. This game was no exception to that rule.
This was an END IT! option for us and the winner was “when he realizes he’s in his own painting.” I knew that was Keri because she’s been watching Twilight Zone
The back of Hollywood Shuffle gives some examples of card combinations. One example is: A COP WHO DOESN’T PLAY BY THE RULES | Becomes Immersed In Hip-Hop Culture | AND TEACHES US THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ENVIRONMENT. That’s kind of funny. But in our play, most of the combinations were so much more random and funny…and sometimes dark. The publisher was probably trying to play it safe with the back of the box.
Generally speaking people either very much enjoy party games or very much do not, so I will focus on showing a few random card combinations to give you an idea of what you might be in store for.
I mean, this is absurd but is maybe too random to hit our sweet spotAgain, there’s content to work with here. What would you title this piece?Hmm pretty sure I saw this film
And here are a few random answers that were probably winners during our gameplay, but without the cards. Just trust me, we are hilarious. Notice that there are no CAST IT answers here. Those are not funny and should just be removed. Luckily we only landed on that option once. Anyway as I was saying:
S.T. The Sextra Terrestrial
Stephen Gawking
“I’m cold and hungry”
Stripper 4: Rouge or Bouge
Night of the Vomit: Glendale Circle
Improvisational games like this are weak in nature, objectively. They are putting up a framework and relying so heavily on the players to bring the fun and the experience. So the same reason I happen to like these games is the same reason they are weak in their gameplay. I have some favorites that fit this bill (I will eventually put up a review of The Joke Game), but it’s important to separate the fun we might have had one night when we were on our game, to the actual gameplay of a given game.
In our play, John sped ahead right away, and he kept that lead throughout the entire game. And John won Hollywood Shuffle!
play or pass
Pass. I enjoyed running through this one, and in the right crowd you can really have some laughter. But the game is performative and improvisational. If you happen to play on a good day, if you are on your game, if you have the right group, if no one spoils the author during reading, if the cards work out to be enjoyable – if all these things fall into place then Hollywood Shuffle is a great time. You might even cry laughing. There’s just so many places it can go wrong.
Review: Dr. Ruth’s Game of Good Sex Publisher: Victory Games Year: 1985 Tagline: (none, but do you need one?)
how we met
I knew of the existence of Dr. Ruth’s Game of Good Sex. I saw it once at a Half Price Books but left it behind at the listed price. If it is meant to be, it is meant to be, right? And recently I found Dr. Ruth’s Game of Good Sex at thrift.
And this game is shockingly heavy. That only made me want to buy it more.
For $2? Yes, gimme.
how it plays
Dr. Ruth’s Game of Good Sex has three tracks on the board, and the first couple to get their pawn to the “Mutual Pleasure” circle in the middle wins!
Each side of the board has Arousal Tracks, one for female and one for male (it was 1985, so if you don’t fit these molds just pick one or put a sticker over them or something). Each player’s Arousal Markers start at the beginning of their respective Arousal Track, and markers will move up and down the track throughout gameplay. The colors that the markers are on will be significant as well.
This is the overhead view of the board. Note the Arousal Tracks on each side and how the colors match the tracks of the board
On a couple’s turn, one of them rolls the die and moves their pawn that number of spaces. Many spaces on the board are SITUATION SPACES, and they will say something positive or negative and then indicate adjustments to the Arousal markers on the Arousal Track. For example, a space might say “Go to bed angry” and indicate that both the male and female Arousal markers go down 2 spaces on the Arousal track. Yikes!
Some SITUATION SPACES have dots on them. When they do, that team draws an INTERACTION CARD. If this card says “Play Immediately,” then you do so. If it says “Hold,” then you can play it immediately or at a more opportune time.
Best card back ever? She’s pretty cute.
The board also has ASK DR. RUTH spaces. When a couple lands here, they are asked a True / False question by a different team. If correct, the couple gains 3 Arousal Points. If incorrect, they lose 3 Arousal Points! In either case, these points can be split however they choose between both male and female Arousal markers.
IMPORTANT NOTE: generally speaking between the board and the cards, the male markers move more quickly along the Arousal Track than the female markers. In fact, if the male marker goes too far and beyond the last box in the Arousal Track they have had an “accident” and must move back to the box marked “Accident.” Yes, I’m serious.
See?
Another space on the board is SEX CLINIC. When a pawn lands here, the couple answers a multiple-choice question from one of the cards. These cards include a case history and four choices (not unlike The Dr. Laura Game…well except in the pragmatism of the correct answers). Each member of the couple writes down what they think Dr. Ruth’s answer was, and they are not allowed to consult each other in the process. Then answers are revealed and the couple gets 2 points for each correct answer! One more special thing about SEX CLINIC points too is that they can be used to move markers up or down the Arousal Track. Is that Accident feeling too close? This is your ticket to think about baseball for a moment.
YES! A and C seem problematic, but less problematic than D
Some spaces and cards cause couples to lose turns. When losing a turn couples place their pawn in the appropriate portion of the board showing either 30 minutes or 60 minutes, and each person in the couple counts as one turn. After they are out of this timeout then they move their pawn back to their start space.
The Arousal Track has different colors corresponding to different tracks on the board. Once both Arousal markers in one couple move to the next color, they may move their pawn up to the next track at the next opportunity. These roadways between tracks are represented by little white lines with arrows. If either of the markers falls below that color, you similarly step back to an outer track. Similar to Ratrace, if you have played that.
Play continues this way until one lucky couple experiences “Mutual Pleasure” and wins Dr. Ruth’s Game of Good Sex!
how it went
I was nervous buying this game, and nervous to try and play it with my group. Our game group is close, but not that close, you know. Fortunately, we really got off on the right foot when I made John smell the board and he exclaimed with a sour face, “Oh! It smells like House on the Rock!” (Cool place, check it out if you haven’t.)
But aside from that, Dr. Ruth’s Game of Good Sex did not cause any awkwardness for us. The questions were usually so easy that they were embarrassing, which might go to show how far we as a society have come in being able to learn and talk about these kinds of things. Or goes to show what is on our televisions. Or both.
This is the only shot of our play that I took that evening
Since the game has so many cards, I am going to share a few with you. The rules ask you to go through all of the ASK DR. RUTH questions on your card before drawing a new one, so we only went through part of four! Out of a bunch. And here they are.
I think my favorite part of the entire game was when John was asking Bill one of these ASK DR. RUTH questions and said, perfectly seriously and straight-faced, “True or false, Bill?”More universal truths hereIt’s been almost 35 years since this game was released, and I’m still going to say #5 is a no goI am now keeping Post-It notes of our gameplay to track important details. You’ll be glad to know the Post-It note from this game says, only, “Ladies be discharging 24/7.” So that attempt at responsibility is definitely paying off
I poke fun at some of the cards above, but the fact that I can even do that is a credit to Dr. Ruth’s work. Dr. Ruth’s mission was to educate, and that’s what this game did in its time. Her goal was never to be shocking or scintillating, and neither is this game. If you have ever tried to normalize talking about what has previously been a foreign or taboo topic (in these days pronouns, privilege, and sexual assault immediately come to mind) then it would be difficult not to appreciate a game like this, from 1985. And a pioneer like Dr. Ruth.
We enjoyed this game. Keri and John were ever-so-slightly ahead of Bill and me the entire game, and ultimately they won Dr. Ruth’s Game of Good Sex!
play or pass
Play. As I mention before, Dr. Ruth’s Game of Good Sex is a credit to her work. Whether you want to play it or not, I think we should all be grateful that Dr. Ruth and her game exist. And the game was not some slapped together roll and move junk. The game served the purpose of being educational without falling into the traps of being predictable and dull. I admit that I give the game some leeway for its time, but I think that’s true (maybe less obvious) of all the vintage games I review.
I found this weird game at thrift and, even though I could see that it played like Pass the Pigs, for some reason I wanted it. The game is obscure and simple, and it might be fun to document.
how it plays
There are two teams in The Chicken Grand Slam Baseball Game, and the scoring is similar to baseball: the rounds are innings, players score when their runners get to home base, and the runs are determined by the dice. Runners are tracked using small chips.
The playing field with all bases loaded! Pretty sure all versions will be this uneven as the vinyl is stored folded
The first team to go shakes the chicken dice in the batter’s box dice cup, flips the cup down on a flat surface, and uses the guide to determine the result of their roll. A roll may cause runners to advance, batters and runners to advance, no advancing, etc. If the chickens are touching that’s an automatic Strike Out!
The Batter’s Box dice cup which has two chicken images on itThis is not the entire diagram but represents the possible HITS depending on how you roll
When the team gets three outs, the next team goes. Scoring is tracked on the scorepad, which resembles a baseball scoreboard. At the end of nine innings, the team with the most points wins! In the event of a tie, the scorecard includes extra innings.
This is what the scorepad looks like
how it went
We played this briefly one evening while waiting for a fifth person to join us. It’s certainly a simple game. The back of the box not only contains all of the rules but implies that the San Diego Chicken is the game designer. You need enough baseball knowledge to know how to play through a game because the rules don’t tell you how many strikes are allowed, how many outs, etc.
This combination of chicken positions is not on either the HITS or the OUTS diagrams but the Ground Out is used for any positions not identified so this would be a Ground Out
I can’t remember who won our game. I suspect that Bill and I were Home team, so John and Keri probably won The Chicken Grand Slam Baseball Game, and not even on their home turf!
This is a WalkThis is another combination not on either diagram, so it’s another Ground OutThis is a BuntThis is from our play, the closest chickens we had that weren’t actually touching. This is a Home Run!
I mentioned that when purchasing the game, I figured it was just a Pass the Pigs copy, only with chicken dice instead of pigs. I had never played Pass the Pigs so I looked into it. Here’s what appears to have happened:
1945: The game Pig was described in text somewhere by John Scarne. The object of Pig is to be the first player to get to 100 points by rolling a single die. So if you roll a 5 you get 5 points and can choose to roll again or hold. The trick is that if you roll a 1 then you lose all the points for that turn, so you have to be careful about when to bank any points you received so far.
1977: Presumably because the original game was called Pig, someone released a version where the dice are pigs and the scoring is based on how the pigs land. This is commonly called Pass the Pigs now, but Pig Mania is another vintage version of the same game. Gameplay is the same as the original Pig game with the exception of referencing the pig positions for scoring. Same objective and same “press your luck” mechanic.
1980: Someone, maybe a chicken and maybe not, designed a game that marries Pass the Pigs with baseball and prominently features the San Diego Chicken mascot. This is a well done version of matching these two things, but unfortunately it strips the game of a lot of its best elements in deferring to the baseball theme.
Press your luck is a critical part of the staying power of the original Pig dice game. But there’s no stealing bases in this game. I always appreciate when a theme is applied liberally, and I really think it should drive most decisions in a lot of games. But that leaves The Chicken Grand Slam Baseball Game lacking, where a single die, a pencil and a piece of paper are superior.
FUN FACT: Reading about the San Diego Chicken mascot played by Ted Giannoulas is fascinating. You can also learn a little about him at this video, uploaded by YouTube user thefamouschicken
As stated above, this video is embedded from thefamouschicken’s YouTube channel
play or pass
Pass on this one. Pig the dice game is a better game, and if you are reading this you probably have a die laying around somewhere. The Chicken Grand Slam Baseball Game applies theme well. The cheesiness is appreciated, and I very much enjoyed learning about The Famous Chicken. But I don’t want to play again.
If you do pick up a copy of this game to play, I highly recommend having some tape handy to tape down the vinyl playing field.
I know it’s only August, but those of us that love autumn have already begun our worship. So this post is meant to be early to give you inspiration and encouragement about your own scary-themed scavenger hunt with enough time to make it happen!
how it happened
Betrayal at House on the Hill gets a lot of love in my game group. We love it. I have been playing Betrayal since its first edition when approximately half of our time was spent arguing about rules. My own copy is an old 2nd edition with tiles that warped pretty substantially over the years.
Warped tiles wasn’t a big deal. We had an imperfect stack, so what? But because we love Betrayal we picked up the Widow’s Walk expansion instantly upon its release. And then our warped tiles became a real problem. The stack fell over constantly, it was evident which tiles were new, etc. And this moved me to, finally, reach out to Wizards of the Coast to see if replacements were possible.
I felt pretty guilty asking for free new parts to my ancient game, but WotC were so nice! The person answering my note even made a cute little haunted house joke. And it took weeks, but then my new tiles arrived. And they were glorious. So flat and perfect. So very stackable.
And that’s when the real problems began. What do I do with a big stack of tiles from a game I adore? Throw them away? Surely not. There’s gotta be a better way.
Fortunately, John and Keri decided to take a trip to Mexico around this time and were foolish enough to give me the keys to their home. They were gone a whole week! Enough time for me to think of the scavenger hunt idea, procrastinate, and then rush it all together at the last minute.
I needed to incorporate the tiles. So those required their own clues indicating where to place them off the landings. I also needed to make my friends, after a long vacation where they were super ready to be home, super tired, have to run around their own property and sometimes the town looking for clues. Because I’m kind of an asshole.
the clues
My clues were okay. A little rushed. With this much time you can do better, so do better! But in the meantime you can use these, copy these, re-use these, get ideas from these.
I left the landing tiles on their dining room table with a doll head lit by an LED candle. This would give them the info they needed to put the tiles in place.
I did not get a photo of the setup I left, but this is a different lit up baby doll head for you to look at
Each of the clues below will include a tile clue, which tells my friends where to place the tile they found, as well as a next clue, which will tell them where to find the next clue.
I will not share the answers for tile placement until the end in case you want to play along. Just start with each of the landings from the core game and follow my terrible clues.
clue 01
Obviously this was tied to the end of a single red balloon in their living room.
Creepy, classic, a moving object where one should not be.. the balloon checked all the boxes
FUN FACT: Joke was on me, a little. As I was sneaking around their property hiding clues, I was startled by a cardboard standee of John looking through one of the garage windows. Startled isn’t the right word, maybe. All of the horror movies and Unsolved Mysteries clips that have haunted me throughout my life flashed before me in a rush as I stood on a quiet yard, in a small town, on a sunny day, realizing that some creep was in the garage, perfectly centered in the window, looking right at me!
In this dimension I lived through this encounter. I’m not sure that I did in all of themI took quick photos of each clue
Tile: Organ Room Tile Clue: My organ was so loud we placed it in the upper floor to the north Where the pews can run perpendicular to the upper landing stairs Unfortunately I can’t exit left, only right
Next clue:
neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom
starts us off with the appropriate boom
but since they took the trouble of that rhyme
find your first clue in the mailbox high time
Answer: guys, the next clue was in the mailbox
clue 02
Tile: Catacombs Tile Clue: We land in the basement already? Wait, is John playing the game? It’s a parade of homes home – so only the east door had a frame
Answer: I hid this clue in their Ghostbusters lego set
clue 03
Tile: Charred Room Tile Clue: this used to be the incense room in the top floor of the mansion then the incense went boom limiting our southerly expansion
Next clue:
from charmin to cottonelle and to scott
my destiny to soak up your pee and your snot
it gets to be such a bore and a snore
when i am stocked behind a closed door
Answer: if I remember correctly I stuffed the next clue into one of the spare toilet paper rolls in the bathroom
clue 04
Yeah, I went with physical objects sometimes!
Tile: Wine Cellar Tile Clue: I don’t want to hate everything about the south of the house so I put my wine cellar here
Next clue: a wine cork
Answer: They had a collection of wine corks in a corner of a stairway, and my next clue was hidden in there
clue 05
You can make better tile clues than this one!
Tile: Statuary Corridor Tile Clue: sometimes i drink wine sometimes i drink alone sometimes i get unsteady after in hindsight i shouldn’t have put the statuary corridor, wine cellar adjacent
Next clue: Okay I found inspiration for this one on the internet. It’s a maze with letters where one path will spell out the entire phrase and most paths will hit walls. This one spells out “Sometime stuff at times things”
Answer: In the bathroom my friends had these funny glass containers, one of which is labeled “stuff” and the other “things.” My next clue was in one of those containers
clue 06
Tile: Gardens Tile clue: the gardens at last! i do love a rose off the front door, to the east i chose
Next clue:
This was just a Converse All Star logo directing my friends to their shoe storage
Answer: It was in one of the Converse. A random one. There were so many to choose from.
clue 07
Remember how I wished you all a Happy Valentine’s Day on Instagram with Scrabble tiles, but the H was blank? This is where all the H’s went
Tile: Research Laboratory Tile clue: OK i made up the incense thing here’s what’s true the research laboratory had a boo-boo the explosion blew north the explosion blew south it became the charred room henceforth
Next clue:
This was a bunch of Scrabble tiles
Answer: It spelled out “Chinese Checkerboard.” I threw the clue behind one of their Chinese Checkerboards, which can be seen in the balloon photo above!
clue 08
Tile: Dining Room Tile clue: i love a meal overlooking the gardens, don’t you? in fact the dining room overlooks the gardens and the front yard
Next clue: a man is not wealthy simply by the contents of his pockets alone, but instead by the richness of his heart. – robert m. hensel, a poet
but check your pockets just the same – me
Answer: I stuffed this one into one of their coat pockets
clue 09
Tile: Patio Tile clue: don’t put the patio by the dining room they said you can practically see the foyer they said fuck them
Next clue:
please reduce, recycle, reuse,
you can help the earth if you choose,
recycle plastic, glass, and cans,
reduce the rubbish on our lands
Answer: I threw this one under their kitchen garbage can for recycling
clue 10
Who’s a handsome boy?!
Tile: Balcony Tile clue: yeah the balcony is a’ight no one really spends time there since the connecting room got charred if the fire had gone east, we wouldn’t have a balcony at all
Next clue:
This was a photo of Paul the dog saying, “Feed me”
Answer: I stuffed this in the dog food, duh
clue 11
Tile: Bloody Room Tile clue: if they had said don’t put the patio by the bloody room i might’ve listened, but instead here’s this gloom so the southerly view from the patio is not super relaxing instead it’s emotionally, viscerally taxing
Next clue:
it keeps your plants wet
keeps down the weed threat
it keeps Penny from going hence
so i guess it’s also a fence?
Answer: this one is a bit of an inside reference, but there was a small mound of mulch that Penny the dog would dig at to try and escape the fence. I buried the next clue in that mound of mulch
clue 12
Tile: Furnace Room Tile clue: Soooooo I get a kick out of sending furnace workers through the catacombs to get to the furnace room. So sue me.
Next clue:
you are doing so well, halfway there my loves
your clue can be found where you store hats and gloves
but of course i say this unwilling to bet
as i have not looked in those containers yet
Answer: My friends had some storage boxes that I had never had cause to look in, but that I wanted to throw a clue into. I was fairly certain they stored winter things.
clue 13
I wanted to place tape under each layer over the spots that should not be visible with messages like, “How dare you look here!” But I ran out of time. The tack is just inserted into a pencil eraser. Super crudeMy handsome friend approved me plastering his face on the internet
Tile: Chasm Tile clue: And when they are working away, take a break to wipe their brow, look into the chasm? That’s funny.
Next clue:
This was a crudely made circle puzzle of our friend’s handsome face, with a short rhyme pointing to his porch.
Answer: I stuffed a clue under one of the pumpkins on this friend’s porch
clue 14
A lot of these rhymes make me cringe. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Tile: Collapsed Room Tile clue: That explosion I just talked about was not without southerly impact The floor just buckled, melted and opened like hell, that’s a fact
Next clue: This was John’s license plate (now retired) spelled out in the phonetic alphabet.
Answer: I put the clue in a wheel well of his car
clue 15
This clue is a tad of an inside joke, but very Betrayal centric
Tile: Ballroom Tile clue: I could have danced all night, I could have danced all night But loooooking north gave me a bloooody friiiiight
Next clue:
an event is occurring in the upstairs bathroom
Answer: IIRC I threw the next clue under the bathroom mat
clue 16
Tile: Larder Tile clue: I do like to make the help roll to successfully reach the Larder Is that really so wrong?
Next clue:
I printed out a Harry Potter book cover, cut it up into a reasonable puzzle, and placed the pieces in this clue.
Answer: the next clue was inside the book referenced in the puzzle. Obvi
clue 17
These clues are very internal references to us, but you can make your own. It’s super fun!
Tile: Kitchen Tile clue: So they get to the Larder right, but I don’t want the Kitchen anywhere near them at that point. It still needs to be in the basement, obviously. They should have to run as far as possible to get to the Kitchen from the Larder.
Next clue: the next clue is not in your home instead you will find it near the <blank> the blanks are filled out with crossword puzzle type clues
FUN FACT: I am not joking about that brunch being epic. We once spent 5 hours at an all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink-of-cheap-champagne brunch. FIVE. HOURS. And we still had to ask for the check. Epic.
Answer: The answer was gnome. I hid the next clue under a lawn garden gnome in the backyard
clue 18
Tile: Servants’ Quarters Tile clue: there are times the guilt gets to me and i say, “hey, my bad! can you deliver these flowers to the servants quarters, good lad?” i tend to avoid the charred room as a rule and don’t get me started on the balcony ghoul
Next clue:
hey now now now don’t you be a hater
it’s only through chance that i became the traitor
i sit in isolation upon my traitor throne
dropping a clue before my cover is blown
Answer: At this particular house there was a specific room the traitor would go to in order to read their tome. And there was a specific couch they would sit on. I stuffed the next clue into the folds of this couch.
clue 19
Tile: Dusty Hallway Tile clue: the dusty hallway is dull dull dull but when the dancing must take a lull it’s a very nice place to take a break just head west to rest that ache
Next clue:
This was just a photo of a pink sweatshirt with a small dog icon on it.
Answer: John and Keri’s dog Penny has a pink sweatshirt. The next clue was stuffed under that sweatshirt in its storage place
clue 20
OK, I am using a lot of creative freedom with the term clash. But ‘mild irritation’ just didn’t rhyme…
Tile: Game Room Tile clue: to the east of our start where the music is art
Next clue:
i don’t house your driveway, your mail, your trash
i’m not the scene of your neighborly clash
i just exist, i’m quiet as a mouse
i’m no big deal, the left side of your house
Answer: there are very few reasons to visit the left side of my friends’ house. This clue calls attention to how unappreciated it is, and let me just throw a ziplock bag along the side of the house.
clue 21
Tile: Operating Laboratory Tile clue: if you make the mistake to pass the Larder in a cruise welcome to the Operating Lab, my muse!
Next clue:
o my faithful companion
rarely away from my side
always ready to give what i take
never judging
giving always
evermore
putting yourself ahead of me
unequal in your orangeness
ready to sit or hang as i place you
some would call you a container
exactly why they don’t understand you
Answer: This is an acrostic poem, spelling “orange purse.” I threw the next clue in Keri’s orange purse. It apparently was not invited to Mexico.
clue 22
Tile: Underground Lake Tile clue: when things get gross we must dump them somewhere we tried environment-friendly options i swear the Kitchen and the Operating Lab are the worst the Underground Lake sits between and is cursed
Next clue:
This one was a common, little puzzle
Answer: Working out the puzzle spelled out, “For the tax man” and the next clue was buried in some receipts
clue 23
Maybe someday I’ll make something without referencing lorem ipsum
Tile: Junk Room Tile clue: omg the servants and their junk just head to the north to witness the funk
Next clue: Oof I won’t spell this one out but suffice it to say I had the initial lorem ipsum content where the off words would provide a clue. They were in English even. I’m pretty sure they said something like, “look near the tray on the ottoman.”
Answer: Yeah, near the tray on the ottoman
clue 24
Fun fact: our group generally (mis)pronounces chasm with a ch sound like cha cha cha, from some joke or something years ago. Hence this little ch-heavy clue.
Tile: Gallery Tile clue: it’s not like they don’t have any feelings though to the south is a gallery, and it’s a show
Next clue:
if i was feeling cheeky
i would draw a chasm
and if i drew a chasm
it would be a chalky chasm
and if i drew a chalky chasm
it would be here
Answer: I hid this next clue behind the chalkboard in the dining room
clue 25
Yep, I’m a Shakespeare dork
Tile: Tower Tile clue: the history books say we once had a tower my best guess is the entrance went sour look near the smoke, the fire, the grit east of the collapsed room, that might be it
Next clue:
these violent delights have violent ends
and in their triumph die, like FIRE and Powder,
whIch, as They kiss, consume.
Answer: Yes I am a Shakespeare nerd. I cheapen this quote by only capitalizing the clue letters which spell out FIRE PIT. I buried the next clue in their fire pit
clue 26
Tile: Coal Chute Tile clue: only a fool would walk down the hall hands in the dust on the wall but just as he walks to the west, no big deal, falls down the coal chute with a squeal
Next clue: We have reached our last clue and i’m so proud of you ready for your biggest scare? place the tile in the house if you dare
i got bored and skipped ahead, so what happened?
Here’s the thing. There’s not much to do with Betrayal tiles for a Halloween-ish scavenger hunt except to spell Boo. The tiles spell Boo!
The end result photo!
This is harder than it seems, because I acknowledge that my friends will probably realize we are spelling Boo way before the last clue. But I can delay that realization as long as possible by being random.
This photo shows how I was trying to randomize, as much as I could, the tile placement
And that was my super-fun-to-make repurposing of Betrayal tiles!
Review: Ghost Party Publisher: Ravensburger Year: 1992 Tagline: Keep on Running… THE GHOST IS COMING!
how we met
Okay, don’t hate me. I have known about Ghost Party as a game for several years now, and I would have picked it up in a heartbeat. But I never did find it. Until I did. I found an immaculate copy of Ghost Party at thrift for $2.99. And that’s how we met.
how it plays
Ghost Party is pretty unusual in that all of the points accumulated are negative, so your object is to have the fewest penalty points. The player with the fewest penalty points wins!
The number of pawns in the game will depend greatly on the number of players in the game. For our play, we had four players with four pawns each in our chosen colors. Play can go as low as two players and as high as eight players!
I was blue!
Each game has three rounds. Each round, Hugo the Ghost starts at the bottom of the stairs. The player to go first places their first pawn in any unoccupied space in the gallery, and then players take turns doing the same until all figures are in place. Only one pawn can occupy a given space.
On a player’s turn they roll the die. If they roll a number, the player moves one of their pawns that many spaces. If they roll a ghost symbol, they move the ghost, Hugo, three spaces. He moves up the stairs and then clockwise around the gallery.
Once Hugo reaches the top of the stairs, the rooms to the doors are open to pawns. Only one pawn may enter each room, and it doesn’t need to be by exact count except with the Trophy Room and Playroom. Those two rooms award you with +3 points and do need to be occupied by exact count. That’s only fair.
The staircase, where all of the big scares and scoring happens
Moving from the gallery into a room costs one movement. It also makes that pawn safe from Hugo.
Apart from the rooms mentioned above, the other two “special” rooms are the Library and the Laundry Room. These rooms each have ghosts in them! They will give you -1 point during scoring, but that might be your best option so don’t stick your nose up at those rooms.
If a player has more than one pawn in the gallery, they have to move. If they have only one left then they can instead choose to hope for a better roll, for example to try for the Trophy Room or Playroom.
If a player’s pawns are all safe or captured, they must still roll the die. If they roll Hugo then he gets to move.
This is what our friend Hugo looks like
When Hugo moves, he captures every guest he passes during his movement. The first guest captured goes in the lowest section of the staircase, representing the biggest hits to your score. If Hugo captures two or more guests in the same space then they go to the same spot on the staircase. When all steps are full then guests move to the Wine Cellar instead, which gets them -2 points.
The round ends when all guests have been captured or hidden in rooms. Or until guests have nowhere left to hide. For example, if a few pawns are left but have no empty rooms to duck into then they all go straight to the wine cellar to enjoy -2 points each. Add up the points, and start the next round. After three rounds, the player with the highest score wins Ghost Party!
This is play when a bunch of players got caught, and weren’t able to get to rooms in time
how it went
Note: Ghost Party has gone through several different names including Midnight Party (I was aware of that one, that is the first version) and Escape from Hidden Castle (I didn’t know that one, the most recent version).
We played Ghost Party just recently around the 4th of July holiday. We had only found the game recently at thrift, and Bill was very interested in reselling. But of course, only if we didn’t want to play again. So play was necessary.
Hugo not quite on the gallery yet
Ghost Party is a great example of a game that is simple in its approach, but can provide wildly different types of play just by strategy or chance. I have a lot of friends with kids that love to play it, so it’s accessible to multiple ages but remains interesting to most of us older folks. Ghost Party’s gameplay approach is simple, but varied.
I was surprised at how quickly Hugo could boogie around the board! Truly ghostly, he might linger at the bottom stair for a fair amount of time, or he might take leaps and bounds up the stairs and scare you on the gallery. I was surprised by this with four players, and I can only imagine how quickly he moves with eight players and how that is such a different strategy.
Hugo is just looking for more victims here
I got fairly lucky and ended up winning our first game, followed with just a 2 point difference by John. So I (barely) won Ghost Party!
play or pass
Play for sure. You don’t really need me to talk about Ghost Party in detail; a modest google will show you that the game has staying power over many player ages, over many years, and with many different languages (granted the gameplay itself doesn’t depend on language). And the only way to know if it is a good fit with you is to play it. You should play it.
