Wits & Wagers Family

Wits&Wagers FamilyWits & Wagers is a Major Fun award-winning game – a Keeper, in fact. So now we have Wits & Wagers Family, which, as you might correctly conclude, is a somewhat less complex version, designed to appeal to the whole family. Except for kids that are below the age of…what? 10? 8? 6? 4?

Use your make-believe, wipe-offable marker to write your hypothetical guess on your imaginary write-on, wipe-offable Answer Board. Then collect everyone’s similarly imaginary Answer Boards and organize them from low to high (or high to low). Ready to vote?  Great. Place one or two of your pretend “Meeples” (wooden, people-shaped playing pieces) of your choice – the larger one on your best guess, the smaller on your next best.

The manufacturers suggest 8 as the youngest age. Did you write down the correct answer? Give yourself 1 point. Did you imagine yourself putting your Meeple on the correct answer? Your big Meeple? Give yourself 2 more points. Your smaller Meeple, one more point. Actually if you guessed 8 or lower you’d be OK, as long as no one got closer to the right answer than you. And, since there are two right answers, you could have Meepled 4 and still get the point(s).

Mark the circles on the fantasized score board to show everyone’s score. Ready for the next question?

That’s pretty much it, Wits & Wagers Family game-wise. You get 300 questions on 150, cute little narrow cards; 5 small markers, 5 different colored wooden Meeples (10 altogether – one large, one smaller), 5 Answer Boards, a scoreboard, and a clearly written and illustrated set of instructions which, even if you haven’t played the original game, you’ll be able to figure out in a paucity of minutes.

By the way, there are TWO correct answers to the minimal age question. According to the manufacturer, the answer is 8. According to us, 4. Of course our 4-year-old is a genius, and he had his genius mother to help him. He didn’t have any trouble guessing, since all you have to do is write a number, and, later, pick a number. Being correct was another question altogether – and if you’re 4, it doesn’t matter so much anyway. As long as you get to play.

Wits & Wagers Family is significantly fun. Major, even, fun-wise. It’s easy to learn, each round takes well under the expected attention span for even the youngest player. The scoring is quick and easy to remember. You can play as teams and it’s just as much fun as if everyone has their own Meeples. Most of the questions (e.g. “What percent of men have color blindness?) are obscure enough to encourage educated or totally misinformed guessing. Some (“How many teaspoons are in a tablespoon?”) are well within the range of common adult knowledge, but even then the game works, because you’re allowed to have the same answer as someone else and get all the recognition you so rightly deserve, and sometimes we adults have a strong need to be right.

Designed by Dominic Crapuchettes, with gently compelling art by Jacoby O’Connor and Shawn Wilson, funwise, Wits & Wagers Family is, like I said, just plain Major!

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