Beyond Balderdash (thing)

Beyond Balderdash, copyright 1995, 1997, a Parker Brothers Game. For 3 or more people, ages 10 and above. Also known as The Classic Bluffing Game. This game is a sequel to the now out-of-print Balderdash, which is basically identical, only with one category, Words, instead of five.

The game is a very entertaining party game. The game is played with a board that has 27 spots on it (with a "double score" in the middle), but usually when I play we just keep track of the score on paper.

Each round, there is a reader called the dasher, and s/he leads the group. S/he draws a card from the stack, and the card has a list of five topics on it. The topics are as follows:

1. Words - Give the definition of the given word.
2. People - Explain what makes this person important.
3. Initials - Explain what the initials stand for.
4. Movies - Describe the plot of the movie.
5. Dates - Explain what significant event happened on this date.

The dasher then rolls a die, and if s/he rolls a 1-5, then the topic for the round is the corresponding topic listed above. If s/he rolls a 6, s/he gets to choose the topic. For example, on this particular card, the topics are:

1. Nurdle
2. Franklin Temel
3. F.T.E.
4. Only One Night
5. December 7, 1970

If Debbie rolls a 4, the topic of the round is Only One Night. Debbie announces this to the group, and everyone grabs his or her sheet of paper, writes his or her name on it, and develops their own description of the movie. The goal at this point is to come up with the most convincing descriptions of the movies as you can. The topics are real, but very obscure, so it is unlikely that you will ever know the real answer (though, it happens from time to time, as with google, and vagitis). The goal, though, is not to create a description that is correct, but rather that sounds correct.

While the group writes their answers on their papers, Debbie writes the correct answer on a paper, in this case, "Swedish film with subtitles about a circus worker who starts hobnobbing with high society." Debbie then collects all of the answers, and reads them off to the group one by one. Starting with the person to Debbie's left, each person guesses in turn what they think the correct answer is.

Scoring is done as follows:

• A player gets 3 points if s/he actually wrote down the correct answer.
• A player gets 2 points for guessing the correct answer.
• A player gets 1 point for each time another player guesses his answer.
• The dasher gets 3 points if no one guesses the correct answer.

In the event that a player writes down the correct answer, the dasher removes that answer from the group and announces that the correct answer was guessed, but does not read that player's answer. That player does not participate in voting that round. In the event that two people guess the correct answer, both players are awarded 3 points, and the voting for the round is cancelled.

After all the points are tallied, the next round begins, and the person to the left of the old dasher becomes the new dasher.

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1. Nurdle - Tiddlywinks term for playing a tiddlywink close to the pot.
2. Franklin Temel - Invented and patented a flush toilet for cats and dogs.
3. F.T.E. - Florida Tomato Exchange
4. Only One Night - Swedish film with subtitles about a circus worker who starts hobnobbing with high society.
5. December 7, 1970 - The start of the Whirling Dervishes Festival in Turkey.

Just a suggestion, generally the more bizarre your answer is, the more likely people will believe that is correct.

Eat the Peach!