This week’s game is Half Truth by Ken Jennings of Jeopardy! fame and Richard Garfield of Magic the Gathering fame. If any of you know anything about those two guys, then you can probably guess that this game is a winner, with each contributing such awesome talent. Perhaps Ken wrote all the trivia questions and Richard provided the game strategy? Or did they crossover with what seems to be the least obvious talent and knowledge of each?

I don’t know, but I do know that I looooove this game! Lately it’s been my favorite game to pull out for date night. Dear husband and I play it and then watch a movie. It’s taken me a while to figure out my personal strategy for winning, after losing so many times, but I finally figured it out and beat my husband at it last Saturday! My strategy shall remain a secret forever more! I’m planning on playing it this weekend at my neighbor game night, where I shall test it out again. The same person who beat me last time will be there so we shall see if my strategy works on her.

In this game, you take each card and play it by finding out the six true things that complete the statement at the top of the card. Half of the concepts on the card complete the statement as true and half are false. You can vote for three, two, or one. You only get rewarded with points if everything you voted for is correct. After three rounds, the person with the most points wins. It’s lots of fun because it combines pulling random facts out of your head with how sure you are about those facts. Each card is a puzzle to solve, often with traps such as red herrings. For an example of how to play the game, the top card shown on the deck above says, “Is a word that was once protected as a trademark.” Your choices are:

-elevator

-aspirin

-trampoline

-gasoline

-toothpaste

-videotape

So, which of those three used to be trademarked names, and which have never been trademarked? Make your guess, and then a quick Internet search will tell you the answer!

Even if you don’t love or know much trivia, you might enjoy playing it with the right crowd because of the discussions it can generate. The topics of each card are all over the map: from pop culture (lots of rappers) to history to geography to literature to science and technology to nature and wildlife to grammar to so much more! I give it 5 out of 5 stars! It plays quickly and the components are all high quality. I love how the chips are so thick! They feel like the gem chips in Splendor. The game involves trivia with a twist of the “press your luck” mechanism, and it teaches you stuff! It’s educational and entertaining at the same time. With over 500 cards, you can definitely play it over and over and not run out of cards and be truly tested, unless you play with a big gamer person who plays it enough with a photographic memory who memorizes every single card. It can even draw non-board gamers in! I played it for a game night with my sister while she was visiting from Maine and we even got her husband, who doesn’t like board games, to play a few turns. I even saw him smile during it! So great job, Ken and Richard! Watch the backstory of the game from Ken and Richard below.

Hint: So many cards involve things we don’t know anything about. It’s my house rule that if everyone agrees, we skip any card we want to. Such as the rappers’ cards, or any TV show that has appeared since we got married, since we haven’t watched much TV since then.

Tom Vasel of the Dice Tower’s review is below. Enjoy!