New Games For Old: Modern Alternatives to... Trivial Pursuit

Another yuletide season brings another opportunity to trash a family favourite. This year our attention turns to the notoriously tedious and age-unfriendly Trivial Pursuit, the classic game which test how many pointless facts have accumulated in one's brain like the filth in Bender's neck.

Picture of gold-plated pies by Martin Stever

To be fair, my dispute with Trivial Pursuit is not to do with the questions; while they do a poor job of levelling the playing field between generations of the family, they are otherwise perfectly fine. The real problem is the board itself; it provides few genuine questions, needlessly draws out the gameplay, and creates frustration when six correct answers in a row gets you nothing, and then the next team gets pie for a single lucky guess.

Here's one cost-free suggestion to improve Trivial Pursuit: throw away the board and die, and just ask each other a pre-determined number of question cards, keeping the score on a piece of paper.

If, on the other hand, you'd like to try some genuinely new games, here's a few family-friendly trivia games for which I've already taken the bullet on your behalf. You're quite welcome.

Bezzerwizzer

First out of the doors is Bezzerwizzer, a somewhat-popular game originating from Germany and available for some time from The Works in the UK. The game is to commended for its bold attempts to introduce actual player agency to a trivia game, while removing the pointless die-rolling. To determine the category in which they will answer questions, players draw four tiles from a bag containing 20; they can then arrange these four tiles according to how much a correct answer will score (from 1 to 4). Thus, players can maximise the benefit of their strongest categories, and minimise the consequences of drawing a weak category. Additionally, players can swap categories with another once per round, and try to answer a competitor's question twice per round.

Picture by Virre Linwendil

All of these innovations are clear improvements on the basic trivia game formula. However, this game has a fatal flaw - the questions are just too easy. I do not say this to brag - my co-players also rarely dropped a question, even in categories of which we profess no knowledge. While the game is to be commended for its brevity by comparison with Trivial Pursuit, it will rarely exceed two rounds; the loser can often be determined by a single dropped question.

Overall, then, a bold attempt, but not one I can wholeheartedly recommend.

Timeline

Next up, we have not one game but an entire franchise from boardgame mega-publishers Asmodee. Timeline consists of a number of inter-compatible tins, each containing around 100 small cards. These cards are two-sided; the side dealt facing the players shows some sort of event or notable work, while the reverse shows the same, with the addition of the date. The game begins with a single card placed with its date showing; the first player must guess whether their card occured before or after that single, seed card. They place the card, and turn it to discover the truth; if they are correct, the card leaves their hand (the winner being the first to empty their hand), and if not, it is replaced. The next player acts similarly; in this case, their card may be before, after, or in between the cards already placed. In this way, a long row of chronological events is laid down, and as they are, the time intervals become narrower; this is a game which starts easy but gets surprisingly difficult as it continues. This natural difficulty curve also allows for easy difficulty adjustment; to make the game harder, just deal larger hands.

This game has an even simpler ruleset than Trivial Pursuit; plays quicker; has easily adjustable difficulty

(allowing for handicapping of older players); and even has a measure of strategy, as the player may choose which order to try their luck with their cards. It rewards good guesswork over specific knowledge; this may be a positive or negative factor, depending on one's preferences. Although a bit of a one-trick pony (as it is only concerned with history, albeit within a variety of categories), it's not a bad game at all.

Wits and Wagers

And finally, we turn to the heavyweight of new trivia games, Wits and Wagers, winner of awards ranging from Mensa Mind Games to Xbox Magazine Editor's Choice. This game is about as far from Trivial Pursuit as you can get while still falling within the category of trivia games. The board has been replaced by a baize of odds; pies replaced with betting chips; and specific knowledge replaced with numerical estimation. To explain the latter; each question has a numerical answer, which is unlikely to be known specifically

Picture by Antony Hemme

(e.g. the annual weight of potato consumption per capita in the United States). Players each write down a guess; these guesses are arranged on the betting felt (with the median answer in the middle, giving the lowest odds); and players make up to two bets on the correct answer. Winners get chips according to the odds and their original bet; losers lose their chips (except for the two basic betting chips, which are never lost). The game plays easily (you can start playing without even explaining the rules in advance), and the betting mechanism effortlessly creates high tension, moments of elation, and groans of disappointment. As a party game, this one justifies its success.

As a quiz game, however, its not quite so easy to recommend. By its very nature, it rewards good (and/or lucky) guesswork; this helps level the playing field, but actual knowledge is devalued.

Conclusions

I come away from this feeling that there is not yet any good trivia board game. Combining specific knowledge and player agency are never going to be easy, but I'm sure there are better ways. Bezzerwizzer was definitely on to something, but if anything it goes too far in allowing players to play to their strengths. Perhaps a dice game, with one side per question category, a couple of rerolls, and points per question equal to the sides of that category?

My personal favourite of the games here? From a trivia angle, probably Timeline - it has scope for both specific knowledge and good estimation. In a more boisterous and convivial setting, however, Wits and Wagers is a winner.