20 trivia questions on games

It’s time to challenge friends or family with Expat Living’s Weekly Quiz. You can get together with a small group, have a glass of wine and try these out – or stick to Zoom, of course! This week, it’s 20 trivia questions on games and puzzles (of the non-digital variety!).

#1 If you’re pretty sure that Colonel Mustard did it in the Billiard Room with the candlestick, what game are you playing?

#2 What colour is the Geography “wedge” or “piece of pie” in the classic version of Trivial Pursuit?

#3 Controversial when first released in 1966 – it was described as “sex in a box” by one critic – which game features a large plastic mat with coloured circles on it?

#4 In a deck of playing cards, which is the only King that doesn’t have a moustache? (He’s also the only one holding a sword up behind his head.)

#5 The name of which tabletop game of physical skill and coordination is derived from the Swahili word meaning “to build”?

#6 If I’m standing in front of a group of people and tugging on my earlobe, or folding and unfolding my hands like they’re a book, or placing a number of outstretched fingers on my forearm, what am I most likely doing?

#7 The first jigsaw puzzle was created in the 18th century. Did it feature a picture of a castle, the map of the world or a horse?

#8 The TV show Wheel of Fortune is based on which paper-and-pencil game where one player chooses a word and another tries to determine what the word is by guessing its letters?

#9 What’s another name for the rook in chess?

#10 What do you call the “reverse” version of Hide and Seek, where one person hides and the players all search for that person, joining them in the hiding spot when they find them until everyone has found the spot? 

#11 The current world record for the fastest solve of this 3D puzzle is 3.47 seconds, yet it reportedly took the inventor one month to solve for the first time in 1974. Which puzzle? 

#12 The name of which ancient board game, still played today, combines the word for a part of the body with the word for a type of ham?

#13 In 2019, the makers of a famous game took to Twitter to clarify a rule. They said: “If someone puts down a +4 card, you must draw 4 and your turn is skipped. You can’t put down a +2 to make the next person draw 6. We know you’ve tried it.” Which game?

#14 Which aquatic form of the game known as tag or tiggy takes its name from a 13th-century Italian trader and explorer?

#15 Which game is played with a set of 144 tiles based on Chinese characters and symbols, and features “melds”, “kongs, “pongs” and “chows”?

#16 In 2017, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, a penguin and a rubber duck replaced the original thimble, wheelbarrow and boot as playing tokens in which game?

#17 What’s the aim of the board game Operation, invented in 1965 and still played today? 

#18 Finish the name of this popular kids’ game played indoors or outdoors: The Floor is …

#19 The fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons has featured in countless films and TV shows, from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to which Netflix blockbuster whose fourth series is currently in production?

#20 Which board game features plastic representations of four famished sub-Saharan ungulate mammals being telescopically leveraged to retrieve dispensed spheres?

BONUS

What am I?

(If you can answer correctly after the first clue, you get 10 points, but you lose a point for each additional clue you require to identify the person.)

I’m a game invented in 1938. (10)
My creator was an American architect, Alfred Mosher Butts. (9)
After a slow start on the market, I surged in popularity from 1952 when the president of department store Macy’s played me and placed a large order for his store. (8)
I ran as a TV game show from 1984 to 1993. (7)
I was inducted into America’s National Toy Hall of Fame in 2004. (6)
I’m a point-scoring game, and one way to earn big points is by getting a “bingo” or a “bonus”, worth 50 points. (5)
My name means “to scratch frantically”. (4)
I feature racks, tiles and a bag that players reach into at different points during play. (3)
The popular app Words with Friends is a variation of me. (2)
I am S_____. (1)

All the answers (no cheating!)

#1 Clue (or Cluedo)
#2 Blue
#3 Twister
#4 King of Hearts
#5 Jenga
#6 Playing Charades
#7 Map of the world
#8 Hangman
#9 Castle
#10 Sardines
#11 Rubik’s Cube
#12 Backgammon
#13 Uno
#14 Marco Polo
#15 Mahjong
#16 Monopoly
#17 Players have to carefully remove plastic pieces from a patient’s body with tweezers, without getting buzzed
#18 Lava
#19 Stranger Things
#20 Hungry Hungry Hippos

BONUS: Scrabble