SOCIAL/IMPROVISATION GAMES
By Timothy Dickey

Zobmondo!!™

Zobmondo!!™ is called The “Crazy Would You Rather” Game for a reason. Various bizarre scenarios are offered or created for players to discuss and vote on. For instance:

“Would you rather always (have to) speak in rhyme, OR, never hear every third word spoken?”

Bizarre, and each one a seriously wacky dilemma. To find out more (including more crazy questions), click here for the full article in “Cool Companies”.

If there was a board game based on the concept of “making a board game,” there would have to be a community chest card that said, “Congratulations…your game has just been picked for distribution through select Starbucks stores nationwide. Go to Easy Street and collect $200.”

Real life success may not come that easy, but Hear Me Out!™, a new game created by Seattle-based merchandising company Bensussen Deutsch & Associates (BD&A) is the latest game to win Starbucks’ distinctive distribution deal, and BD&A vice president Michael Schiller couldn’t be more excited.

“(Starbucks) customers are exactly the demographic who will enjoy this game,” says Schiller, who co-invented Hear Me Out! ™ with award-winning gamemaker Michael Stusser (The Doonsbury Game). “It creates a really fun atmosphere among those who are playing, and really brings out the opinionated and fun side of people.”

Hear Me Out! ™ consists of three basic actions represented by different spaces a player might land on. “Survey Says!” requires players to guess how the rest of the group will vote on topics like ‘worst reasons to get married’, or ‘worst movies ever’. “Sound Bites” asks a player to improvise on topics or situations for 45 seconds: “In your next life, you’re coming back as a lizard. What will your life be like?” The player wins points based on his performance.

The third action goes like this: If a player lands on “Brainstorm”, all players must free associate on a topic like Wonders of the Ancient World, or Women Tennis Players. The player gets points if his answers matches those of others.

Other spaces add a “Life™”-like quality, including Skid Row, where all points are lost, and Stock Market, where points may be added or subtracted by the whim of the dice. There is a different method of scoring on each square, and every player is given a “cheat sheet” to help them with the rules until they are learned.

“Hear Me Out!™ is a blast,” said Kristin Stanislaw, merchandise manager, Starbucks. “It is a nice fit for Starbucks.” Not bad for BD&A, who also created the merchandise strategy behind last year’s two largest grossing movies. Hear Me Out!™ was released in late-May, this year.

With many games, laughter is a joyous by-product of play. But in Don’t Make Me Laugh™ the very object is to earn points with chuckles, guffaws...even snickers. Brothers Charlie and Bob Paul, who head up the LoLo Company and designed Don’t Make Me Laugh™, have created a wacky improvisation game to end all improvisation games.

Play progresses by rolling the dice and landing on colored spaces. Matching cards then dole out assignments. Cards come in three categories; “HA HA”, “HO HO”, and “HEE HEE”. JESTER and HECKLE cards are thrown in the mix as wild cards.

HA HA’s offer points to the group member who performs best at challenges like, “pretend to be a competitive weight lifter”. Or two players are chosen to “pretend to do a scene from ‘I Love Lucy’”. The player whose turn it is judges and awards points indicated on the card.

HO HO’s work with similar material, but the object is now for the player to make others laugh to receive points, or for the group to make the player laugh. It’s the player's choice, and either successful party receives points.

Finally, HEE HEE’s fill out the improvisational element by offering a mostly pantomime challenge; points are awarded to the player who guesses the topic correctly, and to the player who is charading.

The Paul brother team at Lolo, who are also responsible for Strange But True™ and Rohszambo™ games, set out with the mission of “bringing family and friends together to help them find the simple laughter that is in all of us.”

This very interactive game is supported by a smartly conceived dry erase board, and an electronic die that begs use the minute the box is opened up. After the game gets going, however, most of the attention will be on keeping a straight face.

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