Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Hoopla

We like to play different board and card games. Its a great way to pass some family time or even just the two of you. The downside to most games is that they are competitive. That is, if one of you wins, the other must lose. There is nothing wrong with that really. Life is just like that.

As fun as being competitive is, its often more enjoyable and more rewarding to work together. That is where Hoopla comes it. Rather than competing against each other, all the players make a single team trying to complete a number of given tasks in a certain amount of time. The game consists of a bunch of cards with something on them. There is also a die with colors instead of numbers. Also included is a wind up timer.

On your turn you roll the dice. The task is determined by the color that shows. Each task consists on getting the other members of your team to guess what is on your card. The color determines how you give the clues. One color means to draw it, another means to act it out without talking, another is that you can use any word not included on the card but all the words must begin with the same letter. There are others but I'll save them as a surprise.

This is a great game in a couple of ways. First, it teaches you and your family to work together to solve problems. Second, the timer is set for 15 minutes meaning it won't take all night to play. Finally, it is just plain fun.

The one drawback I've noticed is that my youngest (8) doesn't know what all the words mean. She likes to play anyway. We just added the rule that if she doesn't know what the word means she can add the card back into the deck and get another card. For the younger crowd, try Cadoo.

No comments: