In a happy coincidence, just a week after I acquired my very own edition of ‘Absolute Balderdash’, I read the word ‘balderdash’ in a sentence in a Georgette Heyer novel I was re-reading for the nth time! Drummond Park have taken the game I fell completely in love with some 20 or more years ago and re-invented it for this special 20th anniversary edition. Sadly, what was pure unadulterated word play has degenerated into some sort of game show format, with ‘events’,‘words’,‘laws’,‘initials’
and ‘people’ as distinct categories. When it was just words, the game was impossible enough. I’d no idea what most of the words meant! But these other categories pass beyond the pale. It’s not just about bewildering words any more. You need to be a hardcore quizzer to get your head around any of this!
Play rules are exquisitely simple. On your turn, pick a card, state your category, and read out the question. Each player writes a make believe but plausible answer and hands over their bluff slips to you. You write down the correct answer (refer the reverse of the card) on your bluff sheet. Now shuffle all the bluff sheets, and read each of the answers out aloud, including the correct one. The others must guess which is the correct answer. After all the guessing is done, there is a point for guessing the right answer, two points if your bluff closely resembles the correct answer, and one point for every vote a bluff answer receives. The victor is usually the player who most consistently cons others into believing the made up answers are the real ones!
If ever there was a game that bespoke the sentiment ‘it’s the playing that counts, not the winning’, it has to be Balderdash. The last three ‘word’ category questions were PARASIGMATISM (unable to pronounce the letter ‘s’) ; GYROVAGUES (Monks who wander from one monastery to another), and SCOPULATE (shaped like a broom). My complete ignorance is completely exposed! Quickly I discover my skills lies in conjuring up make believe answers!
—The author may be contacted at arup_kavan@yahoo.com [1]
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[1] mailto:arup_kavan@yahoo.com