Laura and Ville invited some friends at their place to play party games. The party was certainly large. I took my Cranium with me, eager to try it for the first time. Some might remember when I got it in December. Others were enthusiastic as well, so we started the game with four three-player teams. Three more guests arrived during the first round, so they formed the fifth team.

There was just one problem: the game is in English. It certainly didn’t stop us. Dictionary was needed few times, but the biggest problems came from the expressions. Certainly you can draw “Monkey see, monkey do, but nobody is never going to figure it out, because the expression is rather foreign to us. Another expression task was more successful, when Inkeri did a rather splendid performance of “Saved by the bell” and Jarno figured it out — just when the time was running out. It was quite hilarious, even though our team placed solidly last.

After that one guest left, so there were 14 of us… Talk about problems with player amounts, huh! Ilari suggested Scattergories. I consider myself a rather literary person and like word games. Scattergories was no exception — it was excellent fun. I got 11-12 categories on just about every round of the two games we played. The quality of my words was lower, though… I did okay in the first game and won the second thanks to an eight-point round. It was marvellously entertaining and I think I’ll create a set for myself (after all, it’s just category lists, some way to get random letters and a timer) in case I need some good entertainment for large crowds. I would get rid of some categories (at least “things you can collect” — that’s slightly too vague, I think — you can probably justify anything in it) and perhaps add some more interesting (say, “board and card games” or “game designers”).

It’s funny, though, how some people claim the game is broken because it’s too vague what’s allowed and what’s not — I think the part where people try to explain and justify their words can be great fun. Of course, if it seems there’s an argument that seems to have no consensus, one should stop it soon, vote for it and then move on. There’s no reason to dwell on single words.

My brightest moment in the game? Probably scoring with huorn when asked for a tree beginning with “h”.

I left after the two games of Scattergories. I assume party gaming went on for quite a while after that, too. It was an excellent evening of good games with good people, thanks to Laura and Ville for hosting it!