The laughter game (Drummond Park Articulate!)

Member Name: Kkaos

Product:	Drummond Park Articulate!
Date:	04/05/01 (776 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Will have the room in hysterics, is fun for all ages

Disadvantages: Eventually you run out of words, you need at least 4 players

This game really should be named 'The Laughter Game' or 'The I'm Going To The Toilet Right Now Before I Wet Myself Game'. The title doesn't give much away, but the game is fantastic!
At least four players are required to play the game as there is a minimum of 2 teams with at least 2 players in each team. There is no maximum on the number of players, in fact, the more the better.
The game consists of a simple board with a spinner in the middle, some pieces for the players to move around the board, an egg-timer and lots of small credit-card sized cards.
The board is really simple. Start to finish is simply a load of long triangular shaped 'squares', each containing a category. Players all start on the same space, and moves are made at the end of each turn depending on how many points the team scored in that round. Each space contains a category, such as People, Places, Objects etc.

At the start of each round, one member of a team takes a card, and depending what category their piece is on, they describe the word on the card corresponding to that category to the rest of the players in their team. As soon as the team guesses the word, they take another card and continue for 30 seconds. They then move the number of spaces which corresponds to the number of words correctly guessed. (At this point I would like to point out that the describer is only allowed to pass once per round, which can prove amusing when they haven't got a clue what the words mean).
There are rules that the describer must stick to, such as no arm movements and no 'sounds-like' words. This may sound all very simple and straightforward, but believe me, you will soon be helpless with hysterics.

There are a few more twists to the game, such as the times when the whole room has to guess the word, so you have to try and make it so that only your team will know the answer, but these sort of things make more s
ense when you play it.

Every time I have played the game, it has reduced grown men to tears of laughter. I have played it with parents, in-laws, friends and computer nerds and it has been just as much fun every time. At our new years eve party, about 14 people started playing it at 9pm, and they were still at it at 8am the next morning! (although everyone was too tired to actually move their pieces around the board)
The *only* disadvantage of the game is that eventually you come across the same words, giving an advantage to people who have played it a lot. However, if you have the money, you can buy an additional set of word cards for around £20.

Summary: