Can you guess who it is yet? (Who's In The Bag)

Member Name: mrjoegoodwin

Product:	Who's In The Bag
Date:	29/05/09 (34 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Suitable for all ages, quick games, lots of fun

Disadvantages: Cards will eventually repeat themselves, but no reason why you can't create your own

Who's In The Bag takes a new spin on the classic game 'Charades', and is a great game to play with a big group of friends, or family members of all ages.

The aim of the game is to be the team who correctly identify the most famous people from clues and descriptions given by the members of their team, within the time limit, for a set number of rounds.

Starting the game, players split into teams - normally 2 teams of 2 or more people, though there's no reason why you can't have more teams if you choose. The first player from team 1 either volunteers or is nominated by their other team members to pick up a handful of cards from the bag. Each card contains 3 names of famous people and characters, from politicians and scientists, to pop stars and footballers. An example card may give you:

GEORGE MICHAEL
SUPERMAN
NELSON MANDELA

Once the player turns over the first card from their handful, the timer begins. They must describe 1 of the names on the card to the other members of their team, using suitable clues and impressions, to help their team members guess the name of the person being described as quickly as possible. For the card above, you may decide to sing a little of 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go', or say 'he was in a band with Andrew Ridgley'. Or, you may go for the second character, and say 'he was played by Christopher Reeve in a series of blockbuster films'. Or, if you're feeling confident about describing a well known political figure - 'fought against apartheid in South Africa, married to Winnie'. As soon as one of your team members guesses the name on the card correctly, your team scores 1 point. The player doing the describing then moves on to their second card from the handful.

Play continues in this manner, until the timer runs out, and the describer takes a well earned break from their series of clues and impressions! Play then moves to the first player from team 2, and continues in this manner until all rounds have been completed.

I think the official rules state that you cannot move on to the next card until somebody has successfully guessed somebody from the current card, but - particularly with younger players - sometimes the famous people are hard to describe, or you may simply not know who they are! In this instance, we allow people to 'pass' that card and move on to the next one. In the event of a tie at the end of the game, we count up the number of 'passes' and the team with fewest passes will win.

Depending on the number of players taking part, we normally have 2 rounds per person, so everybody gets to take 2 turns in the spotlight being the describer, which some people relish, and others dread! The performers amongst you will love being creative and try to sing songs, do impressions, or even mimic the way somebody walks. Those with a rational train of thought will be more likely to pick less flamboyant clues, and pick their words carefully so that their team members can guess the answers with minimum fuss. Who's In The Bag caters for all of us, and there is such a wide variety of characters and cards to describe, you will keep coming back for more. There are a number of blank cards with each pack, and you may want to write your own celebrities on the blanks to prolong the life of the game, and make things more unique to the group of people you play with.

Playing on a team with somebody who 'gets' your train of thought certainly helps, and you may find yourself 'in the zone', firing off one sentence clues and getting correct answers time after time! On other occasions, the communication lines may break down...My favourite example of how one person's misunderstanding of why somebody was famous is when the following exchange took place in my house:

Player A: He's part of a famous group of brothers...
Player B: Jacksons?
A: No...
B: Bee Gees?
A: No...
B: Krays?
A: No...
B: Marx?
A: Yes!
B: Groucho.....Harpo.....Zeppo?
A: Er....
B: Gummo....Chico?
A: Er......no?
B: There aren't any more Marx brothers!
A: He has that same surname!
B: Karl?
A: Yes!

And with that 30 second exchange, The Communist Manifesto and any number of classic Marx Bros. comedies were fused together for probably the first and last time. And it just goes to show, even if the clues you are giving aren't the best in the world, or even correct, if your team members understand you, your personality and your train of thought, they may still be able to rescue a situation that appears to be going nowhere!

So, from Karl to Groucho, from Robin Hood to Robin Gibb, Who's In The Bag is the describing game that will sometimes leave you lost for words!

Summary: Bags of fun for the whole family