Wits and Wagers Board Game Review:

In the game Wits and Wagers, a question is read aloud for all the players to answer: “In feet, how is the tallest giraffe ever recorded?” everyone then writes down their answers and bets on which answer they think is closest to the correct answer. Each player receives money in proportion to how much they bet on the right answer. The player with the most money wins the game.

How to Play

Draw a question card from the deck and read it aloud. For example: “In days, what is the longest that any astronaut has spent in space on a single mission.” Each player then writes down their best guess. You are trying to get the closest to the correct answer without going over. Once everyone has written their guesses, place down the guesses ranging from the lowest to the highest.

Then each player may bet on the guesses made by any player. To make a bet, place a wager chip on a space of your choice. After every player has placed their 2 wager chips on up to 2 different slots, reveal the correct answer. Then give points to all players who bet on the closest answer without going over. Each player receives points equal to the ratio in the payout slot multiplied by the amount bet. For example: if someone bet both of their wager chips (worth $100 each) on the correct guess and the payout was 3 to 1, you would receive 3*$200=$600. In addition to the bets, give the player who wrote down the closest answer an additional $300 points.

You may risk the points you have previously won on future questions. Allowing your points to grow exponentially, but if your bet is incorrect, you lose the points you bet.

This process continues until you have answered 7 questions. Then all players count their scores, and whoever has the most points wins.

Pros

This game allows you to enjoy trivia games without having to memorize all the standard trivia question answers. You can approximate an answer and do just as well as everyone else.

This is the perfect party game; it can accommodate up to 7 comfortably. It has communal goals and plenty of opportunities for players to interact.

Cons

This is a game all about approximating measurements. Yet answers only give imperial units. This means anyone who is used to the metric system will struggle with this game.

During the last few rounds, players who enjoy trying their hardest to win will notice that if they are in first, they need to bet on whatever second place bets on. While second place knows that they cannot bet on what first place bets on. This causes a stalemate because turns are simultaneous in Wits and Wagers.

Accessibility

Color Blind: Different colored tokens are used to represent different players. This game should be fine to play as long as you have one non-color blind person as the banker to give everyone their chips.

Reading: only the player reading the questions needs to have reading comprehension.

Children: Wits and Wagers includes concepts of gambling. Trivia questions may be difficult for young children to know, such as ones that revolve around a historic moment. While the lack of inappropriate questions cannot be confirmed as the game is continuously expanding. All questions appear to have very child-friendly topics. If playing with children, an adult may want to screen the questions to ensure the question doesn’t include anything that the children are not familiar with yet.

Who would love this game?

This is the perfect multigenerational trivia game. Any American who wants to play a game with a large, varied group of people should have Wits and Wagers. Semi-competitive players will find this game enthralling.

Final Thoughts

Wits and Wagers completely changes the definition of a trivia game. Wits and Wagers has a way of showcasing a player whenever their guess happens to be uncannily accurate. It can create all the player interaction of a standard party game while being civilized enough for older groups.

If you would like to purchase Wits and Wagers and support Tabletop Game Source, you can purchase it from Amazon here.

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