Humor

For a long, long time, goblins and fairies have lived in a magical world right beneath our noses. If you look hard enough, you can find rings of mushrooms, called "fairy rings", which act as doors between their world and ours. Today, a gang of mischievous goblins escaped from the fairy ring, and it is up to the players to send them back before they cause trouble! But an ancient spell of rhymes which transforms goblins into fairies and fairies into goblins makes this a trickier task than you might think...

Goblins Drool, Fairies Rule!, a card game of rhyme and reason for kids of all ages, is for 2 to 4 players, and has special solitaire rules for a single player. The game takes about 15 minutes to setup and play. The components consist of 20 unique cards, each card having one side representing a Goblin, and another side representing a Fairy. Each side of a card has one of four Symbols: a Sun, a Moon, a Mushroom, or a Frog. The names of the Fairies and Goblins are divided into five rhyming groups, each name ending in one of five sounds.

Players begin the game with 4 cards each, goblin-side-up. Four cards are placed fairy-side-up in the middle of the table, called the "Fairy Ring". The goal of the game is to be the first player to get rid of all their Goblins by sending them to the Fairy Ring, or be the first to obtain six Fairies. Players take turns adding one of their cards to the Fairy Ring. When a card is added, any other cards in the Fairy Ring which rhyme with the name on the added card are flipped over: Fairies become Goblins and Goblins become Fairies. Once all rhyming cards have been flipped over, the player then takes any cards from the Fairy Ring which match the symbol on the added card. The first player to end their turn with no more Goblins or with six Fairies wins.

Time to film the latest western being produced at Deadwood Studios, makers of terrible western movies. All the special roles are up for grabs: "Man falling off roof", "Crying woman", "Stagecoach driver", "Dead man", and more. Yes, they're all available, and if you're good enough – that is, if you progress up through the "hack" levels represented by the number on your character's die – you may even get to play that complicated character part "Rear-end of Horse"!

In Deadwood Studios USA (originally published as Deadwood), players wander across the backlot each day, looking for acting jobs. Your actor is a six-sided die, and the number on top represents your status. (These dice are never rolled; they just show your status.) After you take a role in the movie, you can roll a die and try to "act", or you can "rehearse" to improve your odds. As you work, you'll earn money and fame, and you can trade those things at the casting office for higher status, which brings you the ability to take better-paying roles.

At the end of the game, you add up your money, fame, and status points, and the player with the highest score is the best actor at Deadwood Studios!

WHATZIT?™ are cunningly disguised names, phrases and sayings that are turned around, upside-down, sideways or jumbled up.

You need to work out the hidden word or phrase on each card. It could be the size, position or direction that will give you a clue. Sometimes, the pictures combined with a word or a number will give you your answer

1987 - BOARD GAME:

In 'Whatzit?' the object is to solve rebus-like puzzles. (PLAY PLAY might be "double play") The roll of a die determines if you play solo, against everyone, or challenge a specific opponent. The winner moves the roll of a d6. Special spaces allow you to take a shortcut by solving a tougher "Wicked Whatzit". First to the top of the board wins.

The Rose Art edition of the game has new puzzles. The puzzles are divided into three categories of difficulty. The more difficult the puzzle, the more points it is worth. Four puzzles from each category are placed randomly in a the three by four frame. Players must solve puzzles which are orthogonally to the previously solved puzzle. The first player to reach an agreed to number of points is the winner.

HISTORY:

Known as WHATZIT?™ in the USA and Canada, KATCH-ITS™ in Australia/NZ and DINGBATS® in the UK and rest of world, are syndicated internationally, in newspapers, best-selling books and TV shows. The family board game was voted ‘Game of the Year’ in the UK and ‘Toy of the Year’ in the USA. Since then, over 2 million DINGBATS and WHATZIT board games, travel games and best-selling books have been created.

2009/2010 - iPHONE & iPOD TOUCH VERSION OF BOARD GAME:

Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of 'WHATZIT?' (since the first 'WHATZIT?' were published in Newspapers in 1980), Paul Sellers, the inventor of 'WHATZIT?' has created a new version of the game for iPhone and iPod Touch.

You can play against the clock and see if you can achieve the fastest time in the world. This highly-addictive assortment contains 15 levels of 'Sellers' favourite 180 mind-boggling puzzles for the first release and will be adding more card packs in future releases.

'WHATZIT?' is available for download on the iTunes App Store now, and you can see the new website http://www.whatzit.com, which also has a link to the 'WHATZIT?' Boardgame for iPhone.

The king is holding a great banquet for all the nobles in the realm so that they can bathe in his splendour. Artists and troubadours will bring the necessary entertainment. It is meant to be a feast that will long be remembered!

The guests attending the feast hall feel the same, for in the corners of the castle deadly plots are being developed. The guests are divided into two factions, with both planning to "dismiss" the king. One faction plans to smuggle a dagger into the feast hall to "open the king's heart to the realm" at the right time, while the other faction hopes to give the king "renewed motivation" with a poisoned drink.

In The Last Banquet, each player is a guest at the feast and needs to help his faction reach its goal and ensure that this will truly be the king's last banquet. The game includes 25 role cards, each portraying a person on the front and listing that person's skills on the back. In addition to "The Last Banquet", several other scenarios are provided in the rules that can be played with each of the roles. (GameHeads' Oliver Wolf notes, "Playing time ranges from 30 minutes up to 90 minutes or more, with more people tending to need more time to play." Also, some scenarios involve more than two factions.) Obstacle cards provide challenges for players to overcome.

When a faction succeeds in its goal, all players who belong to that faction win the game.

Have you ever heard the saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover?" Well forget all of that. This game is about judging on looks alone.

What The Face is an adult party game where you and the player to you left must each select the best face to match a description card (examples include: "thrift store shopper," "packing heat," and "has unicorn fantasies"). The other players vote on your selections and, if your face gets the most votes, you earn a point. The first player to five points wins the game.