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PLAYERS: Up to six players or six teams
PLAYING TIME: About 2½ hours, depending on the beverages of choice
The days of college beer-drinking games have come and gone. The tedious joy of flipping quarters has seen its day. We’ve become older, full of information with no outlet to expound onto others. Alas, the depression has been lifted by a risqué new board game called Tawdry Trivia.
Having been spoon-fed morning radio shows like Howard Stern, and having seen how a simple protein stain on a dress gripped a nation, the creators of this game have carved a niche out of the sultry side of trivia.
The game is set up much like Trivial Pursuit — with a twist. The board is designed much like the Everleigh Club, a posh 1900s Chicago brothel. The goal is to answer questions and gain tokens in each of the eight Experience Rooms. These eight rooms represent eight categories or types of questions. Indecent Exposure deals with those steamy scenes in movies like “Showgirls,” wild books, and other artsy things. For those familiar with the underbelly of political figures, celebrities, and sports figures, then Naughty Notables will be your cup of tea. Perversions and Peccadillos, Flaunting It, Bawdy Banter, Sex Education, Flying High, and Historic Decadence round out the other six. Question difficulty ranges from: “What was the first X-rated film to be shown at a British Royal Command performance? (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie) to: “Whose ‘Love’ video was considered too graphic to be shown on MTV in 1990?” (Madonna).
I’m not going to cover the full set of rules since you can find them on the maker’s web site — which is also the only place where you can purchase the game. What I will tell you is that this game can be played with either six people or six teams. I recommend the team aspect — because much more mayhem will occur in a team atmosphere. For the full game to be played, it will take around 2½ hours, depending on the beverages of choice (the rules will also explain a shorter version).
Each team starts out with $5000 and continues to earn money for each correct answer. You need $3000 to answer an Experience Room question — which, if answered correctly, will gain you a token. Once you have all eight tokens, you go to the Madam’s Chamber and pay $5000 to answer the question and possibly become the Tawdry winner.
I spent an evening playing this game with a group of friends. We played the regular version instead of the Totally Depraved Tawdry, a version that’s great for the uninhibited. To gain extra money, you can give up various articles of clothing. How randy! You earn more money when the clothing items are more intimate. I believe this is something my Dutch grandmother would not find appropriate.
So, when I played this with my friends, we had two teams of members each. It was a great time! You never realize how much bizarre information a collective group holds until you play this game. (Though that may be a good thing.) We found the questions to be quite challenging — holding degrees in Political Science, History, Anatomy, and Useless Information would definitely help.
Tawdry Trivia is entertaining and challenging. Each one of my friends who played the game had a great time — there’s nothing bad I could even allude to in this game. It’s a masterpiece of fun. I recommend this game to anyone without puritanical beliefs. You won’t be disappointed.
NOTE: This is an adult game, so please don’t buy it for your children. It may give them a skewed version of sex and adult behavior patterns.
