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Players: 3-8 (ages 8+)
Playing Time: 20-40 minutes
So you’re hanging out at the library with your best friend when she tells you the funniest joke ever. You start laughing so hard that you start hiccupping, which only attracts the librarian’s attention even more—and now she’s heading your way. You just happen to have a beach towel, a bottle of hot sauce, a clothes hanger, and a few other random items handy. How do you use them to get yourself out of this sticky situation?
If you can come up with the most creative uses for the most ridiculous items, you’ll be victorious over the competition in Now What? If not…well, at least you’ll have a whole lot of wacky fun in the process.
To begin, each player chooses a set of colored chips. At the start of the first round, a number of Item cards are placed in the center of the playing area (the number varies, depending on the number of players), and one player draws a Dilemma Card and reads it out loud. Each player then comes up with a solution to the Dilemma (the more outrageous, the better), using three of the Items. Once all of the players have come up with a solution (and have written down their three items), they take turns telling their stories. As they do, they place one colored chip on each of the Items used.
After all of the stories have been told, players collect their chips—and, if they’re lucky, their Item cards. If a card has just one chip on it, that player gets to keep the card. If a card has two or more chips on it, it’s discarded. The used cards are then replaced with new ones, and another round begins.
Play continues until someone collects 10 cards to win the game.
Now What? is a wonderfully silly—yet surprisingly challenging—game that’s sure to get your creative juices flowing. Whether you’re trying to find a serious solution to the Dilemma or a completely ridiculous one, you’ll have to think long and hard to come up with creative uses for a random assortment of items. Depending on the Dilemma—and the Items at your disposal—it can get pretty tricky.
Still, it’s all in kooky, creative fun—and the sillier the stories get, the more fun it is. After a while—once players start to get the hang of it—they’ll start trying to one-up each other, coming up with more outrageous (and even crazier) solutions. And once the giggles start, they just won’t stop until the game is over.
In this high-tech age of handheld video games and portable DVD players, kids seem to have fewer and fewer opportunities to be truly creative—and that’s what makes Now What? such a treat. Not only is it silly and fun for the whole family, but it also encourages kids (and grown-ups, too) to be creative. It’s sure to become a Family Game Night favorite.
