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Wanted to get some unbiased opinions from experienced gamers on a Balderdash decision using the "similar or very close" rule (see full rule #10 below).
The category was "5. Laughable Laws - What is this law?"
The question read "In Florida, it is unlawful to pass..."
The real answer was "wind, in a public place, after 6pm, on Thursdays."
A player submitted answer was "gas in a movie theater."
And for further reference, the 2 other responses were something like this:
- "a police officer driving in the right lane."
- "an alligator crossing the highway."
Would you have removed the first player's answer based on rule #10?
Please provide justification for your answer.
Full rule:
10. If a player writes an answer that is similar or very close to the real answer, put that answersheet aside and only read the answer copied from the game card. The round is played as usual but with one less answer. The player who made up this answer automatically earns 3 points and does not participate in the guessing or voting during the round. If two or more players submit an answer that is close to the real answer, the round is cancelled and the DASHER chooses a new card. The players that had the answers similar to the real one earn 3 points each.
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Give Me Gas In My Ford
United States
Elkhart
Indiana
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The law is about farting. The player's response was about farting. Give him/her 3 points. (The player even got the public place part correct.)
The rest of the answer is ridiculous and nobody will ever get that correct. In a game like this, your group needs to be flexible, no "to the letter" rules lawyers. If you have one or more, play something else with no subjectivity.
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Paul W
United States
Eugene
Oregon
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It's a party game, which means
Rule #1 - Relax and don't take things too seriously
Whenever a judgment call comes up in a party game, I just seek a consensus...rules like the one in question are meant to be interpreted as the group playing sees fit. You're not going to find an "official" answer, the only opinions that matter to this question are the opinions of those playing the game.
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Randy Cox
United States
Clemson
South Carolina
1024x768 works just fine - Don't Wide the Site!
The Back Alley gets no respect.
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I would include both the real answer and the mildly-similar one in the mix.
In fact, we play where even if two people give the exact same answer (and sometimes, the exact same answer as the real answer, making three 'right' answers) they all go in the mix. We completely ignore the game board and the rule about hitting the right answer. It's just not the fun part of the game for us.
Then, you may ask, what if three people vote for Exact Same Answer 1, two for Exact Same Answer 2, and one for The Real Answer? Depends on who we play with. Sometimes we award as they are actually guessed (like I pointed out above) and sometimes we consider the three to all be the same answer and everyone scores accordingly (in this case Player 1 and Player 2 get 6 points because six people voted for the group, and everyone who voted for any of the three gets a point for guessing the right answer, too).
The only real problem is in deciding whether people can vote for "their own answer" (because they would want to vote for one of the clones of their answer). In that case, they're hosed and have to vote for something else.
At least that's how we play it at the conventions where I get to play.
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troy jones
United States
Huntsville
Alabama
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Re: Applying the rule "...answer that is similar or very close to the real answer"
We tend to leave it to the decision of the Dasher. It's hard to seek a consensus with the other players on this, since you can't really discuss it with the group prior to voting without revealing what the real answer is. And, if I recall right, there is no round of voting if someone is awarded the three points-- you just move him up and Dasherhood passes on to the next guy. I have not read the official rules for a long time though so maybe I am getting our house rules confused with official rules, but I think that's right.
In this specific case, if I were the Dasher I would not award the three points. In my group I have heard even closer answers ruled not similar enough. We are some cutthroat balderdashers I guess.
The other, related issue mentioned by Randy is when two players submit an answer that is essentially identical to each other's, but is not the right answer. That happens most commonly on the abbreviations (my least favorite category). In that case if I am the Dasher I read off only one of the duplicate answers rather than both, and anyone guessing it gives a point to both players. Other Dashers will read off both and insist players choose which one of the two identical answers they are guessing. This to me seems silly, since you know if two identical answers are read off that they are both wrong, since if they were right the three points would've already been awarded. The people I play with have not settled on a house rule on this issue since in their eyes it doesn't come up often enough to be worth making a rule over, so on the rare occasions it does come up, it just gets left up to the Dasher to decide how they will handle it.
I guess I would say in our games the Dasher has quite a bit of leeway in how they present the others' answers.
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