Cranium is a bit of an older game, but timeless. In my game collection it replaced trivial pursuit. It is for teens and adults, you need 4 or more to players and it takes about an hour to play.
Cranium is played with teams which is why you need a minimum of four players. Each team starts the game and pick their category to start.
The game has four categories.
Creative Cat: This is a creative category where you have either a draw or sculpt and get your guess the answer.
Word worm: This is all about words, it could spelling, defining words or filling in the blanks
Datahead: This is general trivia. It can be multiple choice or true or false
Star performer: This contains charades, humming a tune or impressions.
In the deck there are also some Club Cranium cards. These are for both teams, the first team to get the correct answer gets a bonus roll. If it was your team that pulled the card, don’t worry you will get another card right after.
In Cranium you roll the dice after you have a correct answer. If the team answers their first card successfully, they get to roll the dice and proceed to that color on the fast track. If the team doesn’t answer successfully they stay at the start until they answer a card correctly, then they travel on the slow path. With the exception of a club cranium card, you only get one card per turn.
When you get to a planet cranium space you must stop there for your question. That will determine which track you are on for the next section.
Once you make it to the end and find yourself at the end, on your turn you will roll the dice to determine which deck of cards to start on. On each turn, complete one activity from each of the decks. If your answer is wrong stay on that deck for your next turn. After all decks are complete the other team will pick a final card from any deck. If you answer correctly your team wins.
The con of this game is if your team doesn’t get on the fast track and the other team does, it is really hard to catch up. Once you are really far behind, the game basically becomes just waiting for the inevitable loss. Which isn’t a lot of fun. However if the teams are close together the game can get pretty tense.
The pro between this over a game like trivial pursuit is it deals with different types of skill sets. You aren’t dependant on being a trivia expert to succeed and since you are on a team people can strategically play their strengths. It’s definitely worth having in any collection, it’s good as a party game for any group that wants a bit of a challenge that still has a lighthearted side.
If you like Cranium, try one of these games:
The Skillful Meeple 
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