Wits and Wagers Party

I was really excited to try Wits and Wagers but didn’t end up liking it as much as I thought I would. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot I do like about the game, the questions were fun and interesting. I liked being able to vote on other answers as well, but it did feel a bit dry and very quick. It would probably play better with multiple people on teams where there could be an answer discussion. With that in mind, before I say I don’t like it, I think I need to try it again in a larger settings with teams. Wits and Wagers is fairly popular game so it right for a lot of people.

Let’s go over the game, this version is for 4 to 18 players so it will accommodate a very large group. It takes about half an hour to play and is for ages 8 and up.

Components

105 question cards
12 betting tokens
50 poker chips
6 dry-erase pens
6 dry-erase player boards
1 Elvis-impersonator board
1 rules manual

To set up the game divide into 3 to 6 teams. Teams can range from 1 player to 3 players per team. Each team will get a pen, answer board and betting token that matches their board. The Elvis answer board will go in the center of the table. Place the cards and the poker chips on the table.

When you are ready to play, the first question will be asked. Each team comes up with what they think the best answer is and writes it down. Sort the answers from smallest to largest in a row. If more than one answer is the same you can stack it.

Now it’s time to place bets on who you think is the closest without going over. The two tokens can be split on different answers and you can vote for yourself if you’d like.

The answer is then read aloud and the closest answer without going over wins.

To score that round:

the player who wrote the correct answer gets a poker chip
a poker chip goes to whoever put their token on the correct answer
the elvis “1” board pays double, if you bet on this you get two tokens

Nothing changes until the 7th final round. In this round you can also go all in and bet some of those poker chips you picked up along the way. They must be stacked under a betting token. If you are right it will pay off well but if you are wrong you will lose those chips so choose wisely.

Once all the rounds are complete the highest score wins.

Wits and Wagers can accommodate a large group, it’s family friendly and very little rules to have to be explained. I do need to try this one again, but at the moment I would rather play a game like cranium or Trivial Pursuit. Also if you like the way the game is set up, it is very similar in style to Say Anything which I enjoyed a lot more. However, I do get the appeal and why a game like this could be useful in a collection.