Fun Facts

A few years ago, my mum asked me to provide a game for the Christmas entertainment. Shortly after asking me to do this, she then sent me a message saying she’d bought one. That game was Just One, and it very quickly became one of the family favourites during holidays and general gatherings. In the last year, a new game from the same publishers, Repos Production, have pulled another family weight party game from under their sombrero to go alongside So Clover and Just One. And this game is pretty deceptive because Fun Facts is not so much a game about facts as the name might suggest. This isn’t a quiz game so you don’t need to know who the last 7 presidents are. What you do need to know is yourself, and maybe the people around you. What more could you want to know? … Oh right, how to play.

The Game

Shuffle the cards and put 8 in a facedown pile. The rest of the cards can go back to the box. Every player gets an arrow and a pen, writing their name on one side so the arrow points up. The other side will be used for your answer. Give the star to someone who will be the first player. Your goal is to order answers to a personal question in ascending order by predicting how everyone else will answer.

The game plays over 8 rounds, with three phases on each round: Answer; Place; and Reveal. In the Answer phase, the first player reads the question from the card aloud. Then each player writes their own answer to the question on the Answer side of their arrow. This answer will be a number, sometimes followed by some unit of measurement, such as hours, feet or years. Some cards will specify a range from 0 – 100 in the bottom right corner, so bare this in mind. Also, you should not share any addition information during this phase.

The Place phase starts with the start player (shocking twist, right?) placing their arrow Answer side down in the middle of the table. From there, each player places their own on the line, depending on where they think their answer would be in the order. If they think it is the lowest value, it will go below all other arrows. Highest, it’ll go above all others and if it’s between two players, pop it between the two arrows. After everyone has placed their arrow, the first player can choose to move their arrow if they want to.

Then we Reveal. Starting with the lowest placed arrow, flip them over to show all the answers. Then remove any which are not in the right order so that you have a nice line. If there are multiple options to remove, the players choose. You collectively score one point for each arrow in the right order and write this as a running total on the star. Then pass the star to the next player and a new round begins.

How Much Do You Like This Game?

I’m going to jump to the point. I think I might have a new favourite family game. Just One is good, but after a few years of playing, it’s time switch things up. And Fun Facts really delivered. The game is very simple, which means it’s fine for an evening around the dinner table after everyone’s had a drink or two. The questions are personal but not Cards Against Humanity level of personal which means no-one is uncomfortable. I’m sure if you felt like it, you could create an adult version, but that’s up to you. For me, I like the regular version just fine, what with around 150 cards to play with. What’s hugely appealing for me is that even if the cards come out the same on future plays, the answers may differ depending on time passed and the number of players.

There are two things I’m not thrilled about in this game. One is the scoring system. Not because I don’t think it doesn’t work, it does, but I don’t think it’s actually needed for a co-operative family game unless you feel particularly competitive. The other issue I have is the pens. Dry-erase is absolutely necessary for this game but why aren’t they full sized? I’ve got fairly large hands and holding the pens from my primary school is a little annoying.

I deeply enjoyed playing Fun Facts this Christmas, learning some new things about my family like how many continents we’ve individually set foot on (5 for most of us), and having a casual fun conversation happening whilst we played. It’s what got me into gaming really, the whole experience that happens when you play a good game. It’s something new and fresh which I appreciate, and it gives you something to talk about for a good while after you’ve packed the game away. Repos, you’ve done it again! Just… bigger pens next time please?