Gambit 7
Here is a question for you. “In Tolkien’s The Hobbit, how many members of Thorin’s party was Gandalf trying to avoid having when he recruited that well known thief, Mr. Bilbo Baggins?” If you know the answer, then all well and good, because it will earn you points. If not, there is no need to worry. Instead take a look around the table at your friends and think about which one of them knows the answer – or knows an answer that is closest to the right one. Choose the right friend and if he is correct, then not only will he win himself some points, he will also win you some points. This is the basic idea behind Gambit 7, a party style game of numerical trivia in which you do not have to know the answer to win. Designed for between three and 21 players – allowing for team play – ages seven and up, a game only lasts as long as it takes to answer seven questions, so rarely lasts longer than 15 minutes. Of course, it should be pointed out that Gambit 7 is actually a reworking by Days of Wonder of North Star Games’ Wits & Wagers, specifically released in Great Britain and the Commonwealth of Nations.
The danger with Gambit 7 is its questions can be ever so slightly nerdy. Fortunately, the designers have managed to steer a course between questions both nerdy and approaching normal, and all of them tailored to a British audience. With just seven questions to answer, a game is never too long nor too taxing – even less taxing because a player does not have to know the exact answer to win. Of course, it feels great when you know the answer, but almost knowing will win you the game.
As I was standing at the counter of my local friendly gaming shop (Waylands Forge, here in Birmingham, in case you were wondering), the owner shoved a small pack of cards into my hand. “It’s a neat little trivia game,” he said. “Give it a try.” So I did with my partner Louise (who is not 16), and my daughter Alex (who is 16), playing through the seven cards in the demo two or three times, before deciding that not only did we like it, but that I liked it enough to order a copy of the full game. After all, I needed another party game in case we hold a games night for our non-gaming friends of more than five players. In the weeks since, Alex, Louise, and myself have played Gambit 7 several times, usually a couple of times each session, and Alex and I have played it with my friend, Dave. It often the case that Dave and I will play each other’s games and if we like them enough, we will buy our own copies, and so it was with Gambit 7. Dave, a science teacher, runs a quiz club at his school, and wants to use his copy of the game there. This is a perfect use for Gambit 7, which really is better with more players, making it good for a party where absolute knowledge is not required.
Inside the box, Gambit 7 comes with everything needed for seven players: seven Answer Cards, seven Dry Erase Markers, three Betting Chips per player, a 30 second timer, a Betting Board with eight spaces, a Score Board, and a set of 100 Gambit Question cards, each with seven questions. The latter are divided into eight categories: Business & Economy, Art & Literature, Geography & Nature, History & Government, Pop Culture, Science, Sports & Leisure, and Wild Card. To be honest, these categories do not matter in play because unlike the classic Trivial Pursuit, a player does not have to successfully answer a question from each category. The answer to every question is accompanied by an interesting fact.
A game is played over seven rounds. In the first round the host reads aloud the first question on the first card; in the second round, he reads aloud the second question on the second card, and so on until all seven questions have been asked and answered. Once a question has been asked, each player has 30 seconds to write his answer down on his Answer Card. Everyone’s answers are revealed and placed alongside the Betting Board in ascending order. Then everyone has another 30 seconds to decide which answer they think is right and place one or two of their Betting Chips alongside it. If a player thinks that he or another player knows the right answer, he can place both of his Betting Chips alongside that answer. If he is unsure, he can place his Chips on the two answers of his choice, neither of which need to be the answer he gave.
The Host now gets to reveal the answer and its accompanying fun fact, before comparing it with the answers everyone gave. The winning answer need not be the actual answer, but it can be the closest answer without being over it. If any player has one or more of his Betting Chips on this winning answer, he will be awarded some points.
So for example, to the question, “In the long running British Science Fiction series, Doctor Who, how many stories have been broadcast on television?” four players might give the answers 175, 195, 225, and 243. The actual answer is 200, so if anyone placed their Betting Chips on the 195 answer, they will score points. (And given the nature of the question and this web site, we can pretty much all come up with our own interesting Doctor Who fact.)
The three Betting Chips are divided into two types. When used, the two ordinary Chips will only score a player a few points each time. The other type is the Gambit 7 Chip, which can only be used on its own, and is essentially an “all or nothing” bet. If placed on a winning answer, the Gambit 7 Chip actually multiplies the player’s score by seven, but if placed on a losing answer, a player’s score is reset to nothing! In play, we saw the Gambit 7 Chip being used in the last round of a game to try and beat the leading player’s score.
Of course, the winner is the player with the highest score.
The simplicity of Gambit 7 means that the family can play with the nerds and the young can play with adults, both of whom are likely to know some of the game’s answers. The answers are actually not the whole point of game, but rather the point of the game is knowing something about your fellow family/friends/gamers and their knowledge. The simplicity of the format also allows for team play with up to seven teams of three, and if you want to turn the game into one of those cheesy game shows, who’s to stop you? The game experience does improve with more players, as more players means more answers and a wider selection to bet upon. Team play also means lots of hurried whispers as each team discusses what they think is the answer.
Gambit 7 is an excellent trivia game. It has the advantage of being suitable for most ages, and works with large groups as well as small ones. Its 700 questions should last more than a few games – the format lends itself to extra sets of questions, and for the geekiest amongst us, to actually creating new ones. Quick and easy, Gambit 7 is fun for the brainiest of us, and fun for those of us who are not quite so brainy.
And as to the question at the top of the review: what kind of geek are you?
August 8th, 2009 at 05:52
With that Doctor Who question, won’t the answer change as time passes?
or is that question really about just the old series, ignoring the new one… are there more ambiguous questions like that in the game?
August 8th, 2009 at 14:03
One thing I did avoid with the review is listing any question that appears in the game with or without its answer. Instead I gave examples that I could see appearing in the game — as yet none of them have in the games I have played. I wanted to avoid anything akin to spoilers.
The Doctor Who question is anything other than ambiguous — there been two hundred stories broadcast on television. Of course that will change in the course of time, but Gambit 7 states that its questions are up to date as of March 31st, 2009. My Doctor Who question I will admit is up to date as of April 11th 2009.
I have also only glanced through a few of the questions in the game because I do not want to ruin my further play of it, but of 49 questions asked so far in our groups, none of them have been ambiguous.