BEST BOARD GAMES START A FAMILY TRADITION
This month the family tree in your scrapbook will come to life as you decide to bring in your 25th wedding anniversary with 25 close family members. Having sent out the invites in advance you are counting on your aunt form Georgia and second cousin from Atlanta to be present. After planning out the extra seating arrangement that runs into your patio and personalizing the event by baking your own cake, you are now faced with the next challenge- giving them all something to do. Family stories, stunning table spreads and sessions of group photographs will run out sooner than you expect. Count on Double Ditto, the family board game from Inspiration Play to renew ties and even create a new family tradition. This best-seller is a tip for sustaining a family board game culture. Easy to get started, this board game comes with score sheets, a 15 second sand timer and an inexhaustible collection of 400 topic cards. With questions as direct as ‘ocean animals’ to the less obvious with ‘foods that would be fun to throw’, every round is a fast-paced, roller coaster ride that builds a rush of suspense which is then released within 15 seconds as the players jot down two things that enter their minds first. Every round has a ‘Ditto Master’ who picks a card and reads the question to the group. All players are forced to jot down two answers they can come up with and feel will match with the other players’. 1 point is scored when one answer matches and is considered a ‘Ditto’ and 3 points are scored when both the answers match for a ‘Double Ditto’. Players often do away with the 15 second rule and may even extend a bonus of 5 points where two players match both the answers of each-other. In the end, person with the highest score wins this family fun game. Like in every family, there are bound to be a few disagreements here, too. Thankfully, those pertaining to the answers for Double Ditto are easy to resolve. You will find yourself armed with an instruction booklet which clarifies what is meant by a match. Players can score points even if their answers are incorrect, as long as they find a match. Answers that are considered a match are literally the same or connote the same meaning such as ‘opening gifts’ and ‘unwrapping presents’. Awarded game of the year in 2016 by the Creative child magazine this best board game of all time had run out of stock last year. One sign of a successful party is that everyone is with everyone. Let the youngest in the lot conduct this game. Easy to explain and execute, make your niece from middle grade, star of the party as she takes over and directs your group of adults for the next one hour. With every celebration, you find your wad of topics getting thinner. That’s the time to buy the additional expansion pack of new 300 topics with fresh score sheets. After all, this tradition of fun family board game is all about having some fun and learning more about our lineage.