Cranium (board game)
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| Players | 4+ |
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| Age range | 8+ |
| Setup time | approx. 2 minutes |
| Playing time | > 35 minutes |
| Random chance | Medium |
| Skill(s) required | Creativity, General knowledge |
Cranium is a party game created by Whit Alexander and Richard Tait in 1998, after Richard spent a weekend playing games with another family and recognized the need for a game involving a variety of skills. He left his job at Microsoft, convincing his friend and co-worker Whit Alexander to join him in the creation of Cranium. Cranium, manufactured by Hasbro subsidiary Cranium, Inc., is billed as "The Game for Your Whole Brain". Unlike many other party games, Cranium includes a wide variety of activities. Giorgio Davanzo handles packaging and branding for the game, and the artwork is done by Gary Baseman, creator of the animated television series Teacher's Pet.
The board is laid out as a circuit, consisting of different color spaces. Each color corresponds to a question card category. Purple "Planet Cranium" spaces give the team their choice of category.
Players are divided into two, three, or four teams. Each team picks a mover (game piece).
Order of play: The team with the player whose birthday is coming up next starts the game. Play then continue clockwise to the next team. Each team, in turn, places its mover on a purple "Planet Cranium" space.
Creative Cat - These blue cards are creative activities. All of the blue cards have vague hints.
Data Head - These red cards revolve around knowledge of data and facts.
Star Performer - These green cards are themed around:
Word Worm - These yellow cards are themed around words, spelling, and anagrams. Two types of spelling challenges and three types of cards are involved in this category.
On each turn, a team has a chance to complete an activity on one card and advance along the board. If the team is on a purple space (as all teams are on the start space), they can choose the first card from any of the four categories. If they are on a colored space, the first card from the corresponding category is selected. If the team successfully completes the card they have chosen, the die is then rolled to determine what space the team moves to. Whether the activity is completed successfully or not, the turn always ends after one card.
If the team completes an activity successfully before timer runs out, they roll the color-faced die and move to the next space of the color they roll, or to the next Planet Cranium space, whichever is closer. If they roll purple, they go to either the next purple space or the next Planet Cranium space, whichever is closer.
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Wikipedia