TriBond
| Genre(s) | Trivia |
|---|---|
| Players | 3 or more players or teams |
| Setup time | 1-2 minutes |
| Playing time | 30 minutes to 1 hour |
| Random chance | Low, dice rolling for movement and category |
| Skill(s) required | Trivia knowledge, Lateral Thinking |
TriBond is a board game that has sold over 3 million copies in 14 countries since its release in 1990. It requires players to determine a common bond between three subjects. It follows in the tradition of Trivial Pursuit, Outburst and other adult boardgames that require a wide range of knowledge but TriBond requires some problem solving ability as well.
TriBond was invented by Tim Walsh, Dave Yearick, and Ed Muccini. The idea first came to them in 1987 while they were students at Colgate University. The inspiration came when they learned that John Haney and Ed Werner, who invented Trivial Pursuit, had also attended Colgate. They wanted to invent a game that provided an intellectual challenge but also had a broader appeal than games of straight trivia questions that had been very popular in the 80's. Within two years, they had their first prototype of TriBond and were ready to market the game.
Initial marketing for the game was difficult. Parker Brothers, Mattel, Tyco and several other game companies all turned TriBond down. At the time they were working with Patch Products to manufacture the game. Tim Walsh talked them into hiring him on as a marketing manager to sell TriBond. With some clever promoting techniques they were able to sell around 150,000 copies of TriBond in 1993. By 1996 TriBond had sold over a million copies. In 2015, for TriBond's 25th Anniversary, Tim Walsh entered into business with Everest Toys in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada. Together the game was revamped to have a more party game type of feel, by adding more fun and exciting ways to play.
Since its release, there have been six major releases of TriBond:
The main feature of the game is the TriBond "Threezer". This word was invented by the maker of TriBond to describe the three word clues the players must analyze and determine what all three have in common. Some of the threezers are not difficult while others are quite challenging. The threezers originally came in four different categories listed below.
With the TriBond 2005 release, the Miscellaneous category was removed and some new categories added. Listed below are the 2005 categories.
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