Not Tonight Josephine (2004)

BoardGameGeek Link

Game Box

Game Board

Board game based on historical and eclectic trivia. I picked this game up at a second hand store in NZ. Inside the box was a printed sheet that indicated that this game had been brought into NZ by Jayz International a game/puzzle/educational wholesaler based in Auckland. The box also has an Australian website address, however this is no longer active.

Components

Game Components

The game comes in a standard sized modern game box with a fold out good quality board. The board
graphics are fun and colourful and depict various historical scenes, the majority being of a conflict nature. The counters are coloured glass beads and the coins are punched cardboard. you also get the ubiquitous die for player movement. There are also 792 question cards supplied in two boxes. The card quality is similar to the original trivia pursuit.

Gameplay

Question Card Examples

The object of the game is to collect 5 coins and then return to the centre. To collect coins you need to roll the die and move around the board (in a counterclockwise direction only) to land on a category space and then answer correctly either one or both trivia questions from a card drawn from the card box. The trivia questions have three multiple choice answers and are from two categories from around the board. See the picture for an example.  

Colourful Graphics

If you are fortunate to land on a space that matches either of the categories on the next drawn card you are in a position to win a coin if you choose that category and answer that question correctly. If there is no match then you choose to answer either of the category questions with the reward of another turn. If you land on a Double Trouble space you need to answer BOTH questions on the card correctly to win a coin. if you answer any question incorrectly OR win a coin the die passes to the next player. So the game flows in a similar way to Trivia Pursuit in that you are collecting coins (instead of cheese pieces) and then returning to the start space. The first player to collect 5 coins and return to start wins.
There's not much more than that to the game. Rules can be found here.

Good points

• Some interesting and challenging questions
• Lots of categories
• Plays 2-6, but easily scalable for more players/teams
• Good looking game with good components other than the cardboard coins

Not so good points

• Too much randomness in die rolling
• No real strategy at all
• 5 coins for the win can take some time, especially with more players

Votes

John       6/10
Neil       6/10

Overall average 6.0

Summary

An interesting find and an enjoyable game from the question point of view. Struggles to be more than a knowledge game and the randomness of the die and movement means that the game becomes less enjoyable. Probably good for a party atmosphere with some know-it-alls present!