Guess Who

FADE IN:

INT. DENNY'S RESTAURANT - NIGHT

In the bowels of suburban Indianapolis, coffee percolates and kitchen staff
shout at each other in the distance.

JOSH, international man-of-pancakes, 25 and poised to quit Radio Shack, nods
sagely. JAMES, Italian-American blogging genius extraordinaire, 24 and
nearing grad school, grunts with decision.

                               JAMES
      Are you part of an evil conspiracy to take over the world?

                               JOSH
      Oh yes. The conspiracy is mine.

                               JAMES
      Are you close friends with the man who played Donatello in
      Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of the Ooze?

                               JOSH
      You're hot on my trail!

                               JAMES
      ANDY! You are Andy! You are just a head with facial hair
      hiding a complete lack of body.

JOSH hangs his head in defeat.

Somewhere in the early 2000s, Denny’s (the breakfast-style restaurant that’s not really a diner but wants to be) sported a Guess Who place mat. My friends and I took the opportunity to dust off an old house-rule that makes the game actually fun for adults.

You are not allowed to ask questions about physical appearance.

That’s the crux of it! That little change takes the game from elementary school to party time. Very quickly your questions devolve into abstract philosophy, profiling, and silliness.

Take a look at the board below:

One look at Megan and it’s obvious that she lost her other earring in a torrid love affair with Sir Alec Guinness. Chris and Daniel are each other’s imaginary friends. Zachary… he loves you.

Ask your opponent if their character is a Republican, or if they have a secret shrine to Taylor Swift in their closet. On the one hand it’s possible that you’ll disagree on some point or another, but it’s actually pretty rare. More likely you’ll end up like Josh and I did, developing intricate and intertwining backstories for every character that reveal the complex plotting of evil masterminds. In our game, a large number of these people are dead now. Some of natural causes, some of imagination, and poor Rachel who died of cancer complicated by bullets.

Grab the image above and email it to a friend and start a game today!