Board Game Review: Awkward Family Photos Game

People posed for these.

My wife and I get invited to game nights with friends from time to time, so consider this the first in a very occasional series on various board games.

Let’s start with one that’s based on a website.

This Game Exists?:  Yes, it does.  The board and various cards are covered with truly awkward and embarrassing photos from the website dedicated to, well, awkward family photos.

Is It Hard To Play?:  Not in the slightest.  The rules are pretty simple.  Draw a card to match a picture on the board.  One player rolls a 20-sided dice to determine which of 20 questions on the board to ask about the photo matching the card.  The other players write down their answers and pass them off to the player to the dice-rollers left or right, and then the player who asked the question has to guess who answered what, while also stating a favorite answer.  The player with the favorite answer gets to put a game token down on the board for that photo.  If the dice-thrower can guess correctly who wrote three or four (depending on the number of players, as the game requires 4-6 players), the dice-thrower can put one of his or her own tokens on any spot on the board.  Then the player who read the responses gets to roll the dice, and the players take turns guessing.  First player to put down all of his or her tokens or three in a row on the board wins.

Is It Fun?:  As long as no one takes it all that seriously.  Creative players can help there.  My father-in-law got roped into playing once and he just ignored the questions and wrote whatever he dang well felt like for every question.  That actually made things more fun even if it meant his own guesses were easy to pick out.

When Does It Get Frustrating?:  If the dice somehow constantly rolls the same question too many times.  It can happen.

Any Neat Features?:  The board is double-sided, with two decks of cards, so if you get tired of one set of pictures, you can flip the board, take out the other deck, and play with them.

Overall Score:  Let’s say 6 out of 10 game tokens.  Not the most creative game, but fun with the right group of players.