True Colors

By Milton Bradley (first printing), Pressman (rerelease)

Published in: 1992

True Colors is a party game designed for three to six adult players, meant more as a fun activity for friends instead of really a game to win. One game usually takes between 30 minutes to an hour.

The adult players is suggested because some of the questions probably don't fit a younger group. ("Who here is most likely to have sex tonight?" for example)

Equipment:

6 clips of varying colors
6 voting boxes
6 sets of 36 voting cards, each set matching a color of clip
Question cards
Scoring pad

Rules:

Each player takes one of the clips, and attaches it to themselves in a visible location - this will be their color for the game.

For each round, each player is given 6 voting cards of each color of player that is in the game. Shuffle the question cards, and each player will take one, and place it in the front of the voting box.

Now, each player will look at the question on the card, and slide two voting cards into the slot on the top of the box. These two cards represent their votes for the player that best fits the question. Sample questions include, "Which person has the toughest time saying NO?", "Whose body could you best identify in the dark?", and "If you had to dress for a 60's costume party, whose closet could you raid?". You can vote twice for the same person, or once each for two different people. You can even vote for yourself, if you think you best fit the question.

After each player votes, players pass the voting boxes to the left, and vote on the next card. This continues until all players have voted on all the questions.

Now, it's time to predict the voting outcomes. Each player, in turn, predicts whether they have received the "most", "some", or "none" of the votes. (Some means at least one vote, but not the most) A tie for the highest amount means nobody had the most. A correct prediction for either "most" or "none" yields the player three points, one for "some" yields one point, and an incorrect guess means zero points.

Then, votes are counted, and scores marked.

Voting cards are passed back out to the players again, new question cards are selected, and the next round begins.

The game ends when one player reaches 10 points.

Comments:

This is an absolutely great game to play with a bunch of good friends, as long as none of them are easily offended - some questions have the potential to upset someone depending on the outcome of voting. It does give you a great chance to get a feel for how your friends really feel about you, done in a enjoyable manner.

It's recommended for a group of friends. After all, the questions require some knowledge about the other players, and if you don't really know anyone, all you really can do is guess. Winning isn't even that high on the list of priorities - just the results of the questions and the discussions that can occur because of them usually makes sure everyone is having a great time. Heck, you'll soon get used to people saying, "Ok, who voted for me?", and the reaction of someone after they find out THEY'RE the one people think is most likely to take the last piece of cake or rack up the 900 number phone bill can be hilarious, and there are often smiles when they take the top vote for being the one people want to be stranded with on a desert island.

Winning is a rather special feat, though, since it requires you to have the best vision of how OTHERS see you, and that can be very difficult to do at times. But it's also very educational in that manner, as you learn where you stand in the group - that's assuming you're willing to actually find out.

I had a lot of fun with the game in college, as it was very common to be able to get six people together to play. (I don't recommend any fewer than five people) Since then, though, I haven't had much of a chance to play, though I'm surely going to get this going again now that I've got a group of friends that regularly gets together. I would recommend this game to anyone who gets together with a group of people on a regular basis.

After the game went out of print by Milton Bradley, enough people wanted to get a hold of it that the $20 game started going for $60 or $70 on EBay. However, in the late nineties, Pressman Toys managed to get the license for the game, and rereleased it with a redesigned look, thus the two versions can be rather easily told apart.

Sources:
Pressman Toy Instructions - True Colors, http://www.pressmantoy.com/instructions/TrueColors.html
The Board Game Geek, http://www.boardgamegeek.com

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