Adding in house rules like this keeps the game refreshing and allows smaller groups of players to tackle the game and have just as much fun. Also, to make the games a bit quicker we added a house rule where once the time had run out on a round, the other team could chime in with answers to score points for themselves; however as soon as a wrong answer was given, the round was finished. When we first played Tension, there were only three of us available but we didn’t let that stop us from getting a couple of games in. If you are one of the first players to play your disc, you get rid of the disc while the slowest player has to take all of the played discs.

A Question Mark means you have to predict a number (after hearing the title of the round) and score exactly that in the round or don’t move at all. Being a pure speed game, Tension is a game that some people are going to be great at while others are going to be terrible. Unless all of the players are about equally skilled in speed games, this kind of leads to a boring game where one or two players are always going to win while the other players have no chance of winning. With so few mechanics it is not surprising that Tension is a game that you can can teach to new players quickly. While I actually think it would be interesting playing two discs each turn, the two player game is lacking the competitive nature of the four player game.Players will race to play one of their discs of the color spun onto one of the corresponding colored spaces on the gameboard. It’s a case of shout them out, while the person asking the question keeps score using the peg scorers. If you are only playing with three players you will fill in one of the spaces for each color on the gameboard with one of the dark blue covers. Since the board does not have a space for all of the players’ discs one of the players will not be able to play one of their discs. Two of us took the roles of players while the other became the quiz master and tried to keep up with the flurry of answers.

If you have any questions, comments, or would like to see you product reviewed on Geeky Hobbies, check out our contact us page. Everyone races to claim one of the spots (chairs) on the gameboard and one player is left without a spot (chair) to put one of their discs. Just looking at the box for the 1970 Kohner board game Tension you would assume that it is one of the most tense board games ever made. Tension really is a game of its name as the pressure of the one minute timer can make even the fullest brain empty of all its knowledge.

I tested N on some of the questions afterwards, and he enjoyed it, so I bought the family version of the game for him for his birthday. You only get 1 minute to give as many answers as you can on a subject, therefore the questions are not the most difficult. As the active team fires out answers, the question team must mark off every correct answer on the interactive marker pad, and then move the other team’s piece forward that many spaces. The simple rules and wide subject matter make it a great choice for families, or a lightweight trivia starter to your game night.

The components inside are quite minimalistic; 2 packs of cards, a scoring device, a timer and a foldable game board. I could see children younger than six being able to play the game but I don’t know if they would be very good at it.

Covering topics like foods, brands, clothing, inventors, films and sports, there’s a great breadth of topic to ponder over. We could play it without the board, and just have a number of spaces to get to to win, rather than spiralling all round the board.

If a player has no discs of the color that was spun, they can place any of their discs on one of the spaces corresponding to the color spun. There will regularly be two or more players trying to place a disc in the same space at the same time. Since the game relies entirely on speed, the player(s) that are best at speed games are always going to win.The person setting the quiz questions had included a Tension round based on the board game, and it was a lot of fun. You can spread out which spaces you cover up but each player is still going to have some colors that they are going to have a harder time placing a disc in. What’s more is that the base game covers so many different topics, themes and genres that every player has their chance to show off a speciality subject whilst not having a clue in others. Like a lot of these type of games where all of the players rush to do something at the same time, really aggressive players can ruin the game. Great for involving different generations, this version includes cards that are appropriate for players as young as 8 years old.