Designers, Publishers & History

25 questions · Answers revealed below each question · Print this set

1. 1.Which word game did Alfred Butts first call Lexiko?

   • A. Bananagrams
   • B. Upwords
   • C. Scrabble
   • D. Boggle
   Show answer

   Scrabble

   Did you know? Butts renamed Lexiko as Scrabble in the late 1930s.

2. 2.What is the maximum score in a single cribbage hand?

   • A. 29
   • B. 28
   • C. 31
   • D. 19
   Show answer

   29

   Did you know? The perfect twenty-nine hand in cribbage combines fives with a jack matching the starter.

3. 3.Which board game designer sent Scythe's mechs across 1920s Eastern Europe?

   • A. Charles Darrow
   • B. Wolfgang Kramer
   • C. Jamey Stegmaier
   • D. Seiji Kanai
   Show answer

   Jamey Stegmaier

   Did you know? Jamey Stegmaier co-founded the publisher Stonemaier Games.

4. 4.Which board game publisher sent Ticket to Ride's trains onto millions of tables?

   • A. GMT Games
   • B. Mattel
   • C. Ravensburger
   • D. Days of Wonder
   Show answer

   Days of Wonder

   Did you know? Days of Wonder is now part of the Asmodee group.

5. 5.In international draughts, how many pieces does each side start with?

   • A. 20
   • B. 12
   • C. 16
   • D. 24
   Show answer

   20

   Did you know? International draughts uses a ten-by-ten board with twenty pieces per side.

6. 6.Which board game designer counted letter frequencies on newspaper pages to invent Scrabble?

   • A. Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
   • B. Alfred Butts
   • C. Uwe Rosenberg
   • D. Jamey Stegmaier
   Show answer

   Alfred Butts

   Did you know? Alfred Butts was an architect who first called his word game Lexiko.

7. 7.Which board game publisher relaunched Netrunner and builds big-box adventures?

   • A. Fantasy Flight Games
   • B. GMT Games
   • C. Rio Grande Games
   • D. Z-Man Games
   Show answer

   Fantasy Flight Games

   Did you know? Fantasy Flight Games is a Roseville, Minnesota, publisher.

8. 8.Which ancient Egyptian game, over 5,000 years old, is often cited as the oldest known board game?

   • A. the Royal Game of Ur
   • B. Senet
   • C. Hnefatafl
   • D. Mancala
   Show answer

   Senet

   Did you know? Senet boards have been found in Egyptian tombs dating back some 5,000 years.

9. 9.Which board game designer stacked the tower of Jenga?

   • A. Leslie Scott
   • B. Matt Leacock
   • C. Donald X. Vaccarino
   • D. Vlaada Chvátil
   Show answer

   Leslie Scott

   Did you know? Leslie Scott grew up in East Africa and named Jenga from Swahili.

10. 10.Which board game publisher carried Dominion and Euro classics into English shops?

    • A. Avalon Hill
    • B. Z-Man Games
    • C. Rio Grande Games
    • D. Parker Brothers
    Show answer

    Rio Grande Games

    Did you know? Rio Grande Games is an American publisher of Euro-style games.

11. 11.Which board game designer brokered real-estate trades in Acquire?

    • A. Sid Sackson
    • B. Seiji Kanai
    • C. Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
    • D. Elizabeth Magie
    Show answer

    Sid Sackson

    Did you know? Sid Sackson documented his favorite games in the book A Gamut of Games.

12. 12.Which board game publisher built the two-player line that carried Catan to the world?

    • A. Ravensburger
    • B. Hasbro
    • C. GMT Games
    • D. Kosmos
    Show answer

    Kosmos

    Did you know? Catan was first published by Kosmos in 1995.

13. 13.Which board game designer moved El Grande's caballeros and 6 nimmt!'s rows?

    • A. Wolfgang Kramer
    • B. Bruno Cathala
    • C. Anthony Pratt
    • D. Alexander Pfister
    Show answer

    Wolfgang Kramer

    Did you know? Wolfgang Kramer co-designed Tikal, which won the Spiel des Jahres in 1999.

14. 14.Which board game publisher spread Pandemic's cooperative cure worldwide?

    • A. Ravensburger
    • B. Mattel
    • C. Z-Man Games
    • D. Rio Grande Games
    Show answer

    Z-Man Games

    Did you know? Z-Man Games publishes Pandemic and the English Carcassonne line.

15. 15.Which board game designer patented The Landlord's Game, seed of Monopoly?

    • A. Alan R. Moon
    • B. Antoine Bauza
    • C. Alfred Butts
    • D. Elizabeth Magie
    Show answer

    Elizabeth Magie

    Did you know? Elizabeth Magie patented The Landlord's Game in 1904 to teach about land economics.

16. 16.Which board game publisher modeled the Cold War in Twilight Struggle?

    • A. Fantasy Flight Games
    • B. Z-Man Games
    • C. Kosmos
    • D. GMT Games
    Show answer

    GMT Games

    Did you know? GMT Games is a California publisher known for wargames.

17. 17.Which board game designer crowned domino tiles into the kingdom game Kingdomino?

    • A. Reiner Knizia
    • B. Richard Garfield
    • C. Bruno Cathala
    • D. Donald X. Vaccarino
    Show answer

    Bruno Cathala

    Did you know? Bruno Cathala is a French designer of Kingdomino and Five Tribes.

18. 18.Which board game designer devised the mansion-murder deductions of Cluedo?

    • A. Uwe Rosenberg
    • B. Anthony Pratt
    • C. Elizabeth Hargrave
    • D. Klaus Teuber
    Show answer

    Anthony Pratt

    Did you know? Anthony Pratt was an English musician who conceived Cluedo in the 1940s.

19. 19.Which board game designer gave woodland factions asymmetric laws in Root?

    • A. Vlaada Chvátil
    • B. Cole Wehrle
    • C. Phil Walker-Harding
    • D. Seiji Kanai
    Show answer

    Cole Wehrle

    Did you know? Cole Wehrle also designed Pax Pamir, set in nineteenth-century Afghanistan.

20. 20.Which board game designer drove cattle down the Great Western Trail?

    • A. Phil Walker-Harding
    • B. Richard Garfield
    • C. Donald X. Vaccarino
    • D. Alexander Pfister
    Show answer

    Alexander Pfister

    Did you know? Alexander Pfister's Isle of Skye won the Kennerspiel des Jahres in 2016.

21. 21.In what kind of shop did UNO's inventor first print and sell his game in 1971?

    • A. a barbershop
    • B. a toy store
    • C. a bookstore
    • D. a bakery
    Show answer

    a barbershop

    Did you know? Merle Robbins printed his first UNO decks at his Reading, Ohio, barbershop.

22. 22.Which board game designer condensed court intrigue into Love Letter's sixteen cards?

    • A. Jamey Stegmaier
    • B. Cole Wehrle
    • C. Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
    • D. Seiji Kanai
    Show answer

    Seiji Kanai

    Did you know? Seiji Kanai is a Japanese designer of Love Letter and Lost Legacy.

23. 23.Which board game publisher pioneered American wargames before joining Hasbro?

    • A. Milton Bradley
    • B. Avalon Hill
    • C. Hasbro
    • D. Fantasy Flight Games
    Show answer

    Avalon Hill

    Did you know? Avalon Hill published Diplomacy and Betrayal at House on the Hill.

24. 24.Which 1986 classroom game by Dmitry Davidoff started the werewolf party-game tradition?

    • A. Charades
    • B. Clue
    • C. Codenames
    • D. Mafia
    Show answer

    Mafia

    Did you know? Dmitry Davidoff created Mafia at Moscow State University in 1986.

25. 25.Which board game designer passed around the sushi cards of Sushi Go!?

    • A. Vlaada Chvátil
    • B. Phil Walker-Harding
    • C. Elizabeth Magie
    • D. Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
    Show answer

    Phil Walker-Harding

    Did you know? Phil Walker-Harding also designed Cacao and Bärenpark.

Questions are for entertainment — difficulty ratings are a guide, and you know your crowd best. Always follow the rules of your venue or event.