Game: Quelf

Thread: Re: Play with Teams?

mscharbon — 2008-06-04T18:17:47+00:00

Hi,
I run this game at our local convention 3x a year. I am the moderator and read all the cards. I do this so they don't know what actions have consequences. I make it like a game show. We have a large "cult" like following, so we play teams. I have tried teams of 3- that is to many; so I allow only teams of 2. They share everything, expect the trivia where they must talk together and give one answer. But if there is a stunt or action, they must both preform. They function as a single unit in a sense. It works great. Good luck.
Gayle :D
[GAMEID=19370]

Thread: Re: First time played - Or why did James give himself a wedgie?

forrestca — 2008-02-11T05:02:56+00:00

Got to play this with James, Sara, Al and Jenn on Saturday night... quite entertaining I must say!

Didn't like the "roolz" where I couldn't say "no" and instead had to say "Triangles... the other white meat"... but otherwise quite entertaining.

Was particularly amused by Jenn's rule that if anyone made eye contact with her she had to say "I have you now!".

Thread: Re: First time played - Or why did James give himself a wedgie?

El Hidalgo — 2008-02-04T02:21:21+00:00

Mark
Funny session report. This is a great game. No one ever remembers who won the game...just the hilarious moments of playing it. Hope you write up another one soon. They are as fun to read as the game is to play!

Thread: First time played - Or why did James give himself a wedgie?

Randougall — 2008-02-03T15:35:35+00:00

OK, let me preface this by saying I'd rather play some light strategy game like Thurn and Taxis or St. Petersburg than a party game.

This is not to say I hate party games - nuh-uh, I am always up for a game of Balderdash. Scattergories is good once in a blue moon, and What's Yours Like? is another fun one.

Heck, I'll even take Cranium with the right group of people. My wife, however, cringes at Cranium since she hates what she calls the 'embarrassment category'. Basically anything you have to act out, and risk humiliation.

Guess how much she liked Quelf then? :p

The game is very simple to learn - read the card, either aloud or in secret if the card says so. Laughter (and yes! humiliation) is guaranteed!

Some highlights:

- I had to mime being stuck in a tree while being attacked by lobsters and an angry dwarf while the timer ran (luckily the timer is quick!)

- My poor wife had to do the Chariots of Fire 'da-dum-da-da-dum-dum' slow-motion theme song while slowly running around the room.

- She also had the distinction of the longest turn as her secret instructions were to go into the bathroom, and she could only return to the game once someone else went to get her. (I did so, and luckily was rewarded 2 bonus points for doing so!)

- Sara had to collect items 'something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue'. Unfortunately she ran out of time...

- I had to sit with a frying pan on my lap until forced to stand. Of course, James threw a stuffed frog (don't ask) into the frying pan where I had to cook the frog and shout soup's up!

- And of course, as alluded to, James decided not to take the penalty and give himself a wedgie for the remainder of the game!

So, if you are in the mood for a funny game where you may have to potentially give yourself a wedgie, or ride an imaginary horse everytime you take the lead in the game, Quelf is the game for you!

If you are easily embarrassed and self-concious of friends laughing at you - run, don't walk away!

Who won? I think Jenn did. Does it really matter? Not really. I think James was very relieved to de-wedgify himself though....

Thread: Play with Teams?

chaking — 2008-01-30T18:49:39+00:00

Anyone have any recommendations on how to play this with more than 8 people? Perhaps with teams of 2?

I haven't tried this, but I was thinking that you could space out the teams so they sit across from their partner, but share the same playing piece. The first person rolls, moves, and draws a card, playing as an individual. Play then continues clockwise like normal. When its the teammates turn that person doesn't roll or move, but rather draws whatever card their piece is currently sitting on, and plays it like an individual.

Obviously there is a drawback in that each team could get twice as many penalties making the game take longer. This could be counteracted by using another homemade rule (I read it somewhere else) where you gain the penalty points for successfully completing a card.

Anyone think this will work or is it too complicated? Anyone have better ideas?

Thanks!

Thread: Bad Luck Never Seems To End, or The Night I Grew Boobs

wylsonated — 2007-11-04T18:51:36+00:00

I've heard it said that "the path to Hell is paved with good intentions" but it was only on a Saturday night that I found out it was true, well, at least for this time.

The story goes like this:

For a lark after a dinner of greasy fish and chips, me and a bunch of school mates decided to head off to the nearby board games cafe to continue celebrating one member's belated birthday.

After a feisty session of [GAMEID=22733] where a basket of crackers was sent flying and my friend, A (incidentally, the one who sent the crackers flying) got scratched by D seated next to me, who'd think it could get any worse?

So me and D, the other male present, decided to pick some other (less-dangerous!) game. D saw and rejected [GAMEID=8098] after remarking something about "too many flying totems!". I looked around for something in the same spirit on the shelf and my eyes fell upon [GAMEID=19370].

"Hey, sounds like fun. Doesn't require too much thinking about rules, and seems quite hilarious but less dangerous than Jungle Speed." Great intentions right?

How could I have known that an innocouous, random party game could be such HELL - the HELL-arity that led to all of us busting our guts for an hour+ and amusing the rest of the cafe staff and customers with our crazy antics.

After a short description of what we were supposed to do, clarifying what each color card was about and explaining the "classified" and "timed" cards to everyone, I got the dice rolling .

First 2 throws were innocuous enough, I landed on a red Scatterbrainz space and didn't have to pay the penalty when L, the birthday girl, couldn't carry on naming an item from the category.

D got a green Quizzle space which he amazed the 3 girls by answering correctly that the answer to "What is the evil-smelling fungus which gives off a pheromone particularly appealing to pigs", is that prize of cuisine, the Truffle.

L's next and she gets a fairly tame yellow [BGCOLOR=#FFFF33]Stuntz[/BGCOLOR] card. She had to smell the inside of A's shoe. We all went "Ewww! :yuk:" as she took 3 big inhales, but she spoiled our fun by declaring there wasn't any pong at all.

A's turn next. She got a yellow [BGCOLOR=#FFFF00]Stuntz[/BGCOLOR] card too! Ah Hah! The fun was about to begin. We had a glorious time messing up her hair, plaiting it and tying it up with rubber bands into little plumes just so we all could advance one space. :devil: Fairly tame stuff still.

T got a quizzle card and since I was to her left, I had to read out the longest place-names ever without laughing so she could guess which was NOT a true name. If you've ever seen the true name for Thailand's capital, [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangkok]Bangkok, you'd understand what torture it was. (It took me almost 5 minutes to finish all of it!).

My turn again. Oh no, my run of bad luck was beginning! I landed on a yellow [BGCOLOR=#FFFF00]Stuntz[/BGCOLOR] space too! I wisely decided to pay the penalty instead of giving my lips a "healthy" glow :kiss:, despite my girl-pal's readily available, and readily offered, lipstick. No way was I submitting my thick machismo-laden lips to girly lip paint!

I thought things couldn't get worse after that. But They Did.

D got to be a helicopter and caught some amused stares from the other people in the room by spinning around with his arms outstretched. L had to keep a bunch of keys on her head for a whole round. T got to be a mouth-driven drum machine for a minute. Our sides were getting a great workout by that point.

My turn. Dammmit! Bad luck! I landed on a blue Roolz space.

With trepidition, I drew a card.

My heart sank like a stone.

D caught my look, snatched the card from me and promptly started laughing his head off.

The rest of them soon joined in the unbearable peals of laughter when I picked up the LARGE SQUARE BOX COVER and stuffed it UNDER my shirt where it had to stay 'til THE END OF THE GAME!

The calls of "Squareboobs! Squareboobs!" were deafening. The girls had a glorious time trying to "feel" me up, all the while remarking how "hard" I was. Oh.. the shame!

And things went downhill after that. Round after round, the dice made a mockery of me.

I re-enacted the climax from "Chariots of Fire" (Dum dum dum DUM DUM DUM!), doing a slow-motion marathon run around the cafe with my "squareboobs", to the slack-jawed amazement of the cafe staff and the cheers of my mates.

I became a secret agent with one bad eye and a tongue caught by a finger who had to ineffectually demand everyone to "sarrendber arl ya weabonsss!" (Yes! While with squareboobs too! Couldn't have been very intimidating!)

I thought my hell was at an end when I landed on another blue Roolz space. Hey maybe I'd get another action rule to replace this one?! I should known better having seen the way my luck was playing out.

I drew a card that made me sing the "99 Bottles of Beer on a wall" song while not otherwise occupied. My friends were having a ball of a time the rest of the night laughing at the square-boobed alcoholic freak going on and on about bottles of beer.

My friends really much had better luck than me.

D drew a Roolz card too, but only had to read all subsequent cards in a tone like a TV Preacher. A drew a Showbiz card that required her to do a slow dance with T next to her. They pulled it off easy being both female.

D next got a great [BGCOLOR=#FFFF00]Stuntz[/BGCOLOR] card that allowed him to move a space for every 5 unique items he stuffed into his clothes. In went tissue paper, pens, hairclips, cellphones, signs and all sorts of crap into his pockets and inside his "Trust Me Because I'm a Nerd" shirt, the bottom of which he had tucked into his pants as well. He managed a total of 15 items, and still had space for more had time not ran out.

T got a Roolz card too and had to slap her knee and go "Wakka Wakka Wakka" whenever someone else laughed. Of course, seeing her helplessly saying at the merest sign of a chuckle kept prompting everyone else to carry on laughing in a vicious and hilarious laugh-wakka-laugh-wakka cycle.

By then, I had finally got down to the last bottle in my "99 Bottles of Beer" singathon and chugged down a glass of water. Thirsty work! I rolled the dice and promptly landed on YET another Roolz space. My friends couldn't believe my luck (or lack of it). I now had to annouce all of D's moves like a golf announcer.

I looked and sounded like a moron clapping softly while commenting on his wonderful skill drawing cards, moving his pawn and rowing the dice, all the while in a hushed and awed tone.

My pawn was nearing the end of the track and perhaps my luck changed slightly for the better. On my next turn, I rolled exact and landed on the final Scatterbrainz space.

Lady Luck must have been greatly amused by that point in the night at all the suffering I've been through that she gave me the category "Card Games" which, being a bgg-er, almost seemed too easy! I handily rolled off all the card games I knew, two at a time, while L finally got stuck and handed me the win.

All in all, it was a painful and tiring game of [GAMEID=19370]. By the time I won, all 5 of us had aching and sore bellies and faces after laughing so hard for the past hour or so. I'm sure all of us were past caring who won at that point. I'm sure this game will come back to haunt me again since L had so kindly recorded all of my stunts in the game on video.

Guess I'll have to be resigned to being called "Squareboobs" for at least for the next month or so. :D

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joebelanger — 2007-08-29T14:23:12+00:00

Mr. Lugnut saves the day.

Thread: Re: Birthday Ninja Monkey to the Rescue

El Hidalgo — 2007-08-14T02:46:17+00:00

This is an awesome game that is hard to explain to people...especially when you say that "winning" does not matter. This game was unveiled at the San Diego Comicon two years ago and I bought one for each of 9 different teams of my staff and had them play it. As the creators said, "You won't remember who won but you will remember the Haiku on armpit hair!" It is a riot. Thanks for the session report and for reminding us all that it is all supposed to be fun.

Thread: Re: Birthday Ninja Monkey to the Rescue

johnweldy — 2007-08-13T23:42:23+00:00

Fun session report for a fun game. Thanks for sharing!

Thread: Birthday Ninja Monkey to the Rescue

zoe79 — 2007-08-13T20:02:51+00:00

On my birthday the gang and I busted out a new game....Quelf.
Might I just say, I actually laughed so hard, I almost wet myself.

As you may have already guessed I played the Ninja Monkey. My rules included; must sit in the cross legged style at all times and, anytime anyone rolled a 4 I had to stand like a sad weeping willow and hum a movie theme. I choose somewhere over the rainbow. (this is were I almost lost it, literally) Thank the Lord I only had to do that one time.

My friend John sat with a Frying pan on his cross legged lap almost the entire game before someone finally threw an object in it. Then John made a sizzling sound and said "soup's up"! At that point I laughed so hard I uncrossed my legs and had to pay a penalty!

I got to see Brandon drink from the opposite end of a cup without spilling, my pregnant friend Jessica dance around like a ballerina, and my boyfriend and John have a Karate kid stand off!

I lost this game, but it was the first time I really didn't care. I was having so much fun watching my friends act like escaped mental patients, I didn't notice my boyfriend cheating and moving his Batzorig pawn up 6 spaces! He had apparently pulled a stunt card that told him to do that!

Oh man, let me tell you this game made my birthday!

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Runehardt — 2007-05-02T18:26:00+00:00

Certificat of Authenticity - Read it. It's pretty funny

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Runehardt — 2007-05-02T18:22:55+00:00

Inside lid signed by the designer of Quelf

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Runehardt — 2007-05-02T18:21:50+00:00

The usual suspects!

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Runehardt — 2007-05-02T18:20:50+00:00

Founder's Edition box back

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myadestes — 2007-04-29T04:51:31+00:00

The pre-doodled doodle pad

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ArtEmiSa64 — 2007-04-04T21:44:13+00:00

Thread: Re: Wall Breaking, Team Building, Story Telling Fun.

the_juice101 — 2007-03-24T16:04:10+00:00

Great review. I came across this game at a local game shop as well. They had it open and we were able to play a couple hands of it. We bought a copy any play it as often as we can. When we have dinner parties and such our friends specifically as for the game. I would agree that Quelf is a very fun and entertaining party game.

Thread: Wall Breaking, Team Building, Story Telling Fun.

El Hidalgo — 2007-03-24T07:11:58+00:00

I first came across Quelf at the San Diego Comic Con. The Mechanics of the game are simple enough, roll a dice, move your unique piece around a colored spiral track, select a card of the same color you land your piece upon. That's where the functional mechanics stop and the wall breaking, team building, story telling fun begins.

To quote the game designers, "You will never remember who won this game when it was played, but you will remember the Haiku on Arm Pit Hair that had everyone rolling on the floor."

Card selection and the consequent dynamics are the heart of this game. There are five different types of cards.

Yellow Stuntz card. Slapstick and your the target! These are cards of physical actions a player needs to perform. This can be anything from...Pick an opponent to be a dog trainer and you are the dog responding to commands of sit, roll over, beg, play dead...to...Being a human toaster and waiting until the timer runs out to shake a bit then yell "Ding!!! The Toast is ready!!!"

Blue Roolz cards. Annoying to you but everyone else enjoys your pain! These are cards that make you perform an action for the rest of the game or until you pull another blue card. This is like a yellow card that never quits...such as...Whenever it is not your turn you must keep your thumbs in your mouth, and if you wish to ask a question you must touch both of your shoulders...or...Whenever you ask a question you must extend your arm straight up into the air and say "Excuse me please I feel a question coming!"

Purple Showbiz cards. Charades at your expense! These are cards that ask you to engage in some action related to the performing arts. This can be something simple such as...You might not be wearing a tutu but we want to see your ballet moves...to...Recite a nursery rhyme using the voice of a grizzled old man...or...Without telling, or writing anything your opponents must guess what you are-and that would be a person covered in hot lava!

Red Scatterbrainz Card. We will take you to places your brain does not normally like to go! These are cards that will let you know how much your friends like to butt in to your business. When you can't think of something...you will find that they will chime in for you. Such as things you will commonly find at a Wedding but not at a Rock Concert...or...Words varying in lenth that can be made from the letters in word "Planets"

Green Quizzle card. Really trivial knowledge to put you on the spot! You will feel good about getting the answer right...but your friends will wonder about your mastery of the obscure. Such as does a chicken have lips and if so does he smack them?...to...Which of the following four basketball players was the first to have their picture on a box of Wheaties?

For some cards there is a timer involved. And some cards are classified which means that you cannot show that card to anyone else.

This is a truly great party game with no superior purpose or competitive objective than to have fun. It can be played with children as well as adults or even both!

This game is so good at what it does that I bought 20 of these to use in a staff team building and training session back in August. Eight months later my staff is still talking about it.

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CinMel — 2007-01-29T18:04:44+00:00

Quelf back cover

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CinMel — 2007-01-29T18:03:22+00:00

Quelf front cover

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myadestes — 2007-01-11T18:37:59+00:00

Under the influence of Quelf

Thread: Re: Quelf Review

Zencore — 2007-01-09T20:52:30+00:00

I think the only reason the re-playability question came up was that between Christmas and New Years parties, we must have played Quelf at least 7 or 8 times.

We certainly didn't go through all the cards available, but games has a crazy fun edge to it and some times it was difficult to get into a frantic, silly mood that this game evokes. Some times you want something a little calmer, slower paced. My Daughter and Sister kept wanting to play this so they could "show it off" to new players.

So it's certainly has a re-playability. Just not 8 times in a single week. :)

Thread: Re: Quelf Review

CharmlessMan77 — 2007-01-09T19:38:18+00:00

Jonny

Buy it from Tanga then. It should arrive on time, plus 20.99 after shipping is pretty good!

My wife and I have been thinking about this one too, but I am only worried about $20 for something with limited replay in my group (my wife already thinks I have way too many games we don't bring to the table too much)

John

Thread: Re: Quelf Review

JohnnyD — 2007-01-09T15:48:03+00:00

Thanks Tom!!!

My Girlfriend has been eyeing this one and seems really interested! Looks like her Feb Birthday will a riot...I plan on it for a birthday present!

Thread: Quelf review

merb101 — 2007-01-08T13:28:08+00:00

Fun, insanity combine in party game ‘Quelf’

By MICHAEL ERB
Staff Writer
The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
www.newsandsentinel.com

PARKERSBURG — All is not right in the land of Quelf, but then again, it never was.

‘‘Quelf,’’ a party game for 3-8 players, is produced by Wiggity Bang Games, which is run by three guys named Robb, Jeremy and Matthew who live in California. These three guys were kind enough to send me a review copy of Quelf, and if I ever get the chance to meet any of them, I will be sure and take my revenge.

Quelf, simply put, is insane. But it’s a good kind of insane, like a Saturday morning cartoon let loose in your living room.

You play as one of eight characters, all lovably bizarre and certifiably nuts, with names like ‘‘Super Ninja Monkey’’ (you can tell she’s a girl by the pink bow on her head), ‘‘Mr. Lugnut’’ (whose head is... well, a lugnut) and ‘‘The Biscuit Farmer’’ (who farms ... well, you get the idea).

All the characters move around the land of Quelf, which is in effect a series of colored squares arranged in a spiral on the gameboard. You take turns rolling a six-sided die and moving your character forward that number of spaces and deeper into the spiral. Whatever color you land on, you draw a correspondingly colored card.

Quelf is a party game, and like most party games it is designed to be more social than competitive. The various cards used in Quelf are more likely to affect the players themselves than the pieces on the board. For example, the game uses three different kinds of Roolz cards (spelling isn’t that important in the land of Quelf): Global Roolz, which affect everyone and stay in play throughout the game; Talking Roolz, which affect the person who drew the card; and Action Roolz, which again only affect the person that drew the card.

Talking Roolz often affect how the person talks, while Action Roolz force the person to do something, usually embarrassing or crazy. For example, a player may have to adopt a foreign accent, or they may have to do something strange, like chew on a fork and make goat sounds anytime another player draws a card. That last one actually happened in our playtest of the game, and it was pretty funny.

Players failing to follow the roolz are penalized, forced to move their character back a number of spaces specified on each card. Some cards also are timed using a small sand timer included in the game, and players failing to complete their task before the sand runs out also are penalized.

Other cards include Stuntz, which are more physical challenges; Showbiz cards, which require you to show off your acting/singing/dancing skills, or lack thereof; Quizzles, which are like bizarre trivia cards; and Scatterbrainz, which are group challenges, usually involving shouting out lists of rhyming words or kinds of flowers. Again, in our game it actually happened.

Each card also has a ‘‘Quelf Effect’’ at the bottom, a box of additional text that can be anything from a clever quote from one of Quelf’s denizens to an added in-game effect. During one part of the game, I noticed a player had left a previously-played card face down in front of them. When I reached out and flipped the card, the Quelf Effect came into play, giving my character an extra two spaces of movement. The effect could just as easily have been a penalty for the person bold enough to peek, or it could have benefited the player who originally held the card.

The character you pick actually can influence game play when certain cards are drawn, but the card effects are so random it is hard to see the advantage, or disadvantage, to playing any one person. One player had to lick the elbow of another player in order to avoid the penalty. After she did (brave soul that she was) she discovered the Quelf Effect would have given her a bonus had she picked someone playing ‘‘Queen Spatula.’’

But winning really is secondary to playing, which is another hallmark of the party game. The entire point of Quelf is for everyone to have fun, and to enjoy the fun everyone else is having at the table.

During a New Year’s Eve party, myself, my wife and several friends played the game, or rather let the game play us. From the beginning, one player was forced to recite lines backwards while holding her wrists to her head. Another jotted down a new four-letter word each round, such as ‘‘milk,’’ and penalized any player who accidentally used the forbidden word. Any players whose characters occupied the same space on the gameboard had to hold hands, which, with six people sitting at a fairly long table, made for some awkward dice-rolling. I had to make flushing noises anytime another player faced a penalty, all while wearing one of my wife’s socks on my right hand.

All in all, it was a great night.

I would definitely recommend Quelf for anyone looking for a fun party game that can be played with friends or family. Check it out at www.wiggitybang.com.

Contact Michael Erb at merb101@gmail.com.

Thread: Quelf Review

Zencore — 2007-01-03T22:35:08+00:00

So - I purchased Quelf for my 15 year old daughter for Christmas. She is the biggest gamer in the family other than myself and has played just about every game I've purchased. She's also the first to ask about playing a game. So have hope for a new, younger, generation. :)

Anyway, I had heard about the game of Quelf on a podcast, The Dice Tower I believe, and it sounded like the perfect game for her to use on her high school friends.

With that in mind the game was purchased and open on Christmas day. That very evening it got it's first playing.

We played with 6 of us at the table and any number of people wandering in and out of the gaming room. Most wanderers came in to find out what everyone was laughing about and then stayed to laugh along with us. Almost all of the spectators asked to play the next game.

The game itself is simple enough. You have a spiral track with a beginning and an end spot. The spaces along the way are one of six colors. Each color is a different category and if you can't complete the directions on the card - you have to go back the number of spaces listed in the upper right corner.

Yellow - Stuntz card. Example - Put your forefingers in your ears, your thumbs in your moth and your pinky fingers in your nostrils and say at three times the following "Feels goo, don't it!" - at the top of your voice of course. (penalty of 2)

Green - Quizzle card. Example - How many fingers does a one-armed and thumbless woman have? With green cards you have to be careful to cover up the answer, it's written upside down on the bottom of the card and very easy for some people to read.(penalty of 1)

Purple - Showbiz card. Example - No one likes to do the chicken dance. But you do. So, set the timer and do the chicken dance until it runs out. If you don't know it - fake it! (penalty of 2)

Blue - Roolz card. Example - For the remainder of the game, every sentence you speak must end with the words: "Hear me, for I have spoken"
(penalty of 1 - but once per time you forget, or someone catches you forgetting). There are also Roolz card that apply to everyone in the game.

Red - Scatterbrainz card. Example - "Ways to get your leg out of a spring-loaded steel beer trap." or "Types of insects that most people find annoying." You choose the topic. (penalty of 2 for whomever can't come up with a previously unused item that fits that topic.) To win the game, the person on the last space (which is red colored) must pick a card and play a round. But instead of giving one item, the person attempting to win must give two items that fit the description every time the challenge comes to them.

Now, to make it clear, I took all the examples off of the Quelf website. www.wiggitybang.com. I did this because I don't want to give away any of the other cards in the game. It's much funner to find out what crazy chores await you in game.

Everyone that played the first game liked it very much. The only complaint I heard was that the game ran a little long. This might be because of a card that my daughter drew that led to many, MANY penalties although it led to many laughs as well. It did seem a tad long to me also.

One house rule we implemented to speed for the second game was that if you DID complete the task the card required of you, you got to move forward a number of spaces equal to the penalty. This was used for all cards except the red card. The second game of Quelf used thise rules and while it was just as fun, I didn't hear any complaints about length.

I think this game is a wonderful addition to any collection of party games, and like most party games would probably get a bit old if played too often. Thank goodness there are so many other good games out there.

I give it an 8.5 or 9 (for those purist who prefer whole numbers).

If you are looking for a good party game with lots of laughs, give it a try. I doubt you'll be sorry.