Game: True Colors

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race9 — 2008-06-05T15:58:15+00:00

Box Bottom

Thread: Re: User Review

landbeaver — 2008-04-22T18:48:16+00:00

I played for the first time this past weekend with some friends and could see how it could be ugly. Especially when one person gets quite the majority of cards in a question about who would you have taste test food to make sure it isn't poisened. But my group of friends are all thick skinned and can take a joke so we had a great time.

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FitisGames.be — 2008-02-12T09:41:27+00:00

Back of dutch version

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kkrieger — 2007-11-17T06:26:21+00:00

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FitisGames.be — 2006-12-08T14:56:23+00:00

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Forza — 2006-09-16T14:34:14+00:00

Kleur Bekennen

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Forza — 2006-09-04T12:20:08+00:00

Black Box

Thread: New Version Review

Marky — 2006-07-08T22:32:58+00:00

New Version

I won’t go into the mechanics of the game, Tom Vassel has done a brilliant job in his review and the gameplay hasn’t changed at all from the original.

Components: I was a little disappointed with the components, they have been severely downsized from the original. The coloured ID pegs are tiny little things at about 2 cm in length, hard to see who’s wearing what and easily lost. The question cards are standard size cards with a question on both sides. The voting cards are also very small, 5x2cm, but that’s not really that important and they fitted quite well into the voting box, which was a reasonable quality plastic box.

The Questions: I read around the ‘net that the questions of this version were dumbed down to things as simple as “who’s the most creative” or “who’s got the worst memory”, but thankfully I didn’t find the questions to be that lazy. Unfortunately I haven’t got game here with me so I won’t provide any examples, but over the course of the evening our group found that most of the questions were fun and written well enough.

Summary: I think overall, if you can get the original version for cheap it’ll be better – the larger pegs probably being the only real bonus, but if not, then the new version isn’t as bad as what some of the internet reviews have made out and you’ll get as much a laugh out this as the original.

Thread: true colours

Marky — 2006-07-08T21:58:20+00:00

For my friend Vanessa I bought her True Colours for her birthday, and it finally arrived - imported from NYC (to Melbourne) no less. Michelle and I went over for dinner and after the meal and a few beers ‘n wines we opened up True colours for four the of us - Vanessa, Simon (her partner) Michelle and myself. The first game Simon was the runaway leader – 18 to 9’s and 7’s of the rest of us. He is the most ‘black and white’ person out of us and he knows it. This annoyed V no end – when he got the most votes for something unflattering like “who would bargain down the price of Girl Guide cookies” and picked that he would thus getting 3 points, she went off “you get 3 points for being like that!” and that’s where the fun of this game was, laughing and stirring each other up, good thing we’re close friends. We played 3 games, in truth after that first game scoring became pretty irrelevant and drinking and laughing and yelling at each other was the fun, which is what this game is about, its not a game to win but a way for friends to have a laugh at each other (at, not with…. )

I’m glad I went to the effort and expense to import this game for her.

Thread: Re: Re-released

Moon Knight — 2006-02-18T17:49:43+00:00

This mediocre game will always have a special place in my memory. I was unanimously voted "most likely to be a terrorist" by my nuclear family, inlaws and extended family.

Thread: Re-released

davebo — 2006-02-18T04:57:16+00:00

I saw a new version of the game in Barnes and Noble in Southern California. It looks like they tried to make the cards "racey and fun", which probably ruined them.

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davebo — 2006-02-18T04:08:57+00:00

The 2005 box design

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khesser — 2005-08-15T19:23:46+00:00

True Colors - Back of the Box

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belial1134 — 2004-12-13T13:49:34+00:00

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cbrua — 2004-04-29T10:20:47+00:00

Back of '99 Pressman Edition

Thread: Re:User Review

mevans — 2003-07-25T12:52:25+00:00

TomVasel (#17417),

Nice review, Tom, though I would love to see a follow-up review from you sometime on the older 1991 MB True Colors, which to my knowledge has far more by way of interesting scenario questions and may in fact be more cut-throat.

I'm not trying to destroy your group or anything, just interested

Thread: User Review

TomVasel — 2003-07-24T22:48:36+00:00

It was with great trepidation that I brought True Colors to our table for the first time. I had heard that the game could cause great dissension and was only for people with thick skin. Certain games have caused massive arguments in our group before, so I was worried that True Colors might be the H-bomb that could destroy a night of gaming…

So was I correct? The truth is, True Colors was one of the biggest successes at our game table, and it has since come there many times. I’ve found that it doesn’t work well in all situations, and I have become annoyed a little when I found out what others think of me – but it’s usually great fun! Let me tell you a little more…

First, let me explain how the game plays… (There are various editions, I’m discussing the 1999 version by Pressman Toy Corporation.)

Each player picks a color and takes a small clothespin of that color, clipping the pin to their clothing so that everyone can identify what color they are. Each player is then given three different cards with symbols (“+”, “0”, and a “+/-“). They also receive two cards for each other player in the game, with a large color dot on the card denoting that player’s color. A plastic ballot box is placed in the center of the table, and a deck of question cards is shuffled and placed within reach. The game consists of ten rounds.

In a round, a player draws a question card and reads it. Examples include: “You’ve got a million to spend for your own private art collection.”, “Who would you choose as your art advisor?”, “Who’s the biggest baby?”, and “Who has no problem whatsoever striking up a conversation – even with strangers?”. Everybody then determines what player(s) fit that description the best. If only one player fits the description in their opinion, they put both cards with that player’s color on it in the voting box. Otherwise, they can pick two players and put one card of each of their colors in the box. Votes are to be kept a secret, and players cannot vote for themselves.

Then, each player predicts how many votes they got by picking one of their symbol cards and placing it face down in front of them. After everyone has placed a card, the cards are flipped, all votes in the ballot box are tallied, and scoring commences. If a player has placed the “+” card in front of them, and they received a majority of the votes, they receive three points. If they received no votes, and placed the “0” card, they also get three points. If they received at least one vote (but not the most) and placed the “+/-“ card, they receive one point. If they guessed incorrectly, they receive no points. All points are tallied on a score sheet provided with the game. All the players take back the cards they used to vote (secretly if possible) and the next round starts. After ten rounds, whichever player has the most points is the winner!

Some comments on the game…

1). Components: The components to the game are quite nice, and all fit very well into the plastic tray that is inside the box. The box is nicely decorated, and fairly durable. The ballot box is of very good quality, and fits together easily, with the cards sliding in and out smoothly. The clothespins are smaller than I would have wanted, but are functional. There still is the occasion where a player strains to see what color another player is (and that, of course, gives away who they are voting for). The voting cards are small, about half the size of a normal playing card. The dark blue background makes the colored dots stand out well, and there’s no problem distinguishing between them. (I’m not sure about color-blind folk). The eighty-five question cards are double sided, with one side laminated. It doesn’t matter when shuffling them, as knowing what the next question is going to be doesn’t affect the game that much. A few blank cards are provided, but the 170 questions provided with the game should suffice. Good components for this party game!

2). Rules: The rules are on both sides of a single sheet of paper. They are short and simple, as is the game. There is an example, and after reading them, the game is extremely easy to learn and teach.

3). Irritation: The reason I was leery about the game was the irritation factor. Some people have a bigger problem with it than others, but it is a little annoying when you think that nobody will vote for you on a certain question – and almost everybody does! Or you think that at least ONE person (your spouse) will vote for you on a question, and nobody does! When the game asks, “Who is, by far, the sorest loser?”, the recipient of the most votes is probably not going to be happy. I found myself thinking several times during the game, “How can anyone think that about me?” So perhaps the game is a real eye-opener, but it isn’t always easy to digest others’ answers about yourself.

4). Ruining the Game: It’s also possible for someone to ruin the game by randomly voting or by voting for people in an attempt to try and win. For example, if the question is “Who is the most cautious person here?” and Bob is a crazy maniac – everyone knows it, he knows it, yet I vote for him anyway. He loses three points because he got a vote, even though everyone KNOWS he’s NEVER cautious. I am deliberately voting for him, even though it’s not true – just to make him lose points, and I’m destroying the game. Two things avoid this. One, the game should always be played with close friends, so that everybody knows everybody else, and don’t have to make random choices. Two, everybody must agree verbally and in their hearts that they will vote truthfully to the best of their abilities. (Of course, when you get all the votes for something that you don’t like – you can’t console yourself that maybe some of the votes were random. J )

5). Fun Factor: However, when everybody is playing correctly, and when nobody is getting extremely irritated, the game is a lot of fun! People who have extreme personalities will probably win, as they will usually get none or most of the votes. Guessing how many votes you got is sometimes a chore, but it’s fun (usually) to see how many people voted for you. Sometimes one person gets all the votes, other times it’s a close race between two people, and it’s fun to see who wins. The score isn’t really important (as with most party games), and after 10 rounds, we usually are up to play another game – as the games aren’t that long (maybe 30 minutes).

Therefore, I think quite highly of this game. It’s already one of the top-played games in our group this year, and I think it will come out again. With a fun theme not duplicated in many other games, and good components, it’s a great game to bring to the table. Yes, there are certain people I’d rather not play the game with because of their attitudes, or a “win-at-all-cost” philosophy. But I’ve found that with most people, this game can be an enjoyable romp. And how come I get the most votes for spending money on board games?

Tom Vasel

Thread: Session Report

TomVasel — 2003-05-05T20:24:18+00:00

Since there was 10 of us - I didn't feel like pulling out any of the big games for a lot of players. Rather, 4 players went off to play Settlers of Canaan. That left Laura, Ruth, Ryan, Miss Shim, Chris, and myself to play True Colors.

It was the first time for Ruth, Miss Shim, and Chris, so we explained the rules. They quickly noticed, as all players usually do, that if you lie, you can skew the results and win. I explained that, in order to have fun in this game that a)It didn't matter who won, and b) Always be honest.

The game was a blast, and was over quickly. I was pleased to get the most votes for being able to speak to a crowd of 4000 without sweating, and annoyed to get the most votes for spending money on something that I'll later lose interest in. I won the first game by a long shot, however, by accurately predicting these things.

The game was so quick, that we played another. Miss Shim wasn't pleased about being last in the first game, so was happy when she won the second.

I noticed some more things about the game:

Dominant personalities will tend to be better - you usually get a majority of the votes, or none of the votes - which is more points.

Somebody can really ruin the game by throwing votes to people they don't want to win when they well know that that person is one they'd never pick in real life. When playing the game, this needs to be stressed. Winning is not at all important when playing this game - having fun is!

All in all, the game went over well, and I'm sure it will hit the table again soon.

Thread: Session Report

BoardGameGeek — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

When Jonathan said he planned to play this party game, I was skeptical. I'd heard it's a good game, and even have one myself I plan to use with family over the holidays. But I thought you needed to know the other players quite well. And we didn't. Okay, Glenn knew everyone (one of the game questions backed that up!), and Jonathan does, too. But Teddy & Jerry don't know Dave & I all that well. As it turned out, it didn't matter much, and may have helped the game's humor. This isn't a game you really play to win (though I'll still claim victory, Dave!), but to socialize. And it led to some great laughs when we saw the group-think predict Jerry most likely to run up a 900-number phone bill, Teddy to be a steamy character in a romance novel, or Jonathan to refuse to open the door for a girl scout! :-)

Thread: Preview

BoardGameGeek — 2000-07-09T18:09:37+00:00

>What is this game? Why is it so popular? Thanks.
>

It's a fabulous game, at least with the right group. It really only plays well if you know everyone playing otherwise it results in a lot of blind guessing. The point of the game is to get the most points. Each round everyone takes a question card and puts it into their voting box. All the voting boxes are circulated to all the players so that they can vote on who fits the description on the cards the best. You can put two votes in, one for two different people if you feel two people share that characteristic or two votes for one person if you think they are very strong with that characteristic.

Once all the boxes have circulated and all of the questions are back with the player they started from then the scoring round begins. Everyone goes around and says whether they had none, some or all of the votes. I forget the exact point spread but you get more points if you say that you got none or all the votes and were correct. If you are wrong about your guess then you loose points. The group runs through this sequence a couple of times and then tallies the winner. The winner is the person with the most number of points. The interesting angle on the scoring system is that the winner is the person who is able to be the most correct about how others see you, not about how you see yourself.

If you have a tight group of friends you should have a good time with this game, unless someone is thin skinned and doesn't want to know what others think of them. The questions are probably the weakest point in the game, or at least they were for me and my dark jaded friends from Maryland. Some of the questions are pretty interesting but far too many of them are things like "Who would most likely go back for seconds on the birthday cake?" or something else as saccharine coated. My friends and I, going back to childhood, know each other quite well and have a rather dark sense of humor so we decided to make up our own questions so that we could jump right to the jugular, such as:

-Who's the best?
-Who's the worst?
-Who's s--- smells the worst?
-Who is the ugliest?
-Who is the best looking?
-If we were on a deserted island and ran out of food, who would get tossed into the fire first?
-Who's the dumbest?

...and many more that I will not dare repeat in public.