Events

The What, Where, and When Game

3M Company – 1974 – 4-8 Players

Events is a historical trivia game. One player is the “historian” and selects a specific event from history. The event can be something the historian knows about or it can be one of the 300 events in the included booklet (which range from the crowning of David as king of Israel in around 1000 BC to the withdrawal of US troops from Viet Nam in 1972 (remember, the game was published in 1974)). The historian then gives the other players “clues” about the event, starting with the general category of the Event (such as “Natural” or “Political”) and the general location of the event on the map using the “locale indicator”. (The game uses a world map as the game board.) The round then proceeds through 9 additional clues which alternate between allowing one player to ask one yes/no question and the historian giving out additional information such as the date, sub-category, specific location and the final “Telltale clue”.

After each clue the players record their guess as to what the event is. The fewer clues it takes a player to guess an event the more points they score. After the historian has given all 10 clues the exact event is revealed and the next player becomes historian.

As much as I like the 3M games this is one of their weakest offerings. Once the game is described you don’t even need the game in order to play. The only special components the game has is the locale indicator (which is simply a square of plastic) and the score pad showing the points received for guessing the event after each clue. The bookshelf box is even cheaper and flimsier than the other 3M games. Shortly after this game came out 3M sold their game line to Avalon Hill so maybe they rushed this one out. It has slight interest as a trivia game but nothing that other games have not done much better.