Stupid Whoosit

If you've ever played the Chad Valley game Whoosit, you'll know it's very good training for developing the skills of young detectives. Each player conceals the identity of a mystery person from the other player, who has to use deductive reasoning to eliminate characters from their playing board. You must have played it. the players take it in turns to ask questions, usually based on the physical attributes of the characters, such as hair colour, sex, or whether or not the person wears glasses or earrings.

We were playing it in the garden on Sunday, but it fairly quickly deteriorated into a variant of the game invented by my wife, called Stupid Whoosit. In this version, the questions you ask are almost impossible to answer with any certainty, and when you have the answer you are generally none the wiser as to who you should eliminate. A couple of examples that were asked in our games: "Does this person own a boxed set of the second series of Star Trek?" (asked by my son Luke); "Is this person an aspiring playboy model?" (asked by daughter Claire); "Has this person ever had an affair but been forgiven by their partner or spouse?" (asked by wife Rachel). Surprisingly, a couple of times the correct character was actually identified, as after a while you do feel like you get to know the people on the boards and you are able to make some calls about what their tastes and personal histories are.

It's a good game. I recommend it.