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BotticelliBotticelli can be played both as a parlor game and as a radio call-in show.
Basic PlayOne (or multiple) people are "it" (or the "Brain Trust" or whatever you'd like to call it). They think of a person (for example, Cathy, as in the comic strip character of the comic of the same name) and tell the initial letter to the other players (in this case, "C"). The other players try to think of people whose names begin with "C". Valid names include Cain, Christopher Columbus, Candyman, or Johannus Climactus. Candace Bergman would not be a valid name -- she is a "B" name. Names can not be groups of people (eg, "McCoy's" as in Hatfields and McCoys is not valid for "M"), but anything else goes. Our house rules for things like Frosty the Snowman and Kermit the Frog is that they are "F" and "K", respectively. When one of the players thinks of a name (for example, Jimmy Carter), they need to think of a way to clue it. In this case, our player might say "I was a president of the United States". The job of the person who is "it" is to guess who the player is thinking of. In this case, they might respond "Bill Clinton". Even though that is not what the player was thinking of, it is a valid response and the player must further clarify their clue before they can ask again. The player might then say "I was president of the United States in the 1970's." Assuming we have an "it" who is really clueless about recent US history, they will not know the answer and will have to say so. Then, the person who gave the clue tells them who they were thinking of (in this case Jimmy Carter) and they get a chance to ask a yes/no question about the person of whom "it" is thinking (in our example this is Cathy). The player might ask "Am I real?" and "it" would respond "No.". Play continues in this manner until someone thinks they know who the name is. Then they clue it just like they would clue anyone else. In this example, a player might say "Am I a comic strip character who is always worried about her weight?" If the person who is "it" cannot think of anyone other than their name that satisfies the characteristic, they say "Of whom are you thinking?" If the player then correctly identifies the name that "it" had in mind, that player becomes "it" for a new round with a new name and a new letter.
Obscurity RulesObscurity rules are important but should also be used sparingly. If the person who is it is given a name by a player that they think couldn't be known by any reasonable human being, then they can call obscurity (for example, the brother of the wife of the blacksmith who shoed Washington's grey horse). This rarely happens in party play, since it is usually a result of someone listening in to the radio broadcast and looking up names in a book (that behavior is frowned upon). There are also obscure clues. For example, "I am in a movie which has the same name as the title character in an Italian opera set in a city which is featured in a 1985 movie directed by the man who directed an almost identical movie ten years later." No human being can be expected to parse this, much less know it." Choosing good names (for "it")A good name is known by everyone in the room. A good name springs readily to mind (for example, Robert Maplethorpe was used in a recent game: although it was known by many people, it did not readily spring to mind). Keep in mind that people can only ask yes and no questions and it will take them a while to arrive at the name. Use names that you can answer questions about easily. Good names: GarfieldBad names: Major Major Major Major Choosing good clues (for the players)Coming up with obscure people that the person who is it hasn't heard of is pretty easy. Cluing names that they do know in a way they won't guess isn't.For example, when the "Brain Trust" consists of two computer people, it would be pretty hard to get "Dilbert" past them. This clue, however, worked: "I live with someone who is sometimes a saint."(Remember Saint Dogbert, driving out the demons of stupidity?) Or this clue for the painter Mondrian: "People think my art is very square." |
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