FTW Staff Picks - Game of Thrones: The Trivia Game

For The Win Board Game Cafe's Staff Picks is a weekly series where we take a quick look at some of the staff's favourite games, old and new.

Game of Thrones: The Trivia Game

Designer: Jonathan Ying

Genre: Trivia 

Player Size: 2 to 4 Players

Game Length: 30 to 60 minutes

For fans of: Trivial Pursuit, The Logo Board Game

You will rarely see a trivia game get praise anywhere. They're popular among casual gamers, but they're also among the easiest to produce. From a sales standpoint they're quick and easy money-makers. Anyone can create a card of questions based off of categorized information. In many cases, these games are more quizzes than they are actual games. So when something like Game of Thrones: The Trivia Game comes along, it tends to standout. 

The simple version of the game is basically a stripped-down, area control game that revolves around answering trivia questions. But adding in the Advanced Rules is where you see how a trivia game can actually hold depth. Basic resource management and abilities granted via Favor Cards create a back-and-forth war on the battlefields of Westeros, much like in the show. 

The trivia portion of the game is no slouch either. The question cards are all labelled with the season of the show it pertains to. And make no mistake, as much as you think you know the show, there are questions in there that will stump even the most diehard of fans. With 200 trivia cards, double-sided with 3 questions on each side, Game of Thrones: The Trivia Game will last quite a while. Hopefully Fantasy Flight Games creates expansions for the future seasons of the show. 

Challenging the trivia genre to be better often falls on deaf ears. It's so much easier to just create a deck of cards with hundreds of questions and a basic board to travel around. It's more cost-effective from a publisher and developer standpoint. But I'm glad Jonathan Ying and Fantasy Flight Games decided to invest more into creating a fuller trivia experience. At its price-point, it will sadly go overlooked in many game stores - but it's the perfect type of game to play at a board game cafe. If you're a big fan of the show, come down to FTW and try it out!