Kris Hall: Times Up!  Stop Laughing!

I’m not really a party game type of guy, but I got to play one last weekend that made an impression on me.  I’m talking about Times Up!, a game from 2000 that was designed by Peter Sarrett and published by R&R Games, Pro Ludo, and Asmodee Editions.

The game equipment in Times Up! consists of a deck of cards and an hour-glass timer.  Each card contain two names of famous people, animals, or fictional characters.  Each name on the card is associated with a particular color.  Players will examine the portion of the deck that will be used in the game, and then will vote on which color-coded group of names they want to use for their particular game.

The game is best played by teams of two people, and it is played in a series of rounds.  In the first round, one player tries to get his partner to guess as many of the names as possible before the timer runs out.  The player who has the cards may describe the characters in any way he can without actually mentioning the name.  Any cards that are successfully guessed by the other member of the team are set aside; the number of cards guessed each round becomes each team’s score.

After the timer runs out, the deck and timer is passed to the other team, and the second team repeats the description/guessing process.  Each team takes turns, with each player alternately describing or guessing the names until every card has been claimed by one team or the other.  Each teams counts its cards and tallies its score.

Then the whole process is repeated with the same deck of cards in round two.  But this time, players are not allowed to describe the names; they are limited to saying one word only.  But sound effects and gestures are allowed.

In the third round, the teams go through the deck a third time, but this time the player pitching the names cannot say a word.  Only sound effects and gestures are allowed.

The effect of these limitations is that as the game goes on it tends to become sillier and sillier as players develop a physical shorthand to replace traits that were formerly discussed.  In our game, Tom first described Katarina Witt as a “skater with a great butt.” By the end of the game, players were slapping their backsides to indicate Ms. Witt.

Because this is a family-friendly site, I shall not describe the gesture developed to communicate the name Dick Tracy. 

Gestures can be funny even when they are not effective.  My attempt to make Ted guess the name J.R.R. Tolkien by making a ring out of my forefinger and thumb and slipping it on the other hand, and then miming invisibility was met by total incomprehension, and suspicions that I was hinting at something obscene. 

Players need to be resourceful if they hope to communicate with gestures names like Henry David Thoreau or Oscar Wilde.  One can always turn to standard gestures from Charades to describe the sound of a name, but this strategy eats up too much precious time to be truly efficient. 

Of course, it helps to be knowledgeable about history, literature and sports to play the game.  I cemented my reputation as being a sports ignoramus by describing Lee Trevino as a “former chairman of the Democratic party.” Come to think of it, that makes me a political ignoramus as well.

But I am willing to risk further damage to my reputation when a game is this much fun, and generates as much laughter as Times Up! does.

© 2008 Kris Hall

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Comments:

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Sounds like a formalized version of a popular youth group charades game… everyone writes down 3 famous people on scraps of paper and then puts them in a hat. Two teams then take turns having a player go up and try to get as many names guessed by their team in a time limit (like 1-3 minutes).  The game is played over three rounds with each round using up all the clues. The first round, you can say anything you want except for the name.  The second round you can do anything you want but can’t speak.  The final round you’re only allowed to say one word (and not do any actions or sound effects...) A great game and easy to set up… Posted by Matt J. Carlson on Mar 21, 2008 at 08:43 AM | #

Kris, Time’s Up is easily my favorite party game and I’m ALWAYS up for a game.  It not only rewards knowledge, quick thinking, observation, and empathy, but it also consistently generates more side-splitting laughter than any game I play.  Truly one of the greats. Matt, that’s exactly what the game is.  In the late nineties, Frank DiLorenzo (who owns R&R Games, Time’s Up’s publisher) asked Peter Sarrett if he could design a boxed version of the folk game Celebrities (which is essentially the game you’ve described).  Peter had introduced Celebrities to the Gathering a few years earlier and it had become a huge hit among veteran gamers (comparable to the late night Werewolf games that currently dominate the wee hours of the morning there).  Peter came up with a terrific group of names for the game.  Not only are they a good mix from different areas of pop knowledge and pitched at just the right level of difficulty, he managed to group the yellow and blue names so that seemingly any collection of them has a few names that can easily be mistaken for each other, like Star Trek characters or fictional detectives.  This really enhances the enjoyment of the game.  Unfortunately, the two expansions aren’t nearly as good IMO as the original (there just aren’t enough appropriate celebrities to extend the list), but there’s sufficient variety in the base game that I’m nowhere near to exhausting its usefulness.  It’s been a big seller for R&R and it’s truly an essential game for any party game fan to own. Posted by Larry Levy on Mar 21, 2008 at 11:03 AM | #

Times Up! is great fun.  I have yet to play in a game where everyone didn’t have fun and wanted to play again.  The more players the better! TR Posted by Travis Reynolds on Mar 21, 2008 at 12:34 PM | #

Our best “huh?” moment was when a pal described Stalin as “one of the top Nazis.” So we had to give the Nazi salute for the rest of the game… There is a great Geeklist somewhere on BGG that asked for people to discuss their funniest gaming moments.  I think half of them are from Time’s Up… Posted by Ryan Olson on Mar 21, 2008 at 06:15 PM | #

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