buffalo - Tips & Strategies

In my recent review of Buffalo, I commented that while I liked the idea behind the game, I didn’t much care for its application. Because I hate those “Be the fastest person in the group to blurt out the answer,” type of games, I couldn’t see myself playing the game often without working in some serious house rule modifications. And that got me thinking…

This game could be played in a format similar to Scattergories, a game I spent many a holiday playing with my family. (If you aren’t familiar with this game, check out this Dice Tower Review with Game Boy Geek on YouTube.

For Buffalo, the game can be easily modified to be played in this manner. However, some additional equipment is required: pens/pencils and pads of paper for all the players, and an egg timer (or stopwatch or timer on your phone, iPad, or whatever – so long as it has a timing device with an alarm – bonus if you actually own Scattergories and you still have the timer from that).

Reveal 10 combinations, set your timer for three minutes (or whatever you prefer), and players must try to write down corresponding people to the combinations revealed. Using the Scattergories format, when the timer goes off, players compare their answers to see who came up with the most names to fit the combinations. And like Scattergories, only unique answers get points, so if two people chose Elvis Presley for dead singer, neither of them receive a point. If there is a dispute over a person, the group votes to determine whether a point should be awarded. Complete two more rounds just like the first and at the end of all rounds, tally up the results to determine the winner.

Playing with this variation to the game allows folks who want a little more time to think to have it. Additionally, it provides the group more interaction and discussion over the different combinations, regarding what folks came up with during each round. It may slow the game down a little, but it takes it from a knee-jerk reaction game to a pondering and thinking game. Mix it up – play it both ways and see what you think of the results!