From: peter@techbook.com (Peter Sarrett)
Subject: Re: tribond?
Organization: TECHbooks --- Public Access UNIX --- (503) 220-0636
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 15:58:51 GMT

To: CONNOLLY@UKCC.UKY.EDU
Subject: Re: tribond?
Newsgroups: rec.games.trivia
Organization: TECHbooks --- Public Access UNIX --- (503) 220-0636
Cc: 
Bcc: 



Tribond was in last year's Games 100 in Games Magazine (the November/December
1991 issue).  I own the game, and it IS fun.

The board itself is interesting-- it's triangular, with the three points of
the triangle folding inward toward to center so that it's also triangular when
stored.  The board is divided into three tracks, and each player has three
pieces.  The first player to get all three pieces to the end of their
respective tracks is the winner.

In your turn, you roll a special die to determine what category you'll be
trying to answer.  I think the categories are Entertainment, Science,
History/Geography, Sports and Leisure, and miscellaneous.  Each "question"
consists of three words or phrases, all of which share some common link (hence
the game's name).  Your task is to determine that link.  Sometimes, the clues
are all members of the same group-- for example, CHIEF, MAX, and 99 would all
be characters on Get Smart.  Sometimes the pairings involve puns: GERMAN,
FIRST MAN ON THE MOON, and JESUS CHRIST are all Shepherds (spelled in various
ways).  And sometimes they can all be combined with a common word, as in GIANT,
BACK, and THUMB (green).

If you identify the "tri-bond", you get to roll a standard die to determine
how many spaces you may move one of your pieces.  You can move any of your
three pieces which are not already at the end of their tracks.  Spread along
each track are green spaces which, when landed on, force you to Challenge any
player who is further along that track than you are.  In a challenge, each clue
is read individually, pausing between clues for the competing players to shout
out answers.  The first one to get the right answer wins the challenge.  If the
defender wins, the challenger's turn ends.  If the challenger wins, he gets to
change places with the defender.

Questions come on the now standard Trivial Pursuit style cards.  On some cards,
one question will be omitted, with the word CHALLENGE! substituted in its
place.  If you happen to roll that category, you must challenge someone who is
ahead of you on one of the tracks.

You also challenge if you land on a space occupied by another player, with the
loser of the challenge going to the challenger's previous space.

Your turn continues until you miss a question, or until you are forced to make
a challenge and there is nobody whom you can legally challenge.

I've found Tri-bond to be an excellent game-- better than Trivial Pursuit,
since the three tracks and the challenges introduce some strategy to moving
your pieces.  Some of the questions are VERY hard-- particularly the more
esoteric science questions which hit you with arcane terms.  Others are quite
easy, and most are somewhere in between.  It's a fairly good mix.

The retail price,which I believe is about $29.00, is fairly steep.  Playing
pieces used to be made of wood which helped cushion the price tag, but now
they're using plastic pieces which detract from the otherwise elegant
equipment.


If you don't mind the price, Tri-bond is a fun game which you'll probably
return to with the same fervor you used to apply to Trivial Pursuit.

===============================================================================
Peter Sarrett          |   "You don't stop playing games when you get old--
peter@techbook.com     |    you get old when you stop playing games."
(503)579-0873          |                                        - O. W. Holmes
===============================================================================
Newsgroups: rec.games.trivia