Trivial Pursuit

Trivial Pursuit is an inherently unbalanced game. In a family game, all players start with the one piece at the starting area. There is the normal board-game disadvantage in that if you go first and your opponent goes second, you are both stupendously lucky in your rolls and you answer one correct question each turn, you will win 100% of the time. However, Trivial Pursuit’s other imbalance is very sneaky. The age you are and the country you grew up in can combine to form an insurmountable advantage, depending on the edition of the game you are playing.

I have experienced a game of Trivial Pursuit in which we invited a family who were new to town over for a casual game. We thrashed them quite soundly and laughed privately at their ineptitude with seemingly simple questions. The next weekend, we were playing a casual game when they brought out their copy of Trivial Pursuit and thrashed us. What is the point of this innocuous story? The family in question had just moved from South Africa. When we played with our (Australian) question cards, we had an unfair advantage. When we played with the South African question cards we were completely unable to answer even simple questions, such as “where is the Voortrekker monument?”

Thus, Trivial Pursuit is a board game in which 'who you are as a person' can actually change the play experience for the worst.