MEMORIES:
Retromaniac remembers...I wish we'd get this. We need a lot of games like this. More »
Posted on 06/17/06
Manufacturer:
Tim Walsh
Dave Yearick
Ed Muccino
“What do these three have in common?”
Why, they were the creators of the popular 1990s group board game, TriBond! Upon learning that the hit 80s board-slash-trivia game, Trivial Pursuit, had been created by two Colgate University graduates, John Haney and Ed Werner, the three Colgate students set about inventing their own game in 1987, one that might have a broader appeal than the straight trivia found in the game of their fellow alumni. By 1989 the trio (how appropriate) had completed the first prototype to TriBond, set to impress game manufacturers around the country.
That would have been great, and all, but many weren’t impressed, or at least not impressed enough to produce it. After the big guys shot them down, they started working with Patch Products in order to at least get it manufactured. With hard work, determination and a few handy promotional techniques, they moved 150,000 copies of the game in 1993. Within three years, over a million copies of TriBond were being played around the
The play is fairly simple to grasp. First thing to understand is the term “Threezer.” The word, while not found in good ol’ Webster’s, is one created by the makers in order to describe the three word “clues” that players and/or teams must consider when figuring out what “these three have in common.” Play is fairly simple. You can have as few as two players, though you can have up to four, and even teams of 2-3 people. Each team or player starts at the beginning of the “track.” One team/player starts by rolling the dice and moving along the track. Wherever they land is the category of clues that are given. Answer correctly, and you get to take another turn, fail and they go back to their last “bonded” point on the board.
While there are the occasional fluke incidents of high-rolling individuals, the real key to winning the game was in answering with steady consistency, answering as many as possible. Or in other words, outside of just answering questions correctly, there is no strategy that needs to be adhered to.
Though it may have gotten off to a shaky start, TriBond went on to become a big success in the board game world. With four major releases on the market, it’s become a clear winner in the short two decades since its conception. A word to the wise: pre- 2005 edition rules were apparently on “Easy Mode.” No longer is it kosher to keep playing after a question is answered correctly. “Someone” kept dominating the game. *cough*
