Designed by David Williams and published by Cheatwell Games, Snippets is a trivia game that can be played as a two-player head-to-head or can be expanded to up to six players bands played as a party game.
Snippets is based around quotes, lines from songs and well known catch phrases and tag lines. It's played using a deck of 192 double-side quiz cards. As there are two questions on each card game, that's a total of 768 questions - so plenty to keep players occupied and amused for multiple plays. Players take turns as Reader and Guesser - the two basic roles for each round of play - but with more than two players, those who aren't taking their turn as Reader or Guesser act as Listeners, where they also have a role.
The Reader takes a card and announces to the Guesser the two categories on the card: Quote (a line or phrase associated with a real person), Character (a line from a fictional character), Tag (a catchphrase, advertising jingle or slogan), or Song (a line from a well-known song or musical). They then read out the line for the first of these, indicating where there's a missing word or words. This isn't just a trivia game, however. The Reader has five chips with which they can bet on whether the Guesser will get the correct answer. They have to bet at least one chip, so that's what they'll venture if they reckon the Guesser will know the right answer. They can bet up to four chips. The Listener(s) meanwhile can bet on whether or not the Guesser will answer correctly.
The bets are placed before the Guesser says anything. Once placed, the Guesser announces whether they will make a 'blind guess' (ie: answer without any prompts) or if they want to be read the three multiple-choice options. For a correct guess, they win the chips hazarded by the Reader, and for a correct 'blind guess' they double the score. The Reader wins back their chips if the guess is wrong, and they'll score for these. The process is repeated for the second question but for this the Reader has to bet whatever chips they did not hazard on the first question.
Players tot up their scores, with each chip worth a point. That means that the Reader can score a maximum of 5 points (Guesser gets both questions wrong) and the Guesser can score a maximum of 10 points (for two correct blind guesses). Players have the chance to score 2 points when they are Listeners. Play continues until everyone has an equal chance of being a Guesser and a Reader.
Snippets is a simple game, so easy to break out for playing as an entertaining party game. There's a lot of fun to be had over the predicting how well players will do. The Reader always has to bet their five chips in total over the two questions they are reading out, so there's a judgement call to be made about which of the two is more likely to cause the Guesser to stumble. Canny Guessers may try to bluff by looking bewildered when they know an answer so that they draw a larger bet from the Reader.
The success of Snippets is down to its excellent mix and choice of questions and the mostly very plausible multiple choice options offered. It'll make for a great filler-length Christmas game - tho' one primarily for the grown ups: not because the questions or answers are in any way unsuitable for children but because the source material for the real world and fictional character quotes, songs and tags will almost certainly be unfamiliar to younger players.