Just Following Instructions Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Game of Life

Though the original version of Life was created on a checkerboard grid back in 1860, The Game of Life modernized 100 years later into its popular form, sending players along a winding road through the different stages of life as they get careers, hit milestones, and eventually retire to either a cozy cabin or an estate for millionaires who've amassed enough wealth.

The game also features green PAY DAY spaces wherein you collect the amount indicated on your Salary Card from the bank. Passing multiple PAY DAY spaces in one turn means collecting multiple paycheques. Later versions of the game allowed the player to get raises at certain milestones, increasing that wealth a bit more handily.

Answer: Monopoly

This instruction is pulled directly from the manual for the board game Monopoly which was originally released (by Parker Brothers) in 1935. It has since been acquired by Hasbro, but the main idea remains the same-- players buy up properties, take rent charges, and amass wealth in order to secure their monopoly over the board.

The instruction here refers to the Free Parking square, found in the corner opposite 'GO'. Although many may believe there's a house rule to this space, it is, in fact, meant to do nothing-- a fact you might overlook if you don't read the manual.

Answer: Clue

Set in a mansion containing several rooms, Clue places the player in the middle of a murder mystery wherein they need to travel around, hunting for clues that lead them to determine which location, which party guest, and which weapon contributed to the solution to the murder of Mr. Boddy. Created in 1943 as Cluedo in the UK (Clue in the U.S.), the game was acquired by Hasbro as part of their collection.

It's also the only option, of those in this quiz, to have a grid board in which the player can move up, down, left, and right (with dice rolls) without somehow managing to slink into diagonal spaces by other means. You can, however, travel through secret passages if you can locate them efficiently.

Answer: Sorry!

Sorry! isn't a complicated game; you simply draw numbered cards and move your way around the game board with the intent to move four pieces from a starting area to their home at the end. The catch is that if you land on another player's piece, you'll send it back to their start.

The deck for this game includes numbers from 1 to 12, but not 6 or 9, and even then, 4 and 10 move pieces backwards, and only 1 or 2 can allow a piece to leave the home space. There are also 'Sorry!' cards, allowing you to switch places with other players' pieces.

Sorry! was first created and branded as such in 1934. Originally, players started with three pieces each; the modern game starts with four.

Answer: Battleship

Although originally released as a pad-and-paper game, it was converted into a board game by Milton Bradley in 1967, becoming a staple in gaming collections. In it, two players go head-to-head, placing their ships on an 11-by-9 board and calling out positions on the grid, intending to strike at their opponent's five ships (most of which are different sizes). The first player to wipe out all five wins the game.

Although a handful of games in this quiz can be played with only two players (ie. a singular opponent), Battleship can't accommodate for more. This is the only fit for this criteria and, naturally, it's written as such in the rulebook.

Answer: Candy Land

Candy Land is perhaps the most basic in terms of concepts of the games featured here as players simply take a gingerbread player and make their way from one end of the course to the other, drawing coloured cards to move to their respective places down the sweets-themed, single-lane path. There's only one way to go-- the player follows the signposts, even if they are a bit unnecessary if you start at the start. This said, Candy Land is for the youngest demographic here, designed to be a fun way to learn basic colours while they play.

Candy Land was created in 1949 by Milton Bradley.

Answer: Trivial Pursuit

Trivial Pursuit, created by a pair of Canadians in 1981, is perhaps the most famous touchstone for board game trivia. In it, players travel around a board answering questions from six different categories (geography, entertainment, history, art & literature, science & nature, and sports & leisure), amassing coloured wedges to slot into their player piece by reaching different spots on a giant wheel.

The game ends when the player with all six colours arrives back in the middle of the wheel, travelling along the spokes to do so and answering one last question.

Answer: Cranium

Created in 1998, this more modern board game was designed to test not only trivia know-how, but a number of other creative facets, forcing players to sing, hum, draw, sculpt, spell, and unscramble depending on spaces encountered as they travelled around the board. Played in teams, the game often had small challenges/puzzles that emerged when spaces were landed on, but some of these also featured an all-play prompt, meaning all teams could participate for a chance to win a bonus roll.

The team to draw the card would, after, be able to continue their turn.

Answer: Chutes and Ladders

Chutes and Ladders, also known as Snakes and Ladders, has been played for centuries, though under different names. That said, the instructions are the same regardless of variation; players roll dice and proceed to the next spaces based on their roll. If they land on a space with a ladder, they climb up it to skip a portion of the board, but if they land on a chute or a snake, they fall back down.

The board is generally a 10x10 grid comprising one hundred squares.

Answer: Settlers of Catan

One of the more complicated games in this quiz, Settlers of Catan (now known as Catan), was first created in 1995 and has since become a popular international game about resource accumulation, construction, and empire-building. The board, constructed of tiles on a large hexagon, involves regions that players build upon (at least the edges), creating roads to link to other settlements and cities in their realm while rolling dice to accumulate their associated resources (bricks, wool, ore, grain, and lumber).

Because of the nature of the game, there is no single orientation plan or placement of the game's hexes; it's a new setup each time, forcing players' strategies to shift for each playthrough.