If you’re on the Bother’s Bar Discord, we’ve a lively and fun boardgaming group (largely played though Board Game Arena) where currently we’ve got several games turn based games on the go (i.e. you can get an e-mail when it’s your turn but there’s otherwise little time pressure), and then currently every other Sunday night (including tomorrow) from about 8pm until 10:30ish people can turn up in the live voice chat and play games live. Those tend to be at the lighter, livelier, bluffier end.
Currently we’ve got a game of King of Tokyo on the go and I’m having a great time. It’s not a new game by any means but it’s the first time I’ve played it – basically roll dice to either score points or hurt other monsters – the monster currently in Tokyo can hurt all the other monsters outside simultaneously and earns points the longer they stay in Tokyo, but they take all the damage from all the other monsters outside Tokyo who don’t otherwise hurt each other. Every time they get damaged, they can yield to the damager. The winner is the first to a point value, or the last one left standing. There’s (only) a little bit more to it than that, but that’s the gist.
This feels like the sort of thing that ought to translate to a game show pretty well, albeit likely with questions rather than dice rolling, contestants vying for a rewarding privileged position whilst also increasing their risk whilst in that position. Has it happened?
Avanti Un Altro sort of has it, there was an 70s/80s US quiz called Jackpot but it wasn’t especially adversarial. Similarly there are shows where people compete to take on the current champion, like Tout Le Monde Veut Prendre Sa Place, but that’s not quite the same thing. Along those lines, here’s an unsold pilot called King Of The Hill.
