Now for something a little different, I made up a new game on our recent jaunt to Melbourne, and it worked a treat for us so I thought I'd write it down.  On a road trip and are bored with Eye Spy and Animal-Mineral-Vegetable?  Me too!  I've designed the following with two players in mind...

The Movie* Game

About the game:  The Movie Game is a cross between 20 questions and Animal-Mineral-Vegetable.  The idea is to work out what the movie title is before you get to the end of your 20 allotted questions, as well as trying to trick your opponent with your choice of movie.  As well as being something a little different to play with your car companions, its an invigorating test of your movie knowledge.

Playing the game:  Player 1 chooses a movie, and begins the game by giving its genre.  Player 2 then has 20 questions to try and work out what the movie is.  No clues should be given by player 1.  Player 2 can only ask questions that get 'Yes' or 'No' answers.  Player 1 must keep count of the number of questions.

Winning the game:  In the above example, if player 2 gets the answer before asking the 20th question (see Special Plays and Circumstances), they win.  If player 2 gets the answer after asking the 20th question, the game is tied.  If player 2 cannot get the answer after all questions are asked, player 1 is the victor.

Special Plays and Circumstances:  Please heed the following carefully

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The 20th question aka "The Magic Question".  The player asking their Magic Question may ask a question that gets more than just a Yes/No answer, but it may only gain a single answer.  Allowable examples include "What is the name of the lead actress?", and "What is the movie about?".  The question may not be "What is the name of the lead actress and what colour hair did she have in the film?"  This would answer two questions and therefore not be a legal question.  On the other hand, when answering the Magic Question, the aim is to be as obtuse as you can without lying or not giving enough information.  Lets look at some examples:

Movie = Top Gun, Magic Question = What is the movie about?  A good answer might be "Its about the dramas on a navy pilot training base", a bad answer might be "Its about a pilot nick named Maverick who goes to train at Top Gun and..."  But strictly not allowed is "Its about a navy pilot"
 

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You must choose movies that you have both seen.  That doesn't mean you have to have seen them together, but you must have each seen the movie or it will be null and void.
 

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Question Clarification:  you will run into occasions where, as the player asking, you may not remember which questions you have asked or whether you got a yes or no to something.  In this situation, you must preface your question with "Clarification" or "Just Clarifying", basically you need to let the person answering know that you are getting clarification on previous information, otherwise you may have it counted as another question.  You'd be surprised how quickly 20 questions runs out.
 

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If an answer can't be given with a straight yes/no, the person answering must let the person asking know so they have the choice of either retracting the question, or rewording it.  This can put an interesting twist into the game because as the person answering, you will be giving away more than just a yes/no by holding up the question like that, however you must be honest about it not being a straight yes/no answer.
 

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Play with the genre as you see fit.  By this I mean don't go by the pigeon hole the industry gives a movie eg Drama, if its considered to be an action movie as well.  An example of this is Any Given Sunday; the industry considers it to be a drama, but to be fair it also has an action component to it.  In this case, you must call your genre "Action/Drama".  As its the only clue in the game, you must be as specific as possible.  If the movie you have chosen is a Supernatural/Drama/Thriller, so be it.

Hints and Tips for playing:  I'm actually not going to put anything here, because one day I will play against you and it will be more fun to see how we developed our own styles.

More than 2 players?  The game expands nicely when more than two are playing.  Variations on the rules are:

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One person answers while the others take turns in asking questions, while the players asking may either play together as a team to work out the answer (fun), or play against each other to get the answer individually (more fun!)

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Optional - If those asking are a team, you might want to rule out table talk ie chatting about what the answer might be, stick strictly to the information gained from the questions asked and that's it

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Only one Magic Question may be asked no matter how many players are asking

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Optional - change the number of questions asked so that before you get to the Magic Question, each person has had the chance to ask an even number of questions

*  The Movie Game is very flexible, though we haven't tried it yet.  I refer to the fact that it doesn't have to be movies; you can aim the game at any subject you and your fellow players are strong in.  Examples might be: Celebrities, TV Shows, Junk Food, Technology, Places Of Interest.  We chose movies because we're both mad about them.  But definitely change the topic to suit as you please.  The core rules can still apply like the number of questions, the magic question and clarifications, just bend them around to liven up the game as you see fit.

I hope you enjoy The Movie Game as much as we did, give it a shot next time you're out on the road.

SABH