If Play-doh and Pictionary had a baby … you’d get the fun and interactive game Dohdles by Thames and Kosmos.
These Dohdles are creations that are made by the players from dough. These creations are meant to be riddles to be solved but not solved too quickly. Each player gets to use his imagination to create a sculptor that has the other players guessing.
The creations are often hilarious as each player who makes the creation interprets from his creative mind what he thinks it should look like. The shapes of the Dohdles can be something like an everyday object or like part of a body such as a nose.
Included in the game:
- 1 main game board
- enough modeling clay and game pieces for up to 6 players
- instructions
You don’t have to be an expert to play. You just have to have an imagination and be willing to laugh. The trick is to create your Dohdle as well as you can, but not make it so good that the other players all know right away what it’s supposed to be.
For people who have absolutely no creative sculpting talents at all, you’ll still be able to create items in certain shapes. The game works by the players being able to figure out what their opponent has made with their sculptor.
If you guess what it is, then you get points. But you also get points if the other opponents can’t all figure out what it was that you made with your sculpting clay. You want to make it so that some people can figure out what it is, but not everyone – because if everyone guesses what it was that you made, then you don’t get any points.
But if no one guesses what you made, then you don’t get any points there either. The game is played with four rounds of the opponents trying to figure out what it is that you created.
When it’s your turn to play, you’re allowed to question your opponents about what they created with their sculptor to help you figure out what it is. But you can’t ask open ended questions.
These have to be questions that can be answered with either a yes or a no. You can also ask for a letter in the creation. When you’ve been given some of these clues, if you decide that you know what the opponent’s Dohdle is, you put your guessing cube into the funnel.
This funnel sorts the cubes and sends them out. The first cube out is the player who’s allowed to take the first guess. Anytime that you identify what your opponent made, you get to move forward. The game can be played multiple times – because the clay doesn’t harden even after repeated use. It’s a guessing game that’s suitable for 3 to 6 players.
Considerations:
- In spite of the “play-doh” aspect that sounds like it’s for little kids, the game is geared toward the 10+ crowd. With a little bit of ingenuity (and maybe some real play-doh if you don’t want sticky fingers on the modeling clay), you could include younger kids in the game, too. You might just need to modify the rules to fit the ages of your players.
If you’re looking for a different kind of game that gets you thinking and lets you express your artistic talent (or lack thereof), Dohdles should be on your list.