Concept is a beautiful party game that can sort of be described as a cross between charades and a rebus. Players try to get others to guess the words they are tasked with describing by placing tokens on conceptual images on the game board. For example, to get others to guess the word “wine”, tokens might be placed on the image for liquid and another on the color red. Simple, right? Now place tokens to get people to guess “Bilbo Baggins”.
An interesting thing about Concept is that after a round or two of the game, players begin forming a mental bond, a kind of telepathy if you will, where they begin to think alike and understand each other within the game’s conceptual images. That’s very evident on this week’s episode, where Wil and guests Joseph Scrimshaw, Rhett McLaughlin, and Link Neal play a “friendship variant” of the game.
In this version, the four players play together in a cooperative game, trying to reach a point total, rather than competing against each other. As Wil says in the intro, “Producer Boyan [Radakovich] says that “Tabletop games are powered by friendship,” a sentiment I agree with. So, we made a special friendship variant.”
It makes a lot of sense too. Concept is a game that’s almost more about communication than it is competing, so the friendship variant is a relaxing take on tabletop gaming, made more enjoyable by beautiful components and very funny participants. Enjoy!
