Brain Chain
Encyclopedia
Brain Chain is a strategy-driven trivia
board game
played by two or three players or teams. The object is to be the first player or team to connect an unbroken row of six "links" horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. The game is played on a 10x10 category grid surrounded by an exterior track. Brain Chain has been described as Trivial Pursuit
with a Go-Moku win mechanic plus a dash of Pueblo added in.
Brain Chain was designed by Alicia Vaz and Scot Blackburn, who are Los Angeles
attorneys
, and Kris Harter, a graduate of Pacific Union College
and a teacher at Loma Linda Academy
. Roy Ice designed all of the graphics on the gameboard and box. Brigit Warner edited all of the trivia questions. Brain Chain is currently owned and distributed by Brain Chain Games, Inc.
Games Magazine
has named Brain Chain a Top 100 Game
.
Each turn begins with the playing of one movement card and as many Brain Pills as the player wishes and moving the playing pawn
, clockwise, the corresponding number of spaces. All players move the same yellow playing pawn. If the pawn does not land on one of the four corner squares, the player then picks a trivia category from the same horizontal row or vertical column as the pawn that is not already occupied by a link. The opposing team will then read a trivia question from the selected category. The player may consult his or her team, but only the player whose turn it is may announce the "final answer." If answered correctly, that player places a link on the chosen square in the category grid and takes a Brain Pill.
If the pawn is moved to one of the four strategic corner squares, instead of picking a category on the row or column the pawn indicates, the player simply follows the instructions on that corner space: Pick any square on the board to answer a question, add a link, remove a link, or move a link.
To create a Brain Chain and win the game a player or team must form an unbroken line of six links in a row vertically, horizontally or diagonally on the Category Grid. The yellow playing pawn is considered a link during a player's turn—allowing a team to win by connecting five links on the border of the grid and moving the pawn to connect with those links.
!style="background:#ccf;"|I.D.
!style="background:#ccf;"|Category Name
!style="background:#ccf;"|Types of Questions Asked
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||BIZ ||Business
||Mergers and acquisitions, stocks and bonds, money and currency, product lines, marketing, advertising slogans, accounting, finance, transportation, business law and management.
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||ENT ||Entertainment
||Movies, television, books, fine art, pop culture, media and news.
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||GEO ||Geography
||World and U.S. geography, people of the world, customs, languages and religions.
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||HIS ||History
||World and U.S. history, law, government, the military and politics.
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||SCI ||Science
||Inventors and inventions, anatomy, biology, chemistry, physics, weather, astronomy, space exploration, technology, nature, the environment, telecom, mathematics and psychology.
|-
||SPO ||Sports ||Vast array of questions covering professional, amateur, college, international or Olympic sports.
|-
||POT ||Potluck
||This is a random "catch-all" category and may include questions from any of the above categories or other general knowledge questions.
|-
||ODD ||Oddball ||Oddball questions are different from all of the above. Each Oddball question consists of four alternatives; three of them with some positive trait in common. The fourth one does not connect with the others. The answer identifies the one that does not fit with a brief explanation of the positive connection between the other three.
|-
||PLA ||Player's Choice ||Allows the player to choose from any of the above eight categories.
|-
||OPP ||Opponent's Choice ||Allows the player's opponent to choose the category of question asked.
|}
Trivia
The trivia are the three lower Artes Liberales, i.e. grammar, rhetoric and logic. These were the topics of basic education, foundational to the quadrivia of higher education, and hence the material of basic education, of interest only to undergraduates...
board game
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
played by two or three players or teams. The object is to be the first player or team to connect an unbroken row of six "links" horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. The game is played on a 10x10 category grid surrounded by an exterior track. Brain Chain has been described as Trivial Pursuit
Trivial Pursuit
Trivial Pursuit is a board game in which progress is determined by a player's ability to answer general knowledge and popular culture questions. The game was created in 1979 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, by Canadian Chris Haney, a photo editor for Montreal's The Gazette and Scott Abbott, a sports...
with a Go-Moku win mechanic plus a dash of Pueblo added in.
Brain Chain was designed by Alicia Vaz and Scot Blackburn, who are Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
attorneys
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, and Kris Harter, a graduate of Pacific Union College
Pacific Union College
Pacific Union College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Angwin, California, United States. It is the only four-year college in Napa County, California....
and a teacher at Loma Linda Academy
Loma Linda Academy
Loma Linda Academy is a Seventh-day Adventist K-12 college preparatory WASC-accredited school in Loma Linda, California, United States. Loma Linda Academy comprises three separate, semi-autonomous schools: Loma Linda Elementary , an elementary school; Loma Linda Academy Junior High, a junior high...
. Roy Ice designed all of the graphics on the gameboard and box. Brigit Warner edited all of the trivia questions. Brain Chain is currently owned and distributed by Brain Chain Games, Inc.
Games Magazine
GAMES Magazine
Games magazine is a United States magazine devoted to games and puzzles, and is published by Games Publications, a division of Kappa Publishing Group.-History:...
has named Brain Chain a Top 100 Game
GAMES 100
The Games 100 is an annual feature of Games magazine, a United States magazine devoted to games and puzzles. The Games 100 first appeared in the November/December 1980 issue as an alphabetic list of the 100 games preferred by the editors of the magazine...
.
Gameplay
Before play begins, the players agree on the number of links necessary to win the game. A game of Brain Chain takes approximately 30 minutes if the goal is four links in a row, an hour if the goal is five links, or 90 minutes if the winning condition is a six-link chain.Each turn begins with the playing of one movement card and as many Brain Pills as the player wishes and moving the playing pawn
Pawn
Pawn may refer to:* Pawn , the weakest and most numerous piece in the game* Pawn, another name for a pledge in certain jurisdictions ** Pawnshop/pawnbroker* Pawn , an embeddable programming language...
, clockwise, the corresponding number of spaces. All players move the same yellow playing pawn. If the pawn does not land on one of the four corner squares, the player then picks a trivia category from the same horizontal row or vertical column as the pawn that is not already occupied by a link. The opposing team will then read a trivia question from the selected category. The player may consult his or her team, but only the player whose turn it is may announce the "final answer." If answered correctly, that player places a link on the chosen square in the category grid and takes a Brain Pill.
If the pawn is moved to one of the four strategic corner squares, instead of picking a category on the row or column the pawn indicates, the player simply follows the instructions on that corner space: Pick any square on the board to answer a question, add a link, remove a link, or move a link.
To create a Brain Chain and win the game a player or team must form an unbroken line of six links in a row vertically, horizontally or diagonally on the Category Grid. The yellow playing pawn is considered a link during a player's turn—allowing a team to win by connecting five links on the border of the grid and moving the pawn to connect with those links.
Trivia Questions and Answers
Each Brain Chain trivia set consists of approximately 3,200 trivia questions and answers which are divided among eight categories: Business, Entertainment, Geography, History, Science, Sports, Potluck and Oddball.-
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!style="background:#ccf;"|I.D.
!style="background:#ccf;"|Category Name
!style="background:#ccf;"|Types of Questions Asked
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Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
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Entertainment
Entertainment consists of any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time. Entertainment is generally passive, such as watching opera or a movie. Active forms of amusement, such as sports, are more often considered to be recreation...
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Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
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History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
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Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
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Potluck
A potluck is a gathering of people where each person or group of people contributes a dish of food prepared by the person or the group of people, to be shared among the group...
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