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Urban Myth Board Game Rules

Urban Myth Board Game Rules
How to Play | My Thoughts | Final Verdict | Comments

How to Play

Urban Myth is a game that tests your ability to determine fact from fiction. Each card contains one or two questions where the players need to determine if the story/fact is true or if it is a myth.

Each turn one player is the reader. The player reads the question(s) presented on the card. All of the other players try to determine if what was read is true or if it is a myth. Players vote with the true/myth cards. If the players guess correctly they get to move a space on the gameboard. If the player is right on both questions on a two question card, they get to move two spaces. I

If the player was right (on both questions if there were two questions) they have an opportunity to collect the card. If a correct players’ token was on the space that corresponds to the category of the question that was asked or they were on a wild space, the player gets to keep the trivia card which contains a letter. If two or more players are eligible to take the card they continue answering questions until one is right and the other(s) are wrong. The person who was right is the only player who gets the card.

If no one is able to answer correctly the reader gets to move as many spaces as there are players. If the reader was on the category space of the card read or was on a wild space they get to keep the card.

The first player who can spell the word “True” or “Myth” with the cards  they have collected, wins the game.

My Thoughts

Urban Myths have existed throughout history. Some are based in reality and some are so far fetched that they could only be myths. I find urban myths to be an interesting topic. The most interesting urban myths are those stories that you insist can’t actually be true but turn out to actually be true. Urban Myth tries to create a board game around some of the more interesting urban legends. Unfortunately while the urban myths may be interesting, the game isn’t.

The thing I liked most about the game is the trivia questions themselves. The basic premise behind the game has promise. I think a trivia game where players need to determine fact from fiction is a good start. While playing the game I had some fun trying to determine if the statement was true or a myth. I was actually surprised several times when something I thought was true was in fact false and vice versa. The game includes over 1,000 questions so that is nice as well. I could actually see using the cards for a trivia night.

Unfortunately the trivia cards themselves are the only saving grace for Urban Myth since the game otherwise has some pretty big issues.

While the facts/stories presented on the cards are pretty interesting, the cards for some reason neglect to expand on what is presented on the card.  For some reason the cards fail to say why a fact/story is true or a myth. This is quite annoying since the charm of the game is to learn more about these urban myths. If you want to know the whole story you essentially need to have your computer on hand in order to look things up for more clarification. There were actually a couple cards that we disputed the accuracy of and had to look up on the internet to get all of the facts. The cards didn’t need paragraphs of explanation but a couple sentences would have been nice. There is plenty of space left on the cards so it wasn’t a space issue.

The cards that have two question also have an issue  that a majority of the cards have one truth and one myth on each card. This presents a pretty big issue. After the answer to the first question is revealed, unless you know the answer for sure you might as well guess the opposite for the other question since you will usually be correct. The two question cards should have had an equal distribution of two myths, two truths, and one myth one truth cards. Without this equal distribution you can break the spirit of the game by essentially always going with the opposite answer of the previous question.

The trivia cards have their own issues but they are nowhere near as bad as some of the gameplay issues. Simply put the gameboard itself is just plain stupid. The gameboard adds unnecessary luck and is a total waste of time and space. I don’t know why the creators felt the need to add a board to the game since it really wasn’t necessary. The game would have been better off just being a normal trivia game where players received points based on how many questions they got right. The game instead decides to have you move around the gameboard with each correct answer. Moving around the board is pretty pointless though since you have no control over which spot you end up on and you have no idea which category the next question will be in.

The biggest problem with the game is that close to 75% of the questions are totally pointless. Most of the time a players’ pawn will not be on the correct space in order to collect the letter card. If there is no ability to get the letter card it doesn’t really matter if you get the question correct since all it will do is move you around the board which doesn’t really do anything. On those rare occurrences where your pawn is on the correct space, you may already have the letter. Getting multiple copies of the same letter doesn’t help you so getting that question correct is pointless as well. As it turns out in the game I played I had more cards than all of the other players and yet had the worst chance at winning since I got multiples of several letters.

Final Verdict

Urban Myth had the opportunity to be a good trivia game. Due to poorly designed gameplay the game doesn’t come even close to fulfilling its’ potential. The gameplay mechanics make close to 75% of the questions absolutely pointless. The only good part of the game was the trivia cards themselves. The trivia cards are interesting and provide some entertainment but they don’t make up for the serious gameplay flaws.

I really don’t see any reason to want to play Urban Myth under its’ current rules. In order to enjoy the game you pretty much have to just take the trivia cards and create your own rules for the gameplay. If you find the game for cheap and are interested in the trivia cards it may be worth picking up Urban Myth. Otherwise you should stay far away from the game.