Friday, March 4, 2011

Board Game Flashback: Strangers and Dangers



This game is described on BoardGameGeek.com as "a game designed by law enforcement officials to teach kids about the dangers of talking to strangers". I have no idea how we acquired it. It was probably sent to my mom as a thank you for donating to the Marion County PD. It had all the info of an after-school special, without the cool cameo by Malcolm Jamal Warner.

The object was to make it home from school without being abducted. There was no strategy to winning. You have two choices once you flick the spinner and plop your character along the Candyland-like path to the right color. "You are approached by a stranger. Do you go with him? If yes, return to start. If no, go ahead more spaces."

To go ahead you had to "Scream, 'No!' and run to the nearest Safety Place". Safety Places included a library, a fire department and a church (because nothing bad ever happens to kids there). If you made it home you were treated to a wholesome reunion with your parents who were cooking hotdogs and hamburgers on a grill.

The weirdest part was the illustration. For some reason the boy and girl on the cover of the box had one of their eyes removed. Probably for playing with BB guns, which must be a spin-off of another educational board game.

7 comments:

Crutch said...

wow...blast from the past.

Abbi Crutchfield said...

Yeah. The spinner never spun right.

Abbi Crutchfield said...

Spinned?

Catherine Marucci said...

Should have gotten double points for saying no to candy.

Annie said...

I had a friend talking about this game and I would love to get my hands on it to gift him. Any chance you still have it and would be willing to part with it?

Anonymous said...

Actually this game saved me and my sister life. A man driving a green station wagon kept trying to get us in his car. We played this game all the time and got away fro him even changed our way home from school. I was only in third grade and my sister kindergarten. Never saw the man again.

Anonymous said...

Also not to mention that green station wagon was parked in our way to school for a week before he aproached us.