Horrible Histories: The Board Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Setting Up
• Play
• Variation
• Note

Setting Up

1. Place the board in the middle of the table, and then put the playing pieces on the START space. Shuffle the Horrible Chance cards and put the pack face-down next to the board.
2. There are four booklets of questions with different coloured covers. Each one relates to the quadrant of the board that is the same colour as the booklet.
3. The aim of the game is to go through history and be the first to reach the present day.

Play

4. The youngest player starts by rolling all three dice. The dice are then placed in the order red-white-blue. The player moves their piece forward by the number of spaces shown on the WHITE dice.
5. If the piece lands on a blank space, that's the end of the turn. No further action is taken, and the dice are passed to the next player on the left for their turn.
6. If the piece lands on a HORRIBLE CHANCE space, the player picks up a Horrible Chance card and acts according to its instruction.
7. If the piece lands on an illustrated space (one with a character drawn on it), the player to the left picks up the appropriately coloured booklet and looks up the question indicated by the dice that have been thrown - so if the red dice shows 2, the white dice shows 5 and the blue dice shows 3, then the player with the booklet looks up question 253.
8. If the question is headed QUESTION: the player with the booklet asks the question to the active player. If the active player gets the question right, they move forward another 2 spaces. This is the end of their turn. If they get the question wrong, they remain where they are. This is the end of their turn.
9. If the question is headed ACTION: the player with the booklet - NOT the player whose turn it is - gets to do the action. All the other players try to guess what the player is drawing or describing or acting out. The first player to guess the answer correctly moves forward two spaces as does the player doing the action. If nobody guesses correctly everyone stays where they are.
10. More than one playing piece can occupy the same space.
11. To win, a player has to reach the FINISH space (they do not have to land exactly on the space) and answer one final question. The other players get to choose which coloured booklet to use in this case. If they get this question wrong, they remain on the space and play passes to the left as normal. They'll get another chance to roll the dice and answer another question if no one else wins before it's their turn again. If the number thrown by the player on the Finish space relates to an Action, then move on to the next Question in the booklet.

Variation

VARIATION: if there are young children playing, you may decide that instead of moving their piece forward 2 spaces for a right answer, they get to move their piece forward by the number of spaces shown on the white dice.

Note

NOTE: you will need a watch or phone to time the 1-minute Actions.