Parker Brothers to Issue "The Blame Game" for Holiday Shopping Season

Parker Brothers, makers of the popular games Rook, Monopoly, and Risk, are readying a new release for the 2005 holiday shopping season: "The Blame Game."

Sources say that random events will be generated for each turn, with the primary player (white pieces) able to use lesser white pieces to generate "slimes," "deflections," "lies," "kills," and "amplification networks." Opponents (black pieces) will be able to do some of the same moves, as well as issue "blame" and, if coordinated moves are applied in an appropriate order, to commandeer some of the lesser white pieces. Game makers admit the odds are stacked against the black pieces, but, they say, "the object of the game is to have fun, not to win." The "blame" move can always be evaded by the white player by playing the "this is not time for politics" reserve card, which can never be played twice in a row, but its use is otherwise unlimited.

Assignment to primary or secondary player roles will be made on the basis of a dice roll. The game will end when all pieces on one side or the other are all "dead."

The game is set to appear on shelves in November in selected locales.