Trivia Game Review: ‘Rom Com’ from University Games

Rom Com from University Games is the ultimate trivia game for lovers of romantic comedies. One of the greatest genres of film, rom-coms have delighted and inspired dreamy-eyed audiences since Harold Lloyd and Jobyna Ralston overcame everything to get together in Girl Shy. Entire cable channels have grown up around the vicarious feeling of falling in love over and over again. With Rom Com, players have the chance to put their knowledge of lovey-dovey movies to the test as they compete to see who knows them best.

A Rom Com Romp

Rom Com is played by dividing into two teams, which may be equal in number, or uneven to stack against the romance experts who might run away with the game. To anyone who may laugh off Rom Com as being too easy, just a quick look at the cards shows that it requires an encyclopedic memory of actors and dialogue to get ahead.

Questions are split into three categories. In “Perfect Pair,” players must name the two actors in the couple destined to end up together based on the movie title. In “Who Said That,” the players must name either the character speaking or the movie title when given a line of dialogue. In “One Word,” perhaps the toughest, players must guess the movie title from a single suggestion, such as The Wedding Date from clues like “escort” or “London.”

While most trivia games have the categories separated, Rom Com brings different worlds together by mixing them up in one deck. Each team’s Reader takes turns drawing three cards from the comprehensive deck. They may replace one by tossing it to the cardboard couch and drawing again, building the most challenging set of questions for their opposition.

With the random draw, these cards could each be from a different categories, two from one and one from another, or even all the same category. Players who are particularly good at naming titles could score major points with a lucky draw.

Romance, Comedy, and Broken Hearts

To prevent things from happening too fast, each team receives a “Broken Heart” card it can place on one of the cards to prevent the opposing team from answering it at all, making it a serious missed opportunity.

When a team guesses correctly, the players win a Heart token to place on the board in the category of the card. If the guessing team gets it wrong, the other team has a chance to steal. Play continues until one team has earned two Hearts in each of the three categories. This dynamic gives the other team a good chance to catch up as a team’s chances of drawing the needed card go down the closer to victory they get. Or, the stars may be crossed, and they never get a good chance at that one category they keep missing.

Rom Com is a trivia game for four or more players aged 12 and up. The trivia comes from across the decades, from Audrey Hepburn sayint, “At midnight, I’ll turn into a pumpkin and drive away in my glass slipper,” to teams needing to think of both Ali Wong and Randall Park in Always Be My Maybe. Players will have to be masters of romance to know the answers, and games will likely end with everyone getting a new list of must-see rom-coms.