Outburst (game)

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Outburst (subtitled The Game of Verbal Explosions!) is a game originally devised in 1986 by Hersch and Company of Los Angeles and later licensed by Parker Brothers, now a division of Hasbro.

The game is played with two teams, using cards on each side of which a topic heading is printed, followed by a list of 10 items that fall under the given topic. The object is to guess the items that were chosen for inclusion on the card, given the topic.

One of the two teams, with all of its players free to speak at the same time, attempts to guess as many of the 10 listed items as it can before the timer runs out. The team receives as many points as successful guesses, plus a bonus determined by a roll of dice. The first team to get 60 points wins.

A special viewer is used that prevents the card from being read (other than the topic heading) until it is placed in the viewer. This invisibility enables a team to pass. As many as 3 times during the game, a team has the option before playing of passing on the first topic offered. If the team chooses to pass, it must then accept the next topic drawn, while the other team will have to play the passed-on topic on its next turn.

While many of the topics are timeless, players should be advised beforehand of the year of publication of the edition being played.