The Creator
The hot, new boardgame, Odds’R® was created by Roger L. Schlaifer, one of the creative marketing minds behind the Cabbage Patch Kids phenomenon.
Schlaifer is a graduate of Syracuse University. Prior to starting his own creative development group, Schlaifer Nance & Company, Inc.(SN&C), Schlaifer worked as an art director and creative director in publishing, advertising and graphic design in New York, Washington and Atlanta.
Schlaifer created his first consumer brand in 1978 with Hot Rollers—one of the first, and hottest, fashion skates and apparel programs in the country. Since then, Schlaifer and his company have gone on to develop and market a variety of other successful products and brands including Cabbage Patch Kids®, the name and works of Andy Warhol®, McNutts®, a folk art-based program, and Little Big Ears®.dolls
Odds 'R is Schlaifer's first boardgame.
The Inspiration
Inspired by the plethora of scary headlines in the news, Schlaifer began to puzzle over the likelihood of any of those media-hyped catastrophes actually happening to someone. What, for example, is the real chance of being attacked by a shark…mugged on the street…or struck by lightning? Or, on a more positive plane, what is the chance of winning a lottery…or becoming president of the U.S.?
As he began investigating the odds of such events, Schlaifer became fascinated with the concept of odds in general, with the variables which might affect the odds of things happening—or not happening—and with the often counterintuitive nature of odds in business, sports and everyday life. Some of Schlaifer's fascination with odds and probability might be genetically motivated: a second cousin, the late Robert O. Schlaifer, was dean of decision analysis at Harvard and an author of several texts on related subjects.
The idea of a game based on odds began to take shape, and (just as he had done with Cabbage Patch Kids) Schlaifer soon had a name—Odds 'R.
A Work in Progress
Schlaifer outlined eight categories of interest, eventually broadening them to fifteen, and began reading books on probability theory and risk analysis. He also began searching the Internet for sources and statistics on which odds-based questions could be formulated. Soon Schlaifer and his business partner and wife, Susanne, began formulating questions with amusing twists, multiple choice answers and "wrap-ups"— an additional fact or two, often humorous, at the end of each Q&A to keep it interesting and distinguish Odds 'R Q&A from typical trivia games.
Once they were pleased with the question format and had drafted a large body of prototypes, the couple collaborated with an experienced team of comedy writers and fact-checkers to help complete the first set of Odds 'R Q-Cards.
At the same time, Schlaifer had been roughing out the Odds 'R gameboard and developing ideas for the gameplay. "I wanted the gameplay to be as much fun—and involving—as the questions," Schlaifer says. "The movement around the board, the ideal number of spaces, the lottery wins and the creation of the action spots took months and months of working and re-working, but I think we've succeeded in devising a really great game that's challenging, fun and different every time it's played."
The Patented Play
Having a game entitled Odds 'R immediately set Schlaifer to considering ways to incorporate a lottery and some form of betting into the gameplay. After much trial and error—and considerable frustration—the first numbered-ticket lottery system for use in a boardgame was successfully devised by Schlaifer as an integral part of Odds 'R play.
" The betting aspect was even harder than the lottery," recalls Schlaifer, "because I really wanted it to be a natural part of the gameplay not just an overlay of betting for the sake of betting." The formulation of the betting finally began to sort itself out when Schlaifer began considering the worst aspect of most boardgames—waiting for your turn.
" The proverbial light really came on when I started thinking about ways to involve every player in every play," Schlaifer explains. " It was such a natural—a perfect fit: The player whose turn it was would bet on answering correctly. The opponents in each round would bet on whether the player would answer correctly or flub it, but the opponents would get to see the answer first. That added more strategy to the game. And a whole lot of interesting, fun and cutthroat maneuvering, especially between couples. How would you feel when your significant other bets, heavily, that you're going to blow your question?"
To add to the factor of luck—and fun—in Odds 'R, Schlaifer also devised several unique ActionSpots like the CowChip Flip, GrabBag and MutiplierSpots, all of which players encounter as they move their GamePieces around the board.
"Developing each of these patented elements took many months, years actually," notes Schlaifer, "but I think we've succeeded in creating a really unique game that's challenging, informative and, most of all, a lot of fun."
Books, too!
Look for 288 zany, all-new and more expansive Q&As in Odds’R™—The Odds on Everything Book™ now available at books sellers throughout the US and Canada.
