As you gather together with family for Thanksgiving, consider picking up a copy of Morphology to enjoy together after dinner.

Morphology is a game that is most easily described as being similar to Pictionary, except that instead of drawing pictures, you construct them, using a variety of little doodads included with the game.

There are a handful of little colored blocks, some flat colored marbles, person-shaped wooden pieces, a couple of rubber rings, a string, and some miniature popsicle sticks.  Using these items, you have to construct the word or object on your card and get your teammates to guess it before time runs out.

The game suggests it’s for ages 13+.  As far as I’m aware, this is not because of any inappropriate content, but simply because it’s hard!  Even my husband and I sometimes look at a card and think, “How in the world am I supposed to build that with these!?”  (Something else soft/flexible, like a small piece of cloth, would be a handy addition to the builder’s repertoire!)  Even so, my children love this game.  (I hear that there is a Morphology, Jr. in the works, and I’m eager to see that version.  My daughters are generally pretty unsuccessful at helping us guess their words, which makes it even funnier that they enjoy it so much.  I guess it just really captures the imagination.)

I must confess that we haven’t played it “right” yet.  It is supposed to be played with at least four people, so you can split into teams and build words for your teammates.  We don’t have enough people (of the proper age) for that in our household, so we’ve just been taking turns building words for everyone else.  And we’ve ignored the game board.  If you play it the “right” way, it gets even harder!  Certain spaces on the board (which is very creative, itself – a series of lily pads along which your frog playing pieces travel) are “roll” spaces.  Depending on the number you roll, you may be required to add a challenge to your turn.  For instance, you may have to create your picture with only your non-dominant hand.  You may have to select only three pieces with which to construct it.  Or some other, similar challenge.  We have found it tricky enough to construct some of these words (still using the “easy” ones) that I can’t even imagine having to do them with my eyes closed or some such thing!

This is a very fun game that’s good for lots of laughs.

Disclosure: I received a copy of Morphology to facilitate this review.  As always, all opinions are 100% my own (and those of my family).