Botticelli

Botticelli is a fun game to play in the car – involving everyone who is old enough to think logically. Botticelli is sort of like a twenty questions game with the object of the game being to identify a person that people in the car or group should know.

To being with, one person is chosen as “The Thinker” or “The Chooser” (whichever term you like). The Thinker will then silently choose a person that is either living, dead, or mythical that the other players should be able to recognize.

Game Play
The Thinker starts off the game by giving the first letter of the person they are thinking of. If it is a real person, they give the first letter of the last name. If it is a fictional person or someone that really only is known by one name (eg. Hercules) then that is the name from which you will take the first letter. You can start it out by saying something like, “I am H” if you were to choose Hercules.

Once the Thinker has announced the letter of the name, the players can take turns guessing the identity of the chosen person using these types of questions:

“Are you a person out of the Harry Potter series?”

The Thinker would reply, “No, I am not Hagrid.”

The next player may ask:

“Did you marry Boerga Mortish?”

If Thinker doesn’t know who the questioner may be talking about, but he/she knows that Hercules didn’t marry Beorga Mortish, he/she may then respond with a simple, “No.”
Another player may ask:

“Is your astrological sign a Aires?”

If the Thinker is stumped by this and doesn’t know, then the player gets to say who they were thinking of and then ask a “yes” or “no” questions.

The game continues this way until someone asks the Thinker a question that makes him/her believe that the player has guessed the right person. At this point, the Thinker just has to respond “Yes”. The player will then tell the Thinker who they were referring to. The Thinker lets them know if it is the person or not. If the player is wrong, then the game continues.

If the person guesses correctly, then it is his/her turn to be the Thinker.

Variations
Vermicelli - same type of game play, but the names are names of foods.

Bratislava - this is played with geographical names including countries, nations, landmarks, planets, etc.

Protozoa - this is played with the names of living things – such as plants, trees, bugs, etc.