Botticelli is a fun parlor game that requires no equipment whatsoever. The idea is for one player to think of a famous person or character and for the other people to try to determine who it is.

To begin, a player is selected to be “It”. She thinks of a famous person, and after she settles on who it is she announces the initial of the person or character’s last name. If the person has just one name, then its first letter is the letter it goes by.

Now the other players try to gain information about the famous person. They do this by asking questions of the person who is “It” in turn. All questions describe another famous person whose last name begins with the same initial letter as  was claimed by “It”. If  “It” cannot provide the right answer to a question, then the person who stumped her gets to ask her a  direct, factual question about the famous person, and then offer a guess as to who it is. When more and more of these questions are answered, the players are making better and better educated guesses.

Here’s how a game might go:

“It” settles on a person (Frank Sinatra) and announces that her famous person’s last name begins with “S”.

Player A attempts to stump “It” by saying “the person I’m thinking of a person in the Baseball Hall of Fame”.

If “It” can provide an answer—any answer—that satisfies the Player A’s criteria, then his turn is over and Player B gets to try to stump “It”. So, if “It” answers, “Who is Tom Seaver”, Player A’s turn is over. Player A could have been thinking of Casey Stengel, but Tom Seaver satisfies the criteria put forth just as well, so it is a correct answer.

Next, Player B may ask, “the person I’m thinking of is a current U.S. Supreme Court Justice”. If this stumps “It” and she cannot come up with either Scalia, Souter, or Stevens, Player B gets to have a factual question about the “famous person’ answered, such as, “Is this person alive or dead?”

The more that the Players stump “It”, the more factual questions they’ll be able to ask about the famous person and the more  information they’ll have with which to make an educated guess. So after the “It” is stumped six times the Players may have the following questions about the famous person answered:

Is the person alive or dead?     Answer: dead
                Is it Sacagawea?     Answer: no
Is it a man or a woman?     Answer: man
                Is it Socrates?    Answer: no
Is this person involved in the arts?     Answer: yes
                Is it Sargent?     Answer: no
Was this person a painter?     Answer: no
                Is it John Steinbeck?     Answer: no
Is this person a writer?     Answer: no
                Is it Steven Spielberg? Answer: no
Is this famous for music?     Answer: yes
                Is it Stravinsky? Answer: no

So, they will have learned that this person is a dead, male, involved in the arts—writer. You can see how a few more questions can lead to better and better guesses:

Did this person live before 1800?     Answer: no
                Is it Ringo Starr? Answer: no
Was this person alive in the last half of the 20th Century?     Answer: yes
                Is it Sting?     Answer: no
Did this person also do acting?     Answer: yes
                Is it Frank Sinatra?     Answer: yes—game over

At this point, another player becomes “It”.

Just to clarify, the questions ion the examples above can only be asked after “It” has been stumped. It is best that “It” come up with a famous person that everyone will definitely know. When it comes to trying to stump “It”, the more obscure, the better.