It was created by Laura Robinson and Paul Toyne of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

A US edition appeared that year from TSR, Inc., copyrighted to Gameworks Creations, Inc. and licensed from Canada Games.

[2] Subsequent editions have appeared from a variety of companies including The Games Gang, Hasbro and Mattel.

Balderdash is based on an earlier game, Fictionary, of essentially similar gameplay, varying in that obscure words are found in an unabridged dictionary instead of the definitions and meanings provided on cards.

The board game version was created by Laura Robinson and Paul Toyne of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The dasher draws a "definition card" from the supplied box, and rolls the dice to decide which of the words listed there is to be used.

In addition to more up-to-date words, Beyond Balderdash offers obscure acronyms, dates, names, and movie titles, for which the players have to provide full names, major events, major accomplishments, and plot summaries, respectively.

An informal variation of the game consists of the players exclusively submitting hilarious and outrageous definitions.