GO mental. Rules of the Game

Transcription

1 GO mental Rules of the Game OK, we re all busy people and don t have time to mess around. That s why we ve put the Summary first. So, if you just want to get on and play, read this and you re off and running. If you want to read the rules in more detail or get a better feel for the tactics, there s a longer bit you can read. You can play individually or in teams. Playing the Game - Summary 1. Set up the board. Each player gets a brain, 10 Steal Cards, and 4 Challenge Cards. Place the brains on or near the GO space. Roll the die to decide who goes first. 2. The player to the right of the player going first takes a GO mental Card from the box and reads the question aloud. Player 1 has to name, first, the odd one out (1 point - advance 1 space) and, second, the connection between the other 3 (a further 3 points - advance 3 more spaces). Players cannot name, nor get points for, the connection without first naming the odd one out. 3. If Player 1 gets BOTH parts of his or her GO mental question correct, Player 1 s turn continues with another question until EITHER part of a GO mental question is answered incorrectly. Play then passes to Player 2 for any available bonus points. 4. Bonus points. There s 1 bonus point for the right odd one out, 1 bonus point for the right connection. Each bonus point means you move 1 space forward. (a) If Player 1 gets the wrong odd one out, that s the end of Player 1 s go. Play passes to Player 2 to name the correct odd one out. If correct, Player 2 gets 1 bonus point and can then go on to name the right connection for an additional 1 bonus point. But, if Player 2 also gets the odd one out wrong, play passes to player 3 for the bonus points. If Player 3 still can t name the right odd one out, that part of the GO mental Card doesn t get passed again (the answer s now obvious and you don t get bonus points for nothing). Only the connection part gets passed now to the remaining players in turn. If, along the way, either Player 2 or Player 3 gets the correct odd one out but the wrong connection, play then passes to the next players in turn to name the correct connection and grab the remaining bonus point. (b) If Player 1 gets the odd one out correct, but the wrong connection, he or she gets 1 point for the correct odd one out, but that s the end of Player 1 s go. Play passes to Player 2, and then to the next players in turn, to name the correct connection and grab the bonus point. 5. The only player who can t answer for a bonus point is the one reading the question. At the end of a bonus point round, normal play resumes with Player 2 s turn.

2 6. Steal Cards. Any player can steal a question away from the player whose turn it is. What you do is, before the other player has started to answer the question that s been read out, shout steal and slap your Steal Card on the! discard space on the board. If you play a Steal Card you have to answer the WHOLE of the GO mental question BOTH the odd one out AND the connection. If you get them both right, you move forward 4 spaces. But, if you get EITHER part wrong, you move BACKWARDS 4 spaces! 7. Stolen GO mental questions are not passed over for bonus points if answered incorrectly. After a Steal Card play, the game resumes with the turn of the player to the left of the one whose GO mental question got stolen. In other words, if your GO mental question gets stolen, your turn is over. 8. Challenge Cards. Instead of answering a question that s been read to you, you can challenge another player to answer it. Simply shout challenge, name the player you re challenging and slap your Challenge Card on the? discard space on the board. If the challenged player can t answer the WHOLE of the question - BOTH the odd one out and the connection he or she has to move BACKWARDS 4 spaces! But, if the challenged player gets BOTH parts right, he or she moves forward 4 spaces. 9. Challenged GO mental questions are not passed over for bonus points if answered incorrectly. After a Challenge Card play, the game resumes with the turn of the player to the left of the one who issued the challenge. In other words, if you challenge another player, your turn is over. 10. More than one brain can occupy a playing space. Use of the Timer is optional. If someone is taking too long to answer put the timer on them. 11. Players cannot move backwards past GO. So, if you re on space two and have to move back 4 spaces, you only have to go back as far as GO. This is good news if you re doing really badly. 12. The winner is the first player to advance his or her brain onto the mental space. Scoring more points than necessary to land exactly on the mental space is OK you've still won. 13. CONNECTIONS ARE ALWAYS POSITIVE. NEGATIVE CONNECTIONS ARE NOT ALLOWED. So, you can t say x is the odd one out because it s such and such and the others aren t. Scoring Summary Odd one out Connection other 3 Normal Play 3 Spaces Forward Odd one out Connection other 3 Both Parts Answered Correctly Either Part Answered Incorrectly Bonus Steal 4 Spaces Forward 4 Spaces Backward Challenge Both Parts Answered Correctly 4 Spaces Forward Either Part Answered Incorrectly 4 Spaces Backward

3 Playing the Game The Long Bit Equipment The GO mental box contains a board, 6 brains, a timer, a die, 500 double-sided GO mental Cards, 60 Steal Cards, and 24 Challenge Cards. At least it should do. If it doesn t you ve been sold a pup. Oh, yes, the box should also contain this Rules of the Game sheet. If it doesn t you re really in trouble. Object of the Game The object of the game is to win. Obviously. You do that by being the first player to get your brain from the GO space to the mental space by correctly answering the GO mental questions. Each GO mental question lists 4 apparently unconnected things - people, places, events, objects. 1 of the 4 is the odd one out. The other 3 are somehow connected. When it s your turn, you get a GO mental question read to you. First, you must correctly say which of the 4 things is the odd one out. For this, you get 1 point (move your brain 1 space forward). Second, providing you've got the odd one out right, correctly state why the other 3 are connected. For this you get an additional 3 points (move your brain 3 more spaces forward). How about an example? OK. Let s say it s your turn and you get the following GO mental question: Bed. Chair. Cornflakes. Porridge First, you say which of Bed, Chair, Cornflakes and Porridge is the odd one out. If you re right, you then have to say why the other 3 are connected. Easy, eh? So have you figured it out yet? Bed, Chair, Cornflakes, Porridge something you lie on, something you sit on, and a couple of things you have for breakfast. Wrong! Your brain s heading off in the wrong direction. Cornflakes is the odd one out. The other 3 feature in Goldilocks and the 3 Bears! Wow! Sounds tricky. Well, not really. Although some of the GO mental questions may seem hard, others may seem easy. How about this one? Cowboys. Indians. Rams. Bears. Try thinking about Football teams. Right! Indians is the odd one out. Dallas Cowboys, LA Rams, Chicago Bears. The Cleveland Indians is a baseball team. Remember, even if you haven t got a clue, it s sometimes worth taking a blind guess. After all, it s at worst a 4 to 1 shot that you ll get the right odd one out. OK. What happens if I get the odd one out wrong? It s the end of your go. The GO mental question then gets passed over to the next player (Player 2 - the one on your left) who gets a crack at it for bonus points (see below). Fair enough. Say I get the right odd one out but the wrong connection? The good news is you get 1 point for the right odd one out. The bad news is it s still the end of your go. The connection bit of the GO mental question then gets passed over to the next player for a possible bonus point (see below).

4 Where s this see below bit you keep talking about? It s here. Depending on whether you got the odd one out wrong (in which case the whole question gets passed over) or that bit right but the connection wrong (in which case just the connection gets passed over), the other players have a chance of picking up 2 possible bonus points: 1 bonus point for the odd one out, 1 bonus point for the connection. Here s how it works. If you get the odd one out wrong. The whole GO mental question gets passed over to Player 2. If he or she gets it right, then he or she gets 1 bonus point (moves one space forward). Player 2 then also gets to have a stab at saying what the connection is. If that s right, too, then he or she gets another 1 bonus point. If, however, Player 2 also gets the odd one out wrong, play passes to Player 3 for a final shot at it. As before, if Player 3 gets the right odd one out then (hurrah!), he or she scoops the bonus point plus gets a go at saying what the connection is and, if right, picking up the further 1 bonus point. If, during this process, either Player 2 or 3 manages to score the bonus point for getting the right odd one out but blows it when it comes to the connection then only the connection bit, and its attendant extra 1 bonus point, gets passed on to the next player. If, on the other hand, both Player 2 and 3 get the odd one out wrong, that part of the question doesn t get passed on again to Player 4 (after, all, at that point the answer s obvious players don t get bonus points for nothing!). What happens then is that any player who hasn t yet had a turn gets a go at naming just the connection for the remaining possible 1 bonus point. If you get the odd one out right but the connection wrong. Play, and the possible 1 bonus point, passes to Player 2. If Player 2 also can t get the connection, it gets passed around in turn until everyone has had a go to get it right and win the bonus point. In both cases, the only person who isn t allowed to answer is the player actually reading the question it's too embarrassing if they get it wrong. OK. What are the Steal Cards for? Aha! Strategy coming up. At the start of the game each player gets 10 Steal Cards. You use them to steal a turn. If it s someone else s go, and you reckon you know the answer, then before the other player starts to answer you can shout Steal and slap one of your Steal Cards down on the! discard space on the board. The question then goes over to you. Get it right and you grab the points all 4 of them (move 4 spaces forward). But, two little snags: (1) If you Steal you have to get the WHOLE question right, both the odd one out AND the connection, to get the 4 points. (2) Nasty bit this, if you Steal and get EITHER PART wrong then you have to go backwards 4 spaces (see Scoring Summary). Steal Cards can only be played once each. Stolen questions are not passed over if you answer incorrectly. Ooh, nasty! What about the Challenge Cards? Similar principle, but a chance to get pleasingly vindictive. At the start of the game each player gets 4 Challenge Cards. Challenge Cards can only be played by the player whose turn it is. So, if it s your turn, and you get a real stinker of a question read to you, instead of answering it you can choose to play one of your Challenge Cards and make another player answer it instead. As above, you shout Challenge..., adding the name of the player whom you are challenging, and slap down your Challenge Card on the? discard space and. The player who s been challenged then has to answer the WHOLE GO mental question both the odd one out and the connection. If the challenged player gets EITHER PART wrong, he or she loses 4 points (has to go backwards 4 spaces). If, however, the challenged player gets the WHOLE question right, he or she goes forwards 4 spaces (see Scoring Summary). Like Steal Cards, Challenge Cards can only be used once. Challenged questions are not passed over. Dissension in the Ranks Every now and again it s inevitable that some Clever Dick or Smart Alice is going to forget the fact that we, the designers, have brains the size of planets and take exception to either the

5 odd one out or the connection as given on the GO mental Card. However, just because Anne Weakest Link Robinson brooks none of this sort of backtalk doesn t mean that we re going to start getting unpleasant about it. After all, it s just possible that the Clever Dick or Smart Alice might actually be right, and have come up with an alternative we hadn t thought of (statistically improbable but, we grudgingly accept, theoretically possible). So, should such dissension arise, the final judgement as to whether to accept an alternative answer will be left up to the verdict of the other players. Fair, democratic, and in the best tradition of American justice. Besides, we ve better things to do with our evenings than driving over to your house to argue the toss. Important Ground Rule: Connections are always positive: negative connections are not allowed. So, you re not allowed to say x is the odd one out because it s such and such the rest aren t. For instance: Cowboys. Indians. Rams. Bears. The answer Rams is the odd one out: the others don t have horns is (a) a negative connection, and (b) silly. You might as well say Indians is the odd one out; the others don t wear war-paint or Bears is the odd one out; none of the others are called Winnie-the-Pooh. Anyway, we ve seen a picture of the Indian Chief, Sitting Bull, and he s wearing a hat with horns on it. So there. Copyright 1997 HL Games Limited. All rights reserved in all media.