Set-up:

• Shuffle both decks of cards and place them in the center.

• Deal each player 5 cards face-down from the ‘noun’ deck. They may view their cards.

Gameplay:

Starting a round:

• The youngest player starts as the ‘judge’. The judge flips open a question card and reads it out to the other players.

Round:

• The other players choose a card from their hand which they believe answers the question best, they play their cards face-up at the same time.

• Going in turn, they each make an argument for why their card answers the question best. 

  • • • If helpful: allow each player 20 seconds uninterrupted before other players can chime in with rebuttals and queries. A phone timer may be helpful for moderating the uninterrupted time.

• The judge may ask to hear more or less from certain players. When the judge has heard enough and is ready to decide, they may choose to end the discussion and award the question card to the player with the best answer.

When the round ends:

• Players draw cards till they have 5 cards in their hand again, the player to the judge’s left becomes the next judge, and another round begins again.

When does the game conclude?

• Play till each player has been the judge three times. The player with the most question cards accumulated at the end wins.

Action Cards:

In the noun deck there are ‘action cards’ that players may draw and play at the same time as their answer (so they put down multiple cards at once). They can play as many action cards at once as they like.

• Opposite day inverses the meaning of the question for all the players.

• Rotate right shifts noun cards one space to the player on the right (and to the left with Rotate left).

  • • Rotate cards compound on each other (if multiple are played).

• New hand allows a player to swap out her entire hand and choose an answer having seen everyone else’s answers.

  • • In the event that ‘new hand’ and ‘rotate’ are played in the same round, the player who played ‘new hand’ picks a card for the player that her answer has rotated to.

Wild Cards:

In question deck are ‘wild cards’ that may be drawn by the judge. After drawing a wild card, the judge draws another question card (which the wild card will impact).

*Where there are multiple ‘wild cards’ in a row, only the first one is active. Shuffle subsequent ‘wild cards’ back into the question deck.

• Snap round implies that players play their nouns without seeing the question.

• Two words means that players may only make their argument in two words.

What's different (compared to Classic)

Unhinged is played the same way as Classic except for the following differences:

• No cards are dealt for players to hold in their hand. Every round is a ‘snap round’, the judge draws the question card and players argue for whatever card they draw (face up).

• There is no requirement for players to argue in sequence, this version is intended to be haphazard.

• Actions cards have no effect and are to be discarded immediately upon being drawn (player keeps drawing until they have a noun in front of them).

• Two words & make us laugh wild cards are still in effect, snap round has no impact.

What's different (compared to Classic)

• This version works the same way as ‘classic’, but without a judge.

• Players must agree upon the winner of each round, and where an agreement cannot be reached they can opt to ‘phone a friend’ or set aside the undecided rounds as void.