Unplug Play

BE THE ONLY ONE TO FIND THE THREE ITEMS THAT GO TOGETHER!

To start, everyone needs to write down three related words or items; e.g., rye, wheat, and white (breads); rabbit, fish, and bird (pets); scream, dream, and steam (words that rhyme); Goofy, Pluto, and Donald Duck (Disney characters); or Deniro, Redford, and Pattinson (all Roberts). Players write these three-of-a-kind words or items on three separate index cards without letting the other players see what they have written.

NOTE: Be creative, but keep in mind that you don’t want to make your three too easy or too difficult for people to figure out.

As the other players are writing down three items for the first round, the first player to finish must also create “Bluff Cards.” A Bluff Card is an index card with the word Bluff written on it, and these same cards can be used for all subsequent rounds. To determine the number of Bluff Cards needed, take the total number of players in the game and subtract 3. (For example, if you have seven players in the game, you will need four Bluff Cards.) Make sure you write lightly on the index cards with pens or pencils so the words won’t show through on the other side.

In this game, players need to use their best bluffing skills! Players try to fool everyone else into thinking they drew a different card than the one they actually drew while trying to guess the real three-of-a-kind match. The fewer players who guess the real three of a kind correctly, the more points those players receive.

Player 1 holds on to one of his three index cards and mixes the other two with all of the Bluff Cards facedown so no one can see them. Then he asks each player, starting with the player to his left, to randomly draw a card without revealing to anyone which card he or she picked. Once a player sees what is written on the chosen card, he or she hides it until later.

Players who draw a Bluff Card must try to make people believe they picked one of Player 1’s three-of-a-kind set. Players who drew one of the three-of-a-kind cards must say the word on the card when it is their turn; the catch is that these players want to make the rest of the players think they are bluffing.

Player 1 goes first and says the word on the card he held back for himself. Player 2 then says a related word. If Player 2 drew one of Player 1’s three-of-a-kind cards, she must say that word; if she drew a bluff card, she must try to convince the other players that whatever word she makes up is the real match to Player 1’s word.

IMPORTANT: If a person with a Bluff Card actually says one of the two real words in the three-of-a-kind set before the person who actually has the word gets to say it, the roles reverse, and the person who actually has the word must now bluff and come up with something else which will make people choose his or her new word as part of the three-of-a-kind group.

Players who happen to select one of the three-of-a-kind cards at the beginning have a major advantage because they already know two of the words; they only need to guess the third.

After every player in the game has had the chance to bluff or say the word on his card, each player must write down his or her three-of-a-kind guess. Once all of the guesses are written down, it’s pens down! Players cannot change their guesses during the reveal.

Once the scores are tallied, Player 2 begins a new round with her three-of-a-kind set, and play continues until all players have had the chance to lead a round.

For the players who guessed correctly, the amount of points they each receive is equivalent to ten times the number of people who got it wrong! (For example, with six players in the game, not including Player 1, if four got it wrong and two got it right, those two players who got it right would each earn 40 points.) The players who got it wrong don’t earn any points.

The player who created the three-of-a-kind set earns 50 points if (1) at least one person gets it right AND (2) no more than half of the guessers get it right. If more than half of the players get it right, Player 1 gets no points at all. In addition— and this is important—if either nobody or everybody guesses correctly, Player 1 loses 20 points and every other player in the game earns 20 points.

This point system is put in place to make sure everyone tries their hardest to fool everyone else and to encourage players to make their three-of-a-kind set challenging, but not too challenging.

Using one of the examples above (pets: rabbit, fish, and bird), let’s say Player 1 kept fish for himself and mixed rabbit and bird in with the Bluff Cards. Player 1 starts by simply saying “Fish.” Now Player 2 has to say a word. Player 2 drew a Bluff Card; now she must say something that she believes goes with fish so everyone thinks her word is part of the three-of-a-kind set. She decides to say “Shark.” Now it’s Player 3’s turn. If Player 3 drew the rabbit card, he must say “Rabbit,” but he can hesitate to make people think he has a Bluff Card.

Let’s say Player 5 drew the bird card, but before he has the chance to use it, Player 4 bluffs and says “Bird.” Player 5, who actually had bird, must now think of something else to make everyone think he has one of the three-of-a-kind cards. Additionally, Player 5 now knows that Player 4 drew one of the Bluff Cards, but Player 4 doesn’t necessarily know that she came up with one of the real three-of-a-kind items when she was bluffing. This makes for an interesting set of circumstances, and the bluffs—and the stakes—build.

For scoring, let’s say there are seven players in the above example with pets. After every player takes his or her turn, everyone writes down their guesses (except Player 1, of course) as to what they think are the real three of a kind. If two of the six players guessing get it right, those two players earn 40 points (10 times the four players who guessed incorrectly). The four who were wrong do not earn any points. Player 1 earns 50 points because at least one person got it right and no more than half got it right. However, if four of the six players guessing got it right, then those four players would each earn 20 points (10 times the two players who guessed incorrectly) and Player 1 would not earn any points since more than half of the players guessing got it right. Essentially, the three of a kind was too easy. Keep in mind though, if everyone or nobody guesses correctly, Player 1 loses 20 points and everyone else gets 20.