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Image CLUES! Image

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COME UP WITH THE RIGHT CLUES FOR SPECIFIC MOVIES, MUSIC GROUPS, AND TV SHOWS!

PREPARATION

Player 1 goes first, so all of the other players must come up with a TV show, movie, or music group or performer they feel Player 1 would know well.

NOTE: You don’t have to include all three categories (movies, TV shows, and music groups or performers) in your game. You can simply pick one category for each round, and then everyone has to come up with an item from that specific category. Other categories work for this game as well, such as books, Broadway shows or musicals, or even geography for a group of world travelers.

Each player writes the name of the show, movie, and/or group on an index card in large, legible writing and holds it out in front of him or her for everyone to see. Players keep their cards out in front of them during the entire round so everyone has a full view of all the selections while Player 1 is giving the clues.

IMPORTANT: If two people come up with the same movie, TV show, or music group or performer in a given round, one of those people must change the selection. Just make it fair. If you change one time, then you shouldn’t have to change the next time.

OBJECTIVE

Players are challenged to come up with clues for specific movies, TV shows, and music groups which would only be recognized by as few members of the group as possible.

GAME TIME

Once everyone has written down their selections and is holding them out in full view, Player 1 makes his choices. Player 1 decides which three items he is going to give clues about for his round. He writes down those three items in the order in which he will play them on a piece of paper and doesn’t let anyone see his three selections. His paper should look something like this:

1.    Shawshank Redemption

2.    Modern Family

3.    Bruce Springsteen

IMPORTANT: Player 1’s three items could also look like this:

1.    Shawshank Redemption

2.    Modern Family

3.    Shawshank Redemption

That’s right! You can actually put the same selection in two different spots. You can even use the same selection in ALL THREE SPOTS! (See the Tip on the next page for information on why you would do that).

Player 1 must now give clues about his three selections one at a time while everyone writes down which movie, TV show, or music group they think Player 1 picked in each of his three spots. When giving clues, Player 1 must announce which item the other players should be guessing (e.g., “Here is my clue for the first item . . .”) and then say something about that item that he hopes ONLY the person who wrote it on his or her card would know or recognize. This could be a line from the movie, an actor he thinks only he and that person know was in the movie, or even something about the movie that few people know. Length does not matter.

NOTE: The clue must be something about the selection. It cannot be something personal between the clue-giver and the player who wrote the selection.

Once Player 1 is done with his statement about his first selection, the other players then take 30 seconds to guess which item the clue referred to and write down their guesses. Player 1’s objective is to give clues that will help the person who came up with each selection—and ONLY that person—to figure out that he picked his or her movie, TV show, or music group without revealing the item to the other players.

Player 1 then moves on and makes a statement about his second selection, again beginning by announcing which item the other players are guessing (“Here is what I have to say about my second selection . . .”) Players write down their guesses for his second selection. Player 1 repeats this process for his third selection.

Once all of the players have written down their guesses for Player 1’s third selection, players reveal their guesses for all three selections at once and tally points.

Play continues when all players come up with new items they think would be familiar to Player 2, and Player 2 chooses three.

TIP: There are two main reasons you may choose to give a clue for the same movie, TV show, or music group or performer in more than one of the three spots. For one, you may not know the other entertainment choices provided that well or you may not be able to come up with strong enough clues for them. Second, depending on the current point status of all the players in the game, you may not want to give certain people the chance to earn additional points by selecting their items for your round.

SCORING

SCORING FOR GUESSERS: Each player who guesses correctly on all three of Player 1’s selections earns 20 points. Each player who guesses correctly on two of Player 1’s three selections earns 5 points. No points if you only guessed correctly on one or none. However, if Player 1 selected YOUR item for one of the three spots, you earn 25 points if you figured it out and guessed correctly. You can actually earn an additional 75 points if Player 1 selected your item for all three spots. In that specific scenario, if you figured out all three were your item, your total for that round would be 95 points.

SCORING FOR PLAYER 1 (THE CLUE GIVER): Player 1 loses 20 points for every person who guesses correctly on all three of his or her selections. Player 1 loses 5 points for every person who guesses two of his three selections correctly. So, with 8 total players, if 4 guessed correctly on all three and 1 guessed correctly on two of the three, Player 1 (The clue giver) would lose 85 points. Player 1 doesn’t lose any points if players guess correctly on one or none of the three items.

Finally, for each of the three items selected, Player 1 earns 25 points when the player who submitted the item guesses correctly that Player 1 selected his item.

Therefore, you can earn a maximum of 75 points each time it is your turn to select items and be the clue giver. It is then simply a matter of how many of your selections everyone else figures out, which determines how many points you lose.

EXAMPLE

Let’s say that Player 1 created his list as follows:

1.    Shawshank Redemption

2.    Modern Family

3.    Bruce Springsteen

For his first clue, referring to Shawshank Redemption, Player 1 might say, “Brooks was here,” which is a line from the movie that he feels only a real fan (i.e., the person who submitted Shawshank Redemption) would know or remember. If Player 2 was the one who originally submitted Shawshank Redemption and she figured out that Player 1 was talking about her movie for the first selection, she and Player 1 would both earn 25 points. Same goes for the players who had Modern Family and Bruce Springsteen. If they guessed Player 1 was talking about their selections in those two spots, they would each receive 25 points and Player 1 would earn another 50 points for those two combined. So in this scenario Player 1 now has 75 points. However, two of the players in the group figured out all three of the clues. They each get 20 and Player 1 loses 40 points (20 X 2). One of the players in the group figured out two of the three clues. That player gets 5 and Player 1 loses 5. Therefore, the total for Player 1 in this round as clue giver ends up being +30 (75 minus 45).