Unplug Play

THAT’S MY PLAN, AND
I’M STICKING TO IT!

GOOD CLUES AND KNOWING WHEN TO QUIT WILL GET YOU FAR IN THIS GAME!

Each player writes down approximately twenty common, one-word objects (hammer, television, ear, toaster, camera, computer, iron, bottle, jar, lime, lobster, brick, etc.) on different, small pieces of paper. No names or proper nouns! These are the game pieces that are all placed together in a hat or other object, which prevents anyone from seeing them.

Players must come up with the best possible clues to earn significant points . . . and know when to quit when someone else is giving the clues!

Player 1 goes first and picks a word out of the hat without revealing it to anyone. He then gives a two-word clue for everyone to guess the word. Player 1 cannot use any part of the word in any of the two words of the clue. He can’t point to anything or use any hand gestures, and he can’t say the word in a foreign language.

IMPORTANT: Once Player 1 picks the one-word object out of the hat, he must say the two-word clue and NOTHING ELSE until the guesses are revealed! For example, if the word is nose, Player 1 could say “Smell with” as the two-word clue. Each player then writes down what he or she thinks the word is, and everyone reveals their answers at once.

Each player who gets it correct then has a choice: he or she can either “Move on” or “Stop.” Those who “Stop” get to keep their points (see “Scoring”), but they cannot earn any more for that round. Those who move on can earn more points, but they also risk losing all the points they have earned. (Player 1 also earns and loses points as the other players guess, so he must try to give the best possible clues to avoid losing points.)

When the other players have made their choice, Player 1 then picks out another word and prepares a two-word clue for those who elected to move on.

IMPORTANT: Once a word is picked out of the hat, it must be discarded. Also, if a word selected from the hat has already been used in the game (more than one person submitted chair, for example), toss it away and pick again. The same word cannot be used twice.

Player 1 must continue until all players have either declared “Stop” or guessed incorrectly and lost their points. When the scores from Player 1’s round have been tallied, Player 2 chooses a word and begins giving clues and so on until all players have had a chance to lead a round.

When a player elects to stop, that player and Player 1 multiply the number of words he or she guessed correctly by 10, and both that player and Player 1 earn those points for the round.

If a player guesses incorrectly, both that player and Player 1 lose 10 points per word guessed—even if the previous guesses were correct. Players who get the first word wrong lose 10 points and immediately cost Player 1 10 points as well.

If Player 2 guessed six of the words correctly and then declared “Stop,” she and Player 1 would both earn 60 points. If Player 3 elected to go for a seventh word and he got it wrong, both Player 3 and Player 1 would lose 70 points each—even though his first six guesses were correct.

TIP: As you see, if a lot of players get too greedy when it is your round to give clues, those players will all lose points, but YOU will lose a lot more! You can set a ten-word maximum per person per round to prevent any players from getting too greedy.