Unplug Play

TRY TO FOCUS — IT’S REALLY ALL YOU CAN DO UNDER THIS AMOUNT OF PRESSURE.

Each player in the game writes twenty random words on small, separate pieces of paper and mixes them together with everyone else’s words facedown on a table or in a hat where no one can see them. These are the game pieces.

Player 1 goes first and states how many words (anywhere from one to twenty) he wants to remember. Player 2 then draws that many random pieces from the hat. Player 2 must read each word aloud slowly to Player 1. Player 1 CANNOT write the words down!

When Player 2 is done saying the specified number of words, the other players get 30 seconds to distract Player 1 by saying all sorts of other words.

IMPORTANT: Player 1 may not hold his hands over his ears or make any noise during these 30 seconds!

When time is up, Player 2 says, “Silence!” Player 1 must now repeat the words Player 2 said in any order. He has no more than 60 seconds to accomplish this.

If Player 1 remembers all the words, both Player 1 and Player 2 earn points (see “Scoring”). However, if Player 1 misses any of the words, then Player 1 and Player 2 both lose points. Player 2 now gets to choose how many words she wants to remember, and Player 3 will draw exactly that many words from the hat and read them aloud.

IMPORTANT: If Player 1 remembers all his words, Player 2 must select a number of words to remember which is greater than the number Player 1 guesses! If Player 1 misses any of the words, then Player 2 has her choice of guessing any number of words from one to twenty. That process continues for every player who follows in the round. In each round, every player must read once and remember once. Every player has two chances to EARN or LOSE points per round.

Once the last player goes, the round is over, and players begin the next round with a clean slate. All game pieces picked in round one are placed back in the hat.

NOTE: As the rounds go on, the game pieces may start to grow familiar, which gives players a chance to push the limits of their memories and attempt higher and higher numbers—with higher risk.

To make it fair, Player 2 tests her memory first in the next round. It is important to rotate on each round. Player 1 should go last in round two. Player 2 should go last in round three, and so on. In addition, players can change the person who reads the words to a given player on each round by having each person randomly pick a name out of a hat. This way, each player gets to benefit from reading to the players with the best memories in the game and vice versa.

To determine how many points each pair of players will earn or lose, multiply the number of words remembered by itself. (For example, if Player 1 attempted and remembered five words, both he and Player 2, the player who read the list to Player 1, would earn 25 points: 5 X 5. On the other hand, if Player 1 messed up and didn’t remember all five words, both he and Player 2 would LOSE 25 points!) The player reading the words always receives or loses the same amount of points as the player who succeeds or fails in remembering them.