Giraffometer
Giraffometer Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Aim of the Game
Find the highest and lowest numbers corresponding to the facts on the cards, and be the first to score the agreed number of victory points!
Contents
- 300 double-sided fact cards (front – no number, back – with number)
- 1 numbered board for cards
- 48 voting tokens (8 sets of tokens numbered from 1 to 6)
- Approximately 60 crystals (victory points)
- Game rules with game board (-/+) on the back
Setup
Important: Cards are double-sided – there is a fact on the front and a number underneath this fact on its back. During the game you'll have to guess the numbers, so to avoid spoiling the game, please don't look through the deck and avoid flipping the cards over!
Before your first game, remove the voting tokens and the numbered board from their punch-boards. Shuffle the cards carefully without flipping them.
Place the numbered board (A) and these rules with their back (the game board) up in the middle of the table (B).
Each player takes 6 voting tokens of the same color and places them face down in front of him (C). If there are any unused tokens, put them back into the game box.
Shuffle the cards carefully, avoiding seeing their backs, and form a stack with the "no number" side visible (D). Place the crystals to form a supply within easy reach of all players (E).
Playing the Game
Each round is played as follows:
Draw 6 cards form the pile (without revealing or showing their "number" side!) and place them in the designated spaces on the numbered board. Now there is a number corresponding to each fact. Read the text on the cards aloud.
Now all players must try to guess which of these 6 facts have the highest and lowest numbers on their back. To vote for the "lowest" fact, take a voting token with a number corresponding to a chosen fact and place it on the left side of the game board (-). To vote for the "highest" fact, take a voting token with a number corresponding to a chosen fact and place it on the right side of the game board (+). You must place one token on each side of the board.
Note: The numbers on the back of the cards range from 0 to 10,000 and each number only appears once. Be aware that information about the unit is mentioned and sometimes the number you are looking for has to be adjusted, e.g. if the question asks for the Earth circumference in "thousand km", the answer is 40 (thousand km), not 40,000 (km).
When each player has placed two voting tokens, flip all the tokens on the board and all 6 cards to reveal their numbers.
Scoring
- If you correctly voted for the highest and/or the lowest fact (e.g. voted for fact number 5 as the highest one and the number on its back really is the highest of the six numbers on the cards), score 1 victory point: take a crystal from the supply. During each round you can collect up to 2 crystals (if you guessed both the highest and the lowest facts correctly).
- If you didn't vote correctly, you don't get anything.
- If you voted for the opposite fact (declared the highest one to be the lowest or vice versa), you lose 1 crystal. If you don't have any crystals, you can't lose them – the score is never negative.
When playing with children don't use these penalties (i.e. don't lose 1 crystal for voting for the opposite fact).
Starting a New Round
Discard all played cards. Return all voting tokens to their respective owners. Draw 6 new fact cards, place them in the spaces on the numbered board, read the text and continue playing as described below.
Game End
The first player to collect 7 crystals wins the game. In the event of a tie, the tied players win the game together.
The Giraffometer is a new experimental device! If its readings sometimes seem inaccurate, please don't get upset. Certain facts in the game are variable, new records are set every day and some things are tricky to calculate, resulting in the use of an average value. Numbers corresponding to the facts in the game are correct as of late 2014 – early 2015, and on some cards there's a year to make it clearer. Enjoy your game!