Go Mental

Go Mental Rulebook

Table of Contents

Playing the Game - Summary
Scoring Summary
- Normal Play
- Bonus
- Steal
- Challenge
Playing the Game - The Long Bit
Dissension in the Ranks
Important Ground Rule

Playing the Game - Summary

Set up the board. Each player gets a brain, 10 Steal Cards, and 4 Challenge Cards. Place the brains on or near the GO space. Roll the die to decide who goes first.
The player to the right of the player going first takes a GO mental® Card from the box and reads the question aloud. Player 1 has to name, first, the odd one out (1 point - advance 1 space) and, second, the connection between the other 3 (a further 3 points - advance 3 more spaces). Players cannot name, nor get points for, the connection without first naming the odd one out.
If Player 1 gets BOTH parts of his or her GO mental® question correct, Player 1's turn continues with another question until EITHER part of a GO mental® question is answered incorrectly. Play then passes to Player 2 for any available bonus points.
Bonus points. There's 1 bonus point for the right odd one out, 1 bonus point for the right connection. Each bonus point means you move 1 space forward.

(a) If Player 1 gets the wrong odd one out, that's the end of Player 1's go. Play passes to Player 2 to name the correct odd one out. If correct, Player 2 gets 1 bonus point and can then go on to name the right connection for an additional 1 bonus point.

But, if Player 2 also gets the odd one out wrong, play passes to Player 3 for the bonus points. If Player 3 still can't name the right odd one out, that part of the GO mental® Card doesn't get passed again (the answer's now obvious and you don't get bonus points for nothing). Only the connection part gets passed now to the remaining players in turn.

If, along the way, either Player 2 or Player 3 gets the correct odd one out but the wrong connection, play then passes to the next players in turn to name the correct connection and grab the remaining bonus point.

(b) If Player 1 gets the odd one out correct, but the wrong connection, he or she gets 1 point for the correct odd one out, but that's the end of Player 1's go. Play passes to Player 2, and then to the next players in turn, to name the correct connection and grab the bonus point.
The only player who can't answer for a bonus point is the one reading the question. At the end of a bonus point round, normal play resumes with Player 2's turn.

Scoring Summary

Normal Play

Odd one out: 1 Space Forward
Connection other 3: 3 Spaces Forward

Bonus

Odd one out: 1 Space Forward
Connection other 3: 1 Space Forward

Steal

Both Parts Answered Correctly: 4 Spaces Forward
Either Part Answered Incorrectly: 4 Spaces Backward

Challenge

Both Parts Answered Correctly: 4 Spaces Forward
Either Part Answered Incorrectly: 4 Spaces Backward

Playing the Game - The Long Bit

Equipment

The GO mental® box contains a board, 6 brains, a timer, a die, 500 double-sided GO mental® Cards, 60 Steal Cards, and 24 Challenge Cards. At least it should do. If it doesn't you've been sold a pup. Oh, yes, the box should also contain this Rules of the Game sheet. If it doesn't you're really in trouble.

Object of the Game

The object of the game is to win. Obviously. You do that by being the first player to get your brain from the GO space to the mental space by correctly answering the GO mental® questions.

Each GO mental® question lists 4 apparently unconnected things - people, places, events, objects. 1 of the 4 is the odd one out. The other 3 are somehow connected. When it's your turn, you get a GO mental® question read to you. First, you must correctly say which of the 4 things is the odd one out. For this, you get 1 point (move your brain 1 space forward). Second, providing you've got the odd one out right, correctly state why the other 3 are connected. For this you get an additional 3 points (move your brain 3 more spaces forward).

How about an example?

OK. Let's say it's your turn and you get the following GO mental™ question:

"Bed. Chair. Cornflakes. Porridge"

First, you say which of Bed, Chair, Cornflakes and Porridge is the odd one out. If you're right, you then have to say why the other 3 are connected. Easy, eh? So have you figured it out yet? Bed, Chair, Cornflakes, Porridge - something you lie on, something you sit on, and a couple of things you have for breakfast. Wrong! Your brain's heading off in the wrong direction. Cornflakes is the odd one out. The other 3 feature in Goldilocks and the 3 Bears!

Wow! Sounds tricky.

Well, not really. Although some of the GO mental® questions may seem hard, others may seem easy. How about this one?

"Cowboys. Indians. Rams. Bears."

Try thinking about Football teams. Right! Indians is the odd one out. Dallas Cowboys, LA Rams, Chicago Bears. The Cleveland Indians is a baseball team. Remember, even if you haven't got a clue, it's sometimes worth taking a blind guess. After all, it's at worst a 4 to 1 shot that you'll get the right odd one out.

OK. What happens if I get the odd one out wrong?

It's the end of your go. The GO mental® question then gets passed over to the next player (Player 2 - the one on your left) who gets a crack at it for bonus points (see below).

Fair enough. Say I get the right odd one out but the wrong connection?

The good news is you get 1 point for the right odd one out. The bad news is it's still the end of your go. The connection bit of the GO mental® question then gets passed over to the next player for a possible bonus point (see below).

Where's this "see below" bit you keep talking about?

It's here. Depending on whether you got the odd one out wrong (in which case the whole question gets passed over) or that bit right but the connection wrong (in which case just the connection gets passed over), the other players have a chance of picking up 2 possible bonus points: 1 bonus point for the odd one out, 1 bonus point for the connection. Here's how it works.

If you get the odd one out wrong. The whole GO mental® question gets passed over to Player 2. If he or she gets it right, then he or she gets 1 bonus point (moves one space forward). Player 2 then also gets to have a stab at saying what the connection is. If that's right, too, then he or she gets another 1 bonus point. If, however, Player 2 also gets the odd one out wrong, play passes to Player 3 for a final shot at it. As before, if Player 3 gets the right odd one out then (hurrah!), he or she scoops the bonus point plus gets a go at saying what the connection is and, if right, picking up the further 1 bonus point. If, during this process, either Player 2 or 3 manages to score the bonus point for getting the right odd one out but blows it when it comes to the connection - then only the connection bit, and its attendant extra 1 bonus point, gets passed on to the next player. If, on the other hand, both Player 2 and 3 get the odd one out wrong, that part of the question doesn't get passed on again to Player 4 (after, all, at that point the answer's obvious - players don't get bonus points for nothing!). What happens then is that any player who hasn't yet had a turn gets a go at naming just the connection for the remaining possible 1 bonus point.

If you get the odd one out right but the connection wrong. Play, and the possible 1 bonus point, passes to Player 2. If Player 2 also can't get the connection, it gets passed around in turn until everyone has had a go to get it right and win the bonus point.

In both cases, the only person who isn't allowed to answer is the player actually reading the question - it's too embarrassing if they get it wrong.

OK. What are the Steal Cards for?

Aha! Strategy coming up. At the start of the game each player gets 10 Steal Cards. You use them to steal a turn. If it's someone else's go, and you reckon you know the answer, then before the other player starts to answer you can shout "Steal" and slap one of your Steal Cards down on the ! discard space on the board. The question then goes over to you. Get it right and you grab the points - all 4 of them (move 4 spaces forward). But, two little snags: (1) If you Steal you have to get the WHOLE question right, both the odd one out AND the connection, to get the 4 points. (2) Nasty bit this, if you Steal and get EITHER PART wrong then you have to go backwards 4 spaces (see Scoring Summary). Steal Cards can only be played once each. Stolen questions are not passed over if you answer incorrectly.

Ooh, nasty! What about the Challenge Cards?

Similar principle, but a chance to get pleasingly vindictive. At the start of the game each player gets 4 Challenge Cards. Challenge Cards can only be played by the player whose turn it is. So, if it's your turn, and you get a real stinker of a question read to you, instead of answering it you can choose to play one of your Challenge Cards and make another player answer it instead. As above, you shout "Challenge...", adding the name of the player whom you are challenging, and slap down your Challenge Card on the ? discard space and. The player who's been challenged then has to answer the WHOLE GO mental® question - both the odd one out and the connection. If the challenged player gets EITHER PART wrong, he or she loses 4 points (has to go backwards 4 spaces). If, however, the challenged player gets the WHOLE question right, he or she goes forwards 4 spaces (see Scoring Summary). Like Steal Cards, Challenge Cards can only be used once. Challenged questions are not passed over.

Dissension in the Ranks

Every now and again it's inevitable that some Clever Dick or Smart Alice is going to forget the fact that we, the designers, have brains the size of planets and take exception to either the odd one out or the connection as given on the GO mental® Card. However, just because Anne "Weakest Link" Robinson brooks none of this sort of backtalk doesn't mean that we're going to start getting unpleasant about it. After all, it's just possible that the Clever Dick or Smart Alice might actually be right, and have come up with an alternative we hadn't thought of (statistically improbable but, we grudgingly accept, theoretically possible). So, should such dissension arise, the final judgement as to whether to accept an alternative answer will be left up to the verdict of the other players. Fair, democratic, and in the best tradition of American justice. Besides, we've better things to do with our evenings than driving over to your house to argue the toss.

Important Ground Rule

Connections are always positive: negative connections are not allowed.

So, you're not allowed to say "x is the odd one out because it's such and such - the rest aren't." For instance: "Cowboys. Indians. Rams. Bears." The answer "Rams is the odd one out: the others don't have horns" is (a) a negative connection, and (b) silly. You might as well say "Indians is the odd one out; the others don't wear war-paint" or "Bears is the odd one out; none of the others are called Winnie-the-Pooh".

Anyway, we've seen a picture of the Indian Chief, Sitting Bull, and he's wearing a hat with horns on it. So there.