Mood X
Mood X Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Components
- 64 cards
- Game board
- 7 emotion discs with arrows
- 1 emotion-level disc with numbers
- 16 tokens (in blue, red, pink and yellow)
- Instructions
- Bonus: 4 coasters for cups or glasses with cold drinks
Goal of the Game
Players tell stories about each other and try to guess each other's emotions in the situations described. Each round, one player is the Hero of the story and another player is the Storyteller. At the end of the story, the players secretly choose on their discs the emotion that they think the Hero will feel in the described situation. The number of points gained depends on how closely a player's choice matches the answer given by the Hero.
Setup
Take all the elements out of the box: discs, tokens and cards. Put the game board back in the box. Shuffle the cards and place them in a face-down stack. Each player receives two tokens of one colour. Place one token in front of yourself and the other on the game board in front of tile No. 1.
Each player receives one emotion disc with arrows. Players choose, by any convenient method, who receives the emotion-level disc with numbers; that player becomes the first Hero.
Playing the Game
The Hero takes the top card from the stack, turns it over and places it in the centre of the table so that all players can see it. The card shows two characters.
The player sitting to the left of the Hero decides which of the two characters shown on the card will be played by the Hero. Then the next player decides who the second character shown on the card will be (this can be any person: an invented or historical character, one of the players, or someone everybody knows).
The third player tells a short story connected with this card and the characters on it. The Storyteller begins the story with the words: "How would you feel if ...?"
After hearing the story, the Hero must decide how they would really feel in the situation described. Secretly from the other players, the Hero chooses the matching mood symbol on their emotion disc, using the number 5 for this purpose.
At the same time, the other players (also secretly) choose on their discs the emotion that they think the Hero will feel in the given situation, and point its arrow at that emotion. After all levels of emotion have been chosen, the players reveal their discs simultaneously.
Scoring
Points are awarded depending on how precisely the players guessed the emotion chosen by the Hero. Players compare their choice on their emotion discs with the Hero's choice. Each player who guessed correctly receives 5 points; players who marked the adjacent emotion receive 3 points; if a player chose an emotion two steps away from the Hero's emotion, that player receives 1 point. The Hero also receives points in this round: the Hero gets a number of points equal to the highest bid made by the players (1, 3 or 5 points).
Now all players may move their tokens along the score track on the game board by the number of tiles that corresponds to the points scored in this round.
Note: If all players choose the emotion that the Hero chose, the Storyteller does not receive any points. The other players receive their points according to the scoring rules above.
At the end of the turn, the Hero and the player sitting to the left of the Hero exchange their discs, and the role of Hero passes to the next player.
Winner
If two players reach 24 points at the same time, the game ends and the players share the victory.
Attention: The Hero can only be one of the two characters shown on the card. Heroes cannot be animals, objects or fairy-tale creatures.
The gender of a character is not essential: a male player may embody a female character, and vice versa. The player who tells the story also takes part in the round, making their choice on their own emotion disc together with the other players.
Important: The emotions shown on the discs are never described or precisely defined anywhere. The interpretation of these images depends on the players.
Rules for Three Players
The three-player variant differs from the basic version in that the player sitting to the left of the Hero not only indicates which of the characters on the card will be the Hero, but also decides who the second character will be. The third player becomes the Storyteller.
Example of Play
- Oleg is the Hero. He turns over the first card from the stack.
- The player to the left decides that Oleg is the character with a crown on his head.
- The next player decides that the second character shown on the card is Oleg's schoolmate.
- The third player begins the story: "How would you feel, Oleg, if your school friend, whom you had not seen for a long time, came to you wearing a precious necklace, the same one that once belonged to your grandmother and disappeared without a trace many years ago?"
- The Hero chose the image on the red background on his emotion-level disc. The other players chose yellow, blue and red backgrounds.
- The player who marked the emotion on the red background receives 5 points. The player who chose yellow receives 1 point, and the player who chose blue receives no points. Oleg receives 5 points, because his emotion was guessed by one of the players.
Continuation of the example: his friend promised to return the necklace if you go with her to a new restaurant specialising in unusual cuisine and eat the four most exotic dishes.