Morphology
Morphology Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
The Object
Correctly guess the words your teammates build to be the first team to reach the Final Lily Pad.
Getting Ready to Play
- Divide the players into teams (fewer teams is better).
- Each team selects a team frog and places the frog on the Starting Lily Pad.
- Decide which words to use: easy or hard, or mix 'em up. (Easy is recommended at first.)
- The team with the youngest player goes first.
- Each team selects a Morphologist: the person who will create the first word. This position rotates each round.
The first team to get to the Final Lily Pad wins!
To Play
The Morphologist from the starting team selects a card but does not show the card to his/her team.
Once the Morphologist looks at the word, the timer is flipped and the Morphologist begins building the word.
Team members try to guess the word before time expires.
If a team correctly guesses the word in the allotted time, the team moves their frog forward to the next Lily Pad. If the team does not guess correctly in the allotted time, the team does not advance.
The die is ALWAYS passed to the left for the next team to play.
The Morphologist
When you are the Morphologist, this is your chance to let your creativity shine! A few guidelines:
- The Morphologist cannot spell out words or make the pieces into symbols (i.e. #, $).
- The Morphologist cannot speak, however a certain level of nodding, grunting and encouraging by the Morphologist is allowed.
- The Morphologist is not a piece, and may not interact with the other game pieces like 'charades'.
For example, if the word was 'baby', the Morphologist cannot rock a piece. In this case, the Morphologist would be a part of the game (the person rocking the baby). This is not allowed. The Morphologist can, however, make one piece a 'parent' and move the 'parent' to rock the baby.
Think of yourself as a puppeteer, not an actor in the game.
Lily Pads
There are three types of Lily Pads: Play, Roll and Pick 3.
Play
When the Lily Pad is labeled with the word 'Play', play the game with no restrictions: use any/all of the pieces to get your teammates to guess the word. Remember: you must always get the word right to advance. The "Start" Lily Pad is your first Lily Pad.
Roll
When a team lands on a Lily Pad with the word "Roll" the team on the Lily Pad must roll the die and follow the directions below. The die faces are listed here in order, 1 to 6.
Die 1: Everybody Plays. Each team's Morphologist picks 5 pieces. First team to guess correctly advances forward one Lily Pad.*
Each team plays in this round. Starting with the team who rolled the 1 and rotating clockwise, each team's Morphologist picks 1 game piece from the deck, continuing until each Morphologist has selected 5 pieces total. Each Morphologist then looks at the word card. Once the Morphologists have looked at the word, the timer is flipped and the Morphologists begin creating the word. If a team correctly guesses the word in the allotted time, the team moves their frog forward to the next Lily Pad. If no team correctly guesses the word in the allotted time, no team advances. Play continues to the left of the team who rolled the die.
Die 2: Eyes Closed. Build the word with your eyes closed.
After looking at the card, the Morphologist must close his/her eyes and build the word.
Die 3: Weak Hand Only. Build the word with your weak hand only.
The Morphologist must build the word using only his/her non-dominant hand.
Die 4: String Only. Build the word using only the string.
The Morphologist must build the word using only the string.
Die 5: You Pick 5. Build the word using only 5 pieces.
Prior to looking at the card, the Morphologist picks 5 pieces that he/she will use to build the word.
Die 6: Interception. Get a chance to guess the word correctly if the other team wasn't able to.
If the building team cannot guess the word during the allotted time, the opposing teams are given a chance to guess the word and advance forward one Lily Pad. The team furthest behind is allowed the first guess. If teams are on the same Lily Pad, the team with the youngest player guesses first. Each team is allowed only one guess and ten seconds to come up with that guess. If a team correctly guesses the word in the allotted time, the team moves their team frog forward to the next Lily Pad. If no team correctly guesses the word in the allotted time, no one advances. Play continues to the left.
Note: if a team is on the last Lily Pad (Pick 3), this team is not allowed to advance forward or win the game from another team's Interception or Everybody Plays turn. They are still allowed to participate and create in the Interception and Everybody Plays rounds, however, if they win, they do not move forward.
Pick 3
When a team lands on Pick 3, the opposing teams (without first viewing the word) select 3 unique pieces for the building team to use (i.e. the string, a glass bead and a wooden stick, NOT three different colored cubes).
The building team is only allowed to use the 3 pieces chosen by the opposing teams to build the word. If the team does not correctly guess the word in their first turn, in their next turn the opposing teams select one additional piece (at this point, a total of 4) for them to build. This continues until it is not possible to use any unique pieces at which point any piece can be chosen.
Note: if a team is on the last Lily Pad (Pick 3), this team is not allowed to advance forward or win the game from another team's Interception or Everybody Plays turn. They are still allowed to participate and create in the Interception and Everybody Plays rounds, however, if they win, they do not move forward.