Ricochet: Le Profil de l'Homme Sans Visage
Ricochet: Le Profil de l'Homme Sans Visage Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
A game by Cyril Blondel.
1 player and up. Ages 14 and up.
Components
- 15 boards (each face presents one riddle)
- 20 numbered pebbles
- 2 white pebbles
Take riddle no. 1 out of the box and follow the procedure of the demonstration grid shown below (different from the one you have in hand).
Reading a Riddle
- First read the instructions, specific to the riddle.
- Then read the help, if any.
- Read the dialogue. The last sentence of the dialogue has disappeared! Your mission: find the last sentence of the dialogue!
- Prepare your pebbles to play them in the order indicated. Sometimes, certain pebbles are not played. In that case, the instructions say so.
To find the last sentence of the dialogue, look closely at the information given to get you started:
- "Rébus de 3 mots." (Rebus of 3 words.) You are looking for a rebus made of 3 words! Some riddles offer rebuses of 4 or 5 words.
- "Départ : Métier - Paris" (Start: Job - Paris). Two starting words are given to begin your ricochets! Sometimes a riddle offers a different start (a single word, a question, etc.).
With all this information, then look at the 25 words provided. To find the final rebus, you must hide 22 words using your pebbles. 3 words will then remain visible. Read aloud, IN THE RIGHT ORDER, these words create an AUDITORY rebus that gives you the last sentence of the dialogue!
How to Ricochet
To hide the words, you must make ricochets, that is, go from one word to another by association of ideas!
Each of the starting words must make you think of a word in the grid. In the example, "Métier" (Job) must make you think of one word, and "Paris" of another. The links between the words are strong and obvious: synonym, opposite, compound word, category, component, expression of everyday or literary language, title of a work (book, song, film...), etc. (Conjugation and plurals can also help you from time to time.)
The only rule to validate your choice of ricochets: the two words considered MUST BE ALIGNED (same row or same column)!
When you think you have found them, place the two pebbles above each word.
Example: "Métier" makes you think of "Cuisinier" (Cook). "Paris" makes you think of "France". The guess is possible because the two words are in the same column.
Then, each of the no. 1 words must make you think of another word. The two new no. 2 words must also be aligned.
Example: "Cuisinier" makes you think of "Restaurant". "France" makes you think of "Europe".
When you have placed the no. 2 pebbles, you can then lower the no. 1 pebbles to cover the words.
Then, the two no. 2 words must make you think of two new aligned words that you will mark with your no. 3 pebbles, and so on until the white pebbles!
The White Pebbles
The last pebbles of the path. The words (or sometimes just one) give you a HINT (context, rebus, comment...) to solve the final auditory rebus.
If you have a doubt about a word, use the side of the pebble with the question mark to mark a hypothesis.
End of a Riddle
When you have filled the whole grid with pebbles, some words remain uncovered.
In the example, the two white pebbles indicate the words "Avant" (Before) - "Jouer" (Play). That is the hint to solve the final rebus.
The three remaining words are: "Aigle" - "Lard" - "Lire". Read aloud in the right order: "Lire Lard Aigle" = "Lire la règle !" (Read the rules!)
If the rebus gives a sentence, related to the hint, that makes sense with the dialogue, then congratulations, you have solved the riddle! You can move on to the next one (on the back, then on the next board) and continue the story.
Conversely, if you cannot find any meaning, you will have to go back (to your question marks) or start over from the beginning.
Solutions
Finally, if your patience is put to too harsh a test, if the nervous breakdown is lying in wait for you, if the game is on the verge of going out the window... you can consult the solutions.
We decided to trust you to solve the riddles. The solutions are therefore not in this box but only on the website: www.flipflapeditions.fr
On the Ricochet game page and the relevant adventure, you will find the answers to each riddle, pebble by pebble. By clicking on the number of the desired riddle, the answers appear in two columns.
Once you have found your error, you can finish the riddle by yourself. In any case, the final rebus is never given in the answers, so that you have the pleasure of solving it using the hints. If you still cannot find it, you can still call a friend! To do so, send a message (giving the name of the adventure, the number of the riddle and the words that remain) to: [email protected]
Tips
- Check all the words in the grid carefully before making your choices, to weigh all possible hypotheses.
- Do not hesitate to use a search engine, typing the two words you are wondering about to see if a link appears (the site www.cnl.fr can also be useful).
- You can time yourself and note the time spent on each solution. When you redo the riddles in a few months, you can compare!
- There are no puns or rebuses during the path (unless the instructions say so), only for the white pebbles and the final rebus.
- Read the final rebuses and the hints aloud.
- The difficulty of the grids increases with the use of symbolic links, cultural references, tricks, etc., but the links between words are always strong and obvious.
- For our French-speaking friends (Benelux, Quebec...): in the answers, words coming from very (too) French references or expressions are marked with an asterisk (*).