Ticked Off Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • First Category
  • Bidding
  • Mystery Category
  • Reading
• Scoring
  • Start Player
  • All The Other Players
  • Next Round
• Game End

Contents

10 sets of pawns (1 Scoring, 1 Bidding), paper pad, game board, 10 pencils, 168 category cards in a box with Draw/Discard divider, 1 electronic Ticked Off Timer, and of course this delightful set of rules.

Setup

Each player takes two pawns of the same color, placing one by the "1" spot on the green scoring track. Decide if you're going to use the green or yellow side of the category cards. Place the divider card into the cardholder to show which side to draw from. Randomly determine a Start Player.

Gameplay

The game consists of several rounds, ending when one or more players have scored at least 50 points. The steps in each round are described below.

First Category

The Start Player draws a card from the holder and places it (with the chosen color side up) onto the Category spot on the board. He then begins the game by bidding.

Bidding

Players bid in clockwise order. The Start Player places his remaining pawn on a number on the bidding "wheel" (he must place it on the "1" or higher spot... he may not pass initially). By placing his pawn, he is declaring that he can list at least that many items from the revealed (or the mystery) category card.

The next player then places his Bidding pawn on a higher number or into the "pass" circle. This is an appropriate time to taunt the other players with insightful comments regarding their lack of knowledge.

Once all players have placed their pawns, bidding continues with each player who has a pawn on a bidding number. They must move it to either a number higher than the current highest bid, or into the pass circle. The last player to remain on the bidding track is the Start Player for reading answers and for the next round. If any player places his pawn on the 20 spot, all other players pass automatically. That player is the new Start Player and obviously, insanely smart.

Mystery Category

Next, another card is placed (same color up) in the Mystery Card spot to cries of shock, amazement and dismay from all players. Press the timer on. All players write down as many items that they can for ONE of the two cards (NOT BOTH!). Once time is up, everyone stops writing immediately. PENCILS DOWN!!!

Reading

The Start Player declares which category card he wrote answers for and then reads off his answers. If anyone else wrote the same answer they say "I have that answer too," and all players with that answer (including the Start Player) tick it off their list. After the Start Player has read through all of his answers, the player to his left declares the category they answered for, and reads off any answers that haven't been ticked off, with other players stating if they have that answer (and if so, crossing it off all lists as before). This continues until the last player reads off any of their remaining unticked (and now unique) answers.

Some answers might create a dispute among the players. If a dispute arises, majority consensus determines if that answer is acceptable. If there is a tie for consensus, the side that the Start Player is on is determined to be correct. If the Start Player is deemed mentally unfit to hold such a position of power, he should gently remind the other players that they could have outbid him.

Scoring

Start Player

If the Start Player does not list at least as many acceptable answers as he bid, he gets no points. None. Nada. Zip. So if the Start Player bid 15 and only listed 13 acceptable answers, he gets NO points (that's right, he won't even get 2 points for unique answers, he gets nothing! Ha!) Stop here and skip to All The Other Players immediately, nothing else to see here.

If he does make his bid, the Start Player gets 2 points for each UNIQUE answer he has written. (A unique answer is one that no other player wrote down in this round). So if the Start Player had 4 UNIQUE answers, he would get 8 points.

The Start Player also gets a 1 point bonus for each acceptable answer greater than what he bid, and reports this to the other players with as smarmy an attitude that he can muster. So if the Start Player bid 15 and actually wrote 17 acceptable answers, he would get an additional 2 points.

All The Other Players

The other players get 1 point for each UNIQUE answer they have. So if one of the other players had 3 unique answers, he would get 3 points.

The other players also get a 1 point bonus for each acceptable answer greater than the Start Player's bid. So if one of the other players wrote 18 acceptable answers, and the Start Player's bid was 15, he would get an additional 3 points, and would also be feeling pretty good about his intellectual capacity.

Next Round

If no one has at least 50 points, each player takes back their player pawn that was used for bidding, and the next round begins.

Game End

The game ends when one or more players have scored at least 50 points.

IMPORTANT! If the player with the most points at the end of the game is more than 15 points ahead of the next highest scoring player, he is disqualified for cheating (really, how else could he be that far ahead?), and the player in second place wins.

If there is a tie for most points, tied players can compete in a battle to the death* (preferably away from the game table, so as not to get blood on the game.

*Only applicable if the year is 1888 or earlier. Otherwise each pick a number from 874 to 3353. Answer closest to the middle to win...