Top of the Pops: The Game
Top of the Pops: The Game Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Aim
To be the first team to collect at least one Artist Card from all eight music categories. The categories are: 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, Pop Stars of the Future, One Hit Wonders and All-Time Chart Toppers.
Setup
Form two teams, then place the buzzer, the Artist Cards, the Head-to-Head Cards and the game board in the middle of the table. Finally, hand each team a kazoo.
Play
First things first - nominate a player from each team to perform in the Buzzer Battle.
Important: Stage invasions are against the rules, which means that teammates aren't allowed to give any verbal clues during the Buzzer Battle. However, they can hum songs to help jog their teammate's memory.
Buzzer Battle
Both players face each other with the buzzer between them. When they're both ready, flip over a Head-to-Head Card to reveal a random category.
The first player to think of a song that answers the card must shout (or sing) the relevant lyrics, then press the buzzer. This starts the 15-second timer.
The opposing player thinks of a new song, shouts it out, then presses the buzzer to reset the timer. Now it's back with the first player.
Play keeps going back and forth until someone's mind goes blank and they run out of time. The winner takes an advantage into the Artist Round.
Example: on a Head-to-Head Card for "Songs that mention a day of the week", players might shout "Friday I'm in Love!", "Blue Monday", "Easy Like Sunday Morning" and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)".
Artist Round
The player who won the Buzzer Battle draws nine Artist Cards from the deck and secretly looks at them. They choose three to keep for themselves, then pass the remaining six to their opponent from the Buzzer Battle - who secretly chooses three to keep and discards the rest.
Both players now place their three cards face down on each one of the three categories on the board.
Press and hold for 2 seconds: When everyone's ready, the winner of the Buzzer Battle goes first. Hold down the buzzer for two seconds to start the 30-second timer. Players can tackle their cards in any order, and can come back to any one if their team gets stuck.
Each player has 30 seconds to get their team to guess all their artists in three different ways:
- One Word: Describe the artist using only one word. You can repeat it, but you can't change it. For example, here's someone trying to describe The Beatles: "Ringo!"
- Lyrics: Speak or sing a lyric from one of the artist's songs, even if you get it very wrong. For example, here's someone trying to sing ABBA: "Feel the beat from the tangerine".
- Kazoo: Play a song from the artist on your team's kazoo. It's the world's easiest instrument, but if you get stage fright, you can always just hum or whistle instead.
Kazoo tip printed on the leaflet: most people blow the kazoo like a whistle, but that's wrong. Simply hum through it and the notes will come out.
Stealing Cards
When a team guesses an Artist Card correctly, flip it over. If you get all three with time to spare, you can try to steal the other team's Artist Cards by peeking at them, then describing them in the correct way. When time's up, add all the cards you've won to your collection.
Remember! Don't flip over any cards that you didn't guess.
Team 2: Go!
The next team's performer has 30 seconds to get their team to guess the remaining cards on the board, starting with their own. If they have time, they can try to steal any the other team failed to guess. When time's up, they add any Artist Cards they've won to their collection, and discard any that weren't guessed.
Lose Three, Take One
After each Artist Round, teams can discard three Artist Cards they've won from the same category, and steal one from the other team's collection. Each team can only do this once per round.
- Discard 3 from the same category.
- Steal any card from the other team.
Winning
The first team to collect an Artist Card from all eight categories wins the game. Permission to celebrate in any way you like. We like to conga around the room whilst tooting a victory song on our kazoo.
Easy Rule (Optional)
Know a lot about 00s boybands, but struggle with 70s glam rock? For an easier game, you can race to collect 10 Artist Cards from any category instead.
FAQs
In the Buzzer Battle, what happens if someone gives a dodgy answer?
Shout "CHALLENGE!", stop the game and Google the song. If they were right, you lose the round. If they were wrong, you win the round. You also lose the round if you shout out an answer that's already been said.
When playing the Lyric and One Word categories, can I use the words on the card?
No way, José.
If we collect enough artists in the Artist Round to win the game, can the other team still steal a card from us to stop us winning?
Yes, as long as they have three cards from the same category.