Total Mania Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• How to Play
  • Components
  • Preparation
  • Let's Begin
  • Purple Squares
  • How to Win

How to Play

Components

Board • 484 cards • 1 die • 1 jar of Total clay • 1 hourglass • 1 small block • 1 pencil • 4 pawns

Preparation

Take a quick look at Total Mania. There are 4 different card categories: red cards with Knowledge questions, yellow cards with Linguistics questions, blue cards with Crafts questions, and green cards with Pantomime questions. The colour of each card matches the coloured steps of the board. Each card describes an activity that will make your team murmur, whistle, draw, carve, play-act...

Choose Teams: There must be 2 to 4 teams. Each team must consist of at least 2 players.

Set Up the Game: Open the board and shuffle the cards of the same colours. Caution: do not mix the colours. Place the hourglass and the die in the centre of the board. Keep the jar of clay nearby. Each team chooses one category of activities and the matching coloured pawn. Place the pawns on the "Start" space of the game.

Decide Which Team Starts: Using some democratic method, choose which team will play first.

Let's Begin

The objective of the game is to be the first team to reach the centre of the board, always moving clockwise.

Start: The game begins from the purple square marked "Start". The team to your right takes a card from the category you have chosen and reads it to you. They must read only the front of the card, because the answer is on the back. If your team manages to complete the activity described on the card before the hourglass runs out, roll the die and move. If your team fails, it stays still and tries again the next time its turn comes round. Do not forget that your turn always ends after one card, whether you won or lost.

Purple Squares

There are four (4) purple squares on the board. These squares are special because they give your team the chance to enter the inner, quick path (the one with the circles), which leads to the next purple square. To do this, your team must answer correctly, on the first attempt, one card from its chosen category. Otherwise, wait for your next turn and continue along the outer route.

(The same procedure is also followed at the "Start" of the game.)

ALL TEAMS PLAY: When you draw a card marked with the Total Mania logo, all teams take part at the same time, and the first team to complete the activity before the hourglass runs out rolls the die and moves. If it was not your team that won the card marked with the logo, you continue with one more card.

How to Win

To win at Total Mania, your team must reach the centre of the board and successfully complete the final activity. How?

Enter the Total Mania square either by the regular route or by the quick path, and move towards the category of activities your die roll brought you to.

Now your team needs one card from each category of activities. Each time your team successfully completes an activity, keep the card, move clockwise towards the next set of activities you need, and wait for your turn to come round again.

When your team has collected one card from each category of activities, enter the centre. When your turn comes round again, the other teams must agree on which activity will be your team's final attempt. If your team fails, it must try again the next time its turn comes. If your team is the first to complete its activity successfully in the central Total square, congratulations!

You win at Total MANIA!