Ultimate Outburst Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• The Cardinal Rule
• Overview
• Setup
• Round 1: Outburst
• Round 2: ReverseBurst
• Round 3: Challenge Outburst
• Playing Original Outburst

The Cardinal Rule

In order to play Ultimate Outburst (or the original version for that matter) there is one cardinal rule that must be understood. (Note: We recommend that the following be read aloud to all players at the start of each game.)

THIS GAME IS UNFAIR!!!

IT IS POSSIBLE FOR THERE TO BE ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATE ANSWERS IN MANY CATEGORIES. YOU MAY THINK OF ONE THAT IS NOT ON THE LIST. TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BAD!

YOUR GOAL IS TO MATCH THE TARGET ANSWERS WE HAVE SELECTED. YOU MAY HAVE A GOOD ANSWER, BUT IF IT'S NOT ON THE CARD, DEMS DA BERRIES!!!

Overview

Ultimate Outburst is a combination of three different rounds of play. The first round is played like regular Outburst: See how many of the ten target answers your team can guess in one minute. Then ReverseBurst is played: This round, you will hear the answers one at a time, and you see if you can guess the topic. The final round is Challenge Outburst: It's the round where you bet against your opponents to decide which team plays the topic, and how many they bet they can get right.

Setup

• Divide into two teams. Teams can be unequal in number or in intellect. (Let the "smart" guy play by himself!)
• Each team receives one "Exie" token, and places it at the "Start" space.
• Select 6 Outburst cards and line them up along the outside edge of the board so the purple stripe at the top of each card is touching the purple edge of the board. (See photo on box bottom.)
• Then select 6 ReverseBurst cards and line them up with their blue stripe touching the edge of the blue side of the board.
• Finally, randomly select 8 more Outburst cards and WITHOUT LOOKING AT THEM slip them into the Challenge envelope. Place the envelope in the middle of the board.
• One member from each team rolls the black 10-sided die to see which team will go first. The zero on the die should be treated as a 10.

Round 1: Outburst

One member of Team 2 (the team NOT playing) is the scorekeeper for that round, and asks Team 1 which Outburst card they want to play. (There is no need to read the topic titles, because the topics that will actually be played are on the face-down side of the cards.) The scorekeeper takes the card chosen, and inserts it into the Card Viewer so that the topic on the back side is the one in the window. There is no passing of topics to the other team.

The scorekeeper then reads the topic aloud. The timer is turned over and Team 1 has one minute to call out answers that fit the topic and might be on the list of target answers.

Each time a Team 1 member yells out a correct answer, the scorekeeper announces, "Yes!" and slides the button next to that answer so that the checkmark can be seen. We recommend having two team members assist each other in spotting the answers.

When the timer runs out, the scorekeeper reads aloud all of the answers that were not given. The scorekeeper then announces the number of correct answers and the Team's "Exie" is moved forward that number of spaces. (Note: Both teams' tokens can occupy the same space at the same time.)

Unlike regular Outburst there are no Bonus Points available when playing Ultimate Outburst. The green die is only used when playing the regular Outburst format.

Continue taking turns until all 6 of the Outburst cards have been played.

Round 2: ReverseBurst

The team whose turn it is will now play ReverseBurst. In this round, everything is backwards. This round, teams will be given the ANSWERS and must try to guess the target TOPIC. The ANSWERS are read aloud by the scorekeeper, one at a time. After each answer is read aloud players may yell out the overall TOPIC, or they may call for another ANSWER to be read aloud. The fewer ANSWERS a team needs to guess the TOPIC, the more points they score.

• The Playing team selects a ReverseBurst card and the scorekeeper turns it over and inserts it into the Card Viewer.
• The timer is turned over, and the first ANSWER showing at the top of the card is read aloud.
• The playing team may call out as many possible target TOPICS as they can think of. There is no penalty for wrong guesses. However, time is running out and they may need more clues. If they cannot guess the target TOPIC they may call for another clue by saying, "Next ANSWER." The scorekeeper then reads the second ANSWER aloud and so on. Players can ask the scorekeeper to re-read the list of ANSWERS at any time.
• The playing team continues until either the target TOPIC has been guessed, or the timer runs out.
• The team's "Exie" is moved along the scoreboard according to this simple calculation: 10 minus number of answers used = number of points earned. Example: If it took them 3 ANSWERS to guess the TOPIC, they move ahead 7 spaces. If it took 6, they move 4.
• Continue taking turns until all 6 of the ReverseBurst cards have been played.

Round 3: Challenge Outburst

This time, the team that is behind will go first. Slide the top card in the Challenge envelope slightly out of the envelope so that only the TOPIC shows. The TOPIC is read aloud. (Do not, at the moment, place the card in the Viewer.)

The Team that is behind now announces how many of the 10 Target Answers they believe they can identify in one minute. The opposing team may now raise the bid by claiming a higher number. Bidding alternates back and forth until one team challenges the other to "put up or shut up!" The team with the highest bid plays the card.

If the playing team correctly guesses or exceeds the number they bid, their "Exie" is moved that many spaces along the board. If they fail to make their bid, the opposing team moves their token the number bid.

Play continues, with the team that's behind always making the first bid, until one team has moved their token to or beyond the Finish space.

Note: If all 8 Challenge cards are used before a winner is declared, select as many additional ones as needed from the general pile of Outburst topics.

Playing Original Outburst

We know change is hard for a lot of people. Some of you will find yourselves unable to sample the delights and varied gameplay of Ultimate Outburst without longing for a game of the original Outburst. We feel your pain.

Here's a handy, quick refresher on how to play Original Outburst.

1. Don't bother setting up all the cards around the board. Each turn you will simply randomly select one card from the Outburst cards. (The ReverseBurst cards are useless for this...ignore them.)
2. The team that is playing has one minute to guess as many of the target answers shown on the card as they can. A scorekeeper from the other team will announce the TOPIC and check off the ANSWERS as the playing team gets them right.
3. The scorekeeper reads aloud the ANSWERS not guessed. Then the playing team throws the two dice. The ten-sided die corresponds to the numbers of the answers on the card. (The zero represents the #10 answer.) The green die represents the number of bonus points available. So, if the ten-sided die shows 8, and the green die shows 3, then the #8 answer is worth a 3-point bonus. If the team did get the #8 answer, then they get 3 extra points added to their score.
4. The scorekeeper counts the number of correct answers, adds any Bonus Points earned, and the "Exie" token is moved that number of spaces.
5. The first team to go all the way around from Start to Finish (60 points) WINS!