You Can't Say "Umm"
You Can't Say "Umm" Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Objective
To describe random pairs of words to your team without umm-ing, ah-ing or making any sort of verbal brain fart. For every pair of words guessed correctly, that team moves one space along the board. The rival team moves along the board every time they hear a slip up and ring the bell.
Teams take turns describing and ringing the bell until one of them wins by reaching the end of the board.
Setup
Split into two teams and place your chosen piece on the matching "GO" space on the board. Each team draws six Rule Cards and secretly looks at them. They pick three cards to pass to the other team and discard the remaining three. Each team places these three new Rule Cards along their side of the board, without looking at them.
Example setup: Team 1 are going first and take the word cards. Team 2 take the bell and timer. (Components: Word Cards decks A and B; Rule Cards selected by other team placed along each team's side of the board; Rule Cards discard pile / not in play; Team Pieces; Bell; Timer.)
Play
Pick a team to go first. One player in this team is the Describer for the round. They secretly draw a card from each deck of Word Cards: A and B.
Their mission is to describe this strange combination of words to their team without umm-ing or ah-ing (Umm..., Er..., Uh..., Ahh...), or saying any part of the word on each card.
IMPORTANT: avoid ALL brain-fart noises, however you say them.
Meanwhile, the team opposite place the timer and the bell in front of them, ready to ring the bell if they hear the Describer slip up.
When both teams are ready, flip the 45-second timer. The Describer starts by describing Word A to their team, followed by Word B. If the team shouts out both words together, and in the right order, they move their piece one space along the board. The Describer quickly discards the Word Cards, grabs a new pair and goes again.
The team with the bell moves their piece one space along the board every time they correctly ring it. After 45 seconds are up, they pass the bell and timer to the other team, choose a player to be the Describer and begin a new round once the timer is flipped.
Scoring
- 1 move for every correct 'ding'
- 1 move for every pair of words guessed correctly
Rule Cards
As soon as a team reaches a Rule Card marker on the board, they flip the corresponding Rule Card and it takes effect immediately. For the rest of the game that team must obey this new rule. If the other team catch them breaking it, they ring the bell and move one space along the board.
REMEMBER: the no umm-ing or ah-ing rule remains for the whole game. Every new rule introduced by a Rule Card also remains until the end of the game, but only applies to the team that flipped it.
The Danger Zone
When a team reaches the Danger Zone spaces (marked with an exclamation mark), they've entered the Danger Zone. Now no-one on their team is allowed to umm or ah, even while guessing. If the other team catches them doing this, they can ring the bell and move their piece forward one space.
Winning
The first team to reach the end of the board... umm... wins. DING!
Extra Bits
Don't stop describing
Remember: even if the bell rings, the Describer must keep describing the same pair of cards. No skipping allowed!
Appoint a referee
If you have an odd number of players, a good idea is to make someone the referee for the game. This is very useful as they can keep time, move the pieces along the board and adjudicate on any controversial points, while you can concentrate on listening out for any umm-ing, ah-ing or other rule breaking.
Contents
165 cards, 20 bonus cards, 2 player pieces, 1 bell, 1 timer, 1 playing board, 1 rules, 1 sticker.