DOODLES: Il gioco degli scarabocchi
DOODLES: Il gioco degli scarabocchi Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 7 small pencils
- 9 subject tokens
- 93 vote tokens
- 1 hourglass
- 7 summary cards
- 158 subject cards
- 1 pad (50 sheets)
Game Setup
- Take the subject deck, shuffle it and place it face down in the centre of the table.
- Form a reserve of subject tokens (black tokens with the # symbol face up) and place it near the subject deck, well within reach of all players.
- Each player chooses a colour and takes the corresponding set of 9 vote tokens, the summary card, a sheet for doodling from the pad and a pencil.
Suggestion: choose a first player, who for convenience will draw and read the subject card to everyone and turn the hourglass.
You are ready to draw... doodle!!!
Object of the Game
In Doodles it does not matter whether you can draw well, but whether you can understand at a glance what to doodle in 30 seconds to make the other players guess your own word. The goal of the game is to guess the doodles of the other players and to have your own guessed.
How to Play: First Phase
The first player reveals a subject card (see the image on page 3) and reads it to the other players: this card shows three words very similar to each other, numbered 1 to 3. The card is then placed in the centre of the table, clearly visible to all.
All players draw a random subject token, look at it without showing it to the others and place it face down (with the # facing the other way) next to their own drawing sheet. On the token they will find the number 1, 2 or 3: that number indicates which of the 3 words on the subject card the players will have to make the others guess.
Immediately afterwards the hourglass is turned (no long pauses for thought!) and, within 30 seconds, each player must doodle on their own sheet a "little drawing" that makes it as clear as possible which of the three words they were assigned to draw.
Remember that:
- you may draw anything except numbers and letters
- when the hourglass runs out the players must stop doodling
How to Play: Second Phase
All players take a few seconds to observe the others' doodles carefully. When they think they have understood which of the three words the others wanted to represent in their doodle, each player takes their own set of vote tokens, made up of several copies of the numbers 1, 2 and 3, and secretly assigns a vote to all the other players. To do so, the player chooses for each opponent one of their own vote tokens with the number corresponding to the word that, in their opinion, the other player wanted to represent in their doodle, and places it face down (with the number facing down) in front of that player's sheet (obviously players cannot vote for themselves). When everyone has assigned their vote tokens, move on to the scoring phase.
(Illustration captions: "Token selected from the central pile"; the doodle of the current turn goes in this box; "Points earned (or lost) for each doodle of the current turn"; "Total of the turn's points".)
Scoring
Starting from the first player, the tokens assigned to him by the other players are revealed and, lastly, the subject token is turned over, revealing the word that he was supposed to doodle.
Each player who voted takes 1 point if they guessed the subject. They take instead -1 point if they were wrong.
The artist of the doodle takes 1 point for each player who guessed their subject. If no one guessed their subject, however, they take -2 points.
Players can write down their points in the green column next to the box used to draw in that turn.
Then proceed to reveal the subjects of all the other players in clockwise order, assigning the relevant points each time.
You can use your summary card if you have doubts about the scoring.
At the end of the round the players add up the points obtained and write the total in the box at the bottom of the relevant column.
Finally the players give the vote tokens back to their rightful owners, put the symbol tokens back in the centre, shuffle them to form a reserve with the # symbol facing the other way. You are ready for a new round!
(Translator's note: the Italian text says "segnalini simbolo" (symbol tokens) here, where elsewhere it says "segnalini soggetto" (subject tokens); it evidently refers to the subject tokens.)
End of the Game
The game ends after 8 rounds. Overall the players will then have revealed 8 subject cards and doodled 8 masterpieces. At the end of the 8 rounds each player adds up all the points of the individual rounds: the player with the highest score wins! In case of a tie, the player with the most guessed doodles wins!
Warning: Winning a game of Doodles does not increase the value of your artistic CV to present your "masterpieces" at any contemporary art gallery.