Fame Us
Fame Us Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 superb fabric bag, very very fashionable;
- 112 "Criteria" cards;
- 8 "Teams" cards;
- 1 truly beautiful hourglass;
- 1 magnificent rulebook.
Game Setup
A. Shuffle the 112 "Criteria" cards and place them face down in the centre of the table. This is the "Criteria" pile.
B. Deal 6 "Criteria" cards to each player, who keeps them in hand.
C. Give each player 1 "Teams" card, face down. Players must never reveal during the game which team they belong to. Take as many "Teams" cards as there are players, and for each of the two teams (VIP Square and The Kings of the Dance Floor), the same number of cards. If the number of players is odd, one of the two teams will have one card more than the other. The possible team splits are therefore: with 4 players, 2 and 2; with 5 players, 3 and 2; with 6 players, 3 and 3; with 7 players, 4 and 3; with 8 players, 4 and 4.
D. Take the first 10 cards of the "Criteria" pile without looking at them, then place them face down beside it. These 10 cards become the "Starters" pile.
E. The youngest player starts. They take the hourglass and place it in front of them.
Start of the Game
F. The first player draws the first card of the "Starters" pile and places it face up in the centre of the table.
G. Then each player, in clockwise order starting with the first player, must now do one of the following:
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Play a "Criteria" card from their hand, face up, on the table next to the other "Criteria" cards already played face up. This player is supposed to be thinking of someone known who matches all the visible criteria. Of course, they may bluff and not be thinking of anyone specific, or try to mislead the other players about one criterion. (Example: on the table there is "Green", "Small", "Teaches an Art". The player is thinking of Yoda but has no card in hand that matches this idea. However, they will try to bluff by playing the card "Lives in the future", which may get past, even though Yoda lived in the past (it was a very, very long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...).)
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Pass their turn and draw a card from the "Criteria" pile (sometimes it is better to pass than to bluff, especially if you play "bald" after "woman" and "blonde"...).
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Accuse the last player to have played a "Criteria" card of bluffing or of trickery. In that case, the turn ends.
If all players have played or passed their turn and nobody has been accused, the turn ends.
The hourglass is used if a player takes too long to play during their turn, or if the discussion before the votes is too long. It is the other players who agree to use the hourglass during a player's turn; at the end of the hourglass, the player is considered to have passed.
End of a Turn
When the turn ends, there is a vote. The last player to have played a "Criteria" card, or the accused player, must announce out loud the known person they are thinking of. The proposed known person is assumed to match all the criteria on the table.
Once the proposal has been announced by the player, all players may discuss this proposal together. No outside source of information is allowed. At the end of the discussion, the players, except for the player who made the proposal and the accuser (if there is one), vote for or against the proposal.
To vote, players hold their hand towards the centre of the table and count to three together. At the end of the count, they must simultaneously put their thumb up if they vote for and down if they vote against.
If at least half of the players vote for, the player who made the proposal wins and does not draw a card.
If the player who made the proposal loses the vote, they draw 3 cards from the "Criteria" pile.
If there is an accuser, and the player who made the proposal wins the vote, the accuser draws 2 cards from the "Criteria" pile. Otherwise, nothing happens.
Then a new turn can begin. The cards face up on the table are discarded, then the hourglass advances clockwise to the next player, who becomes the first player. If there are 7 or 8 players in the game, the hourglass advances 3 players instead of 1.
End of the Game
The game ends when, at the end of a turn:
- the "Starters" pile is empty; or
- a player no longer has any cards in hand.
Who Wins the Game?
At the end of the game, all players reveal their team.
For each team, add up the cards in hand of all the players. The team that has the fewest cards wins the game.
If the number of players is odd, add up within each team only the cards of the two players holding the fewest and the most cards in hand.
If, at some point in the game, there are no more cards in the "Criteria" pile, shuffle the "Criteria" cards previously discarded to form a new pile.