Finger weg!
Finger weg! Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components and Setup
- Each player receives one of the 8 Finger weg discs.
- The 287 task cards are sorted by task category (seven categories) and formed into seven face-down stacks.
- A notepad with a pen is placed ready for noting the points. The players' names are written in the top row.
- The fuse box.
- Booklet with solutions.
- The starting player is whoever is most "under current". He receives the start card.
Object of the Game
Whoever lets the "charged" statements blow the fuse as rarely as possible collects many points and wins the game.
Each task* asks the players to keep their fingers away from one of the eight listed statements. This is always the statement with the lightning bolt.
Fig. 1: Each game card shows a task text and eight statements. The statement to keep your fingers away from is marked with a red lightning bolt.
*Editorial deadline for all tasks and solutions was 31.12.2012. Unless another date is given, all information refers to this date. Current events may change the validity of individual information.
Course of Play
The starting player draws a card from a task category of his choice, without revealing it. The front of the card stays secret from all players. Exactly as shown in Fig. 2b, the player slides the drawn card into the fuse box:
- Fig. 2a: Before a card is slid into the fuse box, all sliders must be set (to the right) so that nothing of the inserted card will be visible in any of the eight viewing windows.
- Fig. 2b: The task card is drawn face down and slid, front side down, into the slot of the likewise "upside-down" fuse box.
- Fig. 2c: Now the fuse box is turned over. The task and all eight statements are visible. All viewing windows are closed.
- The starting player reads out the task and all eight statements clearly.
- The starting player now chooses and announces one statement of the card from which, in his opinion, one does not have to keep one's fingers away.
- The other players decide whether they would rather keep their fingers away from the chosen statement. How this works is described on page 3: "The Finger weg disc".
- The player with the fuse box opens the viewing window next to his chosen statement.
- The laid-out Finger weg discs of all players are evaluated:
- Who takes their fingers away, or leaves them on?
- Who gets points? The evaluation of the Finger weg discs is described in the chapters "(No) lightning bolt in the opened viewing window" on pages 3 and 4.
- a) There is no lightning bolt in the opened viewing window! The fuse box travels left to the next player. From the remaining statements (closed viewing windows) this player now chooses and announces one further statement that is (in his opinion) "bolt-free". Continue with 3! b) The lightning bolt is in the opened viewing window! The start card travels left to the next player. This new starting player also receives the fuse box and slides in a new task card. Continue with 2!
The Finger weg Disc
With the help of his Finger weg disc, each player decides whether he would rather keep his fingers away from the chosen statement.
The players place their Finger weg discs on the side of their choice in front of them and cover them with the flat hand. Only when all players have done this does each take his hand from his disc and so reveal his decision.
The decision-making need by no means be secret, silent and quiet. On the contrary: until all players have decided, (un)qualified comments, (un)intentional misdirection and other (un)knowledge declarations are expressly welcome. What one contributes there does not have to (but may) match one's actual decision.
- Whoever thinks the read-out statement can actually be "touched" places his Finger weg disc in front of him with the empty side up. "I leave my fingers on!"
- Whoever would rather keep his fingers away from the read-out statement places his Finger weg disc with the lightning bolt up. "I take my fingers away!"
The player who chose and read out the statement always places his Finger weg disc in front of him with the empty side up.
Afterwards this player takes the fuse box and opens, with his fingers, the viewing window next to his chosen statement by moving the slider there to the left.
No Lightning Bolt in the Opened Viewing Window
If no red lightning bolt is visible in the opened viewing window, the player who chose this statement was right: one actually did not have to keep one's fingers away from this statement.
All players whose Finger weg discs show the empty side (and the player who chose this statement) remain involved in the current round.
- All players who laid out the red lightning bolt in front of them put their Finger weg disc aside and receive as many points (noted on the paper) as correspond to the number of viewing windows of the fuse box opened so far. (The viewing window just opened is counted.) They drop out of the current round. (They take part again only with the next task card.)
Example 1: Three viewing windows are already open. Now Oliver has chosen the statement "Ecuador". Stefan and Nina believe that one should keep one's fingers away from it. Therefore they lay their Finger weg discs out with the lightning bolt up. Oliver opens the viewing window. No lightning bolt can be seen. So Oliver was right: one did not have to keep one's fingers away from Ecuador. Stefan and Nina were mistaken. They each receive 4 points, because four viewing windows of the fuse box are now open. Then Stefan and Nina drop out of the current round.
- Now the starting player passes the fuse box (but not the start card!) to the left to the next player who is still involved in the current round. This player chooses and announces one of the remaining statements of the card from which, in his opinion, one likewise does not have to keep one's fingers away. Again the other players decide simultaneously, with the help of the Finger weg disc, whether they likewise would "touch" the chosen statement or would rather keep their fingers away from it.
- This continues around the table until a red lightning bolt appears in an opened viewing window or until only a single viewing window is still closed. Even if only a single player is still in the current round, the round ends. This player receives 10 points (see Example 2).
Example 2: Bastian chooses the statement "Albania", because he suspects a bird on the national flag of this country. Stefan and Nina lay out no Finger weg disc, because they have already dropped out. The remaining three players lay out their Finger weg discs with the lightning bolt up, because they are convinced that the national flag of Albania shows no bird. But Bastian is right: the opened viewing window shows no lightning bolt. The players who were of a different opinion receive 5 points (because 5 viewing windows of the fuse box are now open). Now all of Bastian's fellow players have dropped out. The round ends. Bastian receives 10 points.
Lightning Bolt in the Opened Viewing Window
If a red lightning bolt is visible in the opened window, the player who selected the statement in question was wrong: he would have done better to keep his fingers away from this statement!
- All players whose Finger weg disc shows the empty side (and thus also the player who selected this statement) receive no points in this round.
- Every player who (for this statement) laid out a red lightning bolt in front of him receives 10 points.
- The round ends. A new round begins.
If, after opening, only the last viewing window (with the red lightning bolt) is still closed, then every player still involved in the current round (because he last laid an empty Finger weg disc in front of him) receives 10 points.
Example 3: Had Bastian (in Example 2) chosen not Albania but Mauritius, he would have hit the lightning bolt and thus received no points. Had Tina, Oliver and Clara, as in Example 2, laid out bolts, they would each have collected 10 points for it. However, Tina and Oliver happened to consider Mauritius "harmless". Therefore both laid their Finger weg discs with the empty side up. They finish the current round without scoring. Only Clara, who laid the bolt, receives 10 points.
New Round
At the start of a new round the start card is passed clockwise to the next player. He receives the fuse box, removes from it the task card of the last round and closes all opened viewing windows again. Then he chooses a new task card and puts it into the "upside-down" fuse box so that nobody can catch a glimpse of the front of the card. Afterwards he turns the fuse box over and opens the new round by reading out the chosen task card and choosing a statement.
End of the Game and Winner
The game ends after every player has been the starting player once. Whoever has scored the most points wins.