Head Hackers
Head Hackers Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Aim
First team to make it around the board and back to their Home Square is the winner. Earn moves by guessing the Secret Word and writing (or stealing) Clue Words.
Setup
Start by splitting into teams of two. Try to team up with someone that you share a strong bond with – like a conjoined twin or someone who has the same haircut as you.
Place the board, the die and the deck of Head Hackers Cards in the middle of the table. Dig around for some old pencils (we've gone pencil-free to save trees) then hand each team a Clue Pad and get them to choose a tinfoil hat playing piece. Position each piece on the matching color Home Square.
Finally, choose a team to go first and give them the tinfoil hat. Time to get hacking.
Play
The team with the tinfoil hat now decides which one of them will be The Writer and who will be The Guesser. The Guesser closes their eyes. The Writer puts on the tinfoil hat, turns over a Head Hackers Card and rolls the die. The die roll will determine what the Secret Word is for the round.
When everyone around the table (except The Guesser) has seen the Secret Word, turn the card back over and The Guesser can open their eyes.
The Writer now writes down three one-word clues to help their teammate figure out exactly what is the Secret Word. If you're The Writer, you'll have to get creative. Try not to go for anything too obvious – i.e., don't write "bone" for "skeleton!"
Meanwhile, the other teams are trying to hack The Writer's brain to work out what Clue Words they have written down, and steal their points.
When all the teams have finished writing their three Clue Words, The Writer reads their own three Clue Words out to The Guesser. The Guesser now gets one shot at the Secret Word.
Scoring
The Guesser gets the Secret Word right:
- The tinfoil hat-wearing team score 2 points.
- The tinfoil hat-wearing team score 1 point for every Clue Word that the other teams failed to hack.
- The other teams score 1 point for any of their Clue Words that matched the Writer's.
The Guesser gets the Secret Word wrong:
- The tinfoil hat-wearing team fail to score any points in this round.
- The other teams immediately score 2 points each.
- The other teams score 1 point for any of their Clue Words that matched the Writer's.
Example
The secret word is Skeleton.
Tinfoil Hat Team
The Writer: The Writer wrote down these three Clue Words and read them out to The Guesser: Femur, Halloween, Skinny.
The Guesser: The Guesser shouted out the correct Secret Word and the team won 2 points.
Extra Points: The tinfoil hat-wearing team also score 1 point for every Clue Word that the other teams failed to hack. In this case one, for "femur."
Team Two: Clue Words Bones, Scary, Halloween. Halloween was hacked. This team scored 1 point because they hacked one Clue Word. (+1 Points)
Team Three: Clue Words Skinny, Old, Halloween. Skinny and Halloween were matches. This team scored 2 points because they hacked two Clue Words. (+2 Points)
Team Four: Clue Words White, Dead, Human. This team scored nothing as none of their Clue Words were matches. (0 Points)
Time to move one
Points equal moves around the board. Move your tinfoil hat pieces, hand a new team the tinfoil hat and get hacking again.
Winning
The first team to get around the board and back to their Home Square is the winner.
Hacking Notes
- Clue Words must be one word only. "New Zealand" counts as two words. "Mother-in-law" counts as three.
- You cannot use a Clue Word that is part of the Secret Word. Example: if the Secret Word is "snowman" you can't use "snow."
- You can't write "rhymes" and "with" as two of your three Clue Words.
- You cannot use a foreign word if it's the exact equivalent of the Secret Word.
- When deciding if Clue Words match or not, if they have the same stem or root they are considered matching, i.e. "sitting" is the same as "sat" or "sit." However, "house" is not the same as "home."
Printed on the back panel, in a speech bubble beside the notes: "In case you didn't know already, the tinfoil hat is used to block anyone from reading your thoughts. This includes, but is not limited to: invading aliens, government spies, and your opponents."