Hooky
Hooky Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 rulebook
- 26 letter cards (A to Z)
- 6 round cards (1 to 6)
- 5 player screens
- 1 pad of player worksheets
- 1 active player marker
Pencils not included.
Setup
The basic rules describe a 4-player game. Minor changes for 3- and 5-player games appear at the end of these rules.
The start player is the person who has most recently been in a classroom. Alternatively, choose a start player by any random method.
- Stack the round cards in order from 1 to 6, with 1 on top and 6 on the bottom.
- Give the start player the pile of round cards. (The start player never changes during the game.)
- Give each player a worksheet, a pencil, and a player screen. The worksheets are to help players organize information, but players should choose any method they like to track information throughout the game.
- Shuffle the 26 letter cards, 1 for each letter of the alphabet. Each letter card represents a student and shows the student's name.
- Deal 5 letter cards to each player facedown. Players should keep their letter cards secret for now.
- Make a reserve pile of 3 letter cards in a facedown stack called the Playground, and keep the Playground next to the round cards.
- Place the remaining 3 letter cards safely off to the side facedown. These are the 3 Hooky cards whose identities the players must try to deduce.
Initial Clues
Beginning with the start player and going in clockwise order, each player gives an initial clue consisting of a 5-letter word. The player states and spells the word and then announces how many of the 5 letters that player is secretly holding. For the initial clue, the player must use a word which contains at least 1 letter that the player has in hand. It is probably unwise to give a clue with more than 1 letter, but it is permissible. These clues will help players deduce who has which students in their homerooms and which ones are still missing.
Important: If a letter appears twice in the word, the letter counts twice. If a letter appears 3 times in the word, the letter counts 3 times. This is true throughout the game when any player gives clues about the cards in their hand as explained in the examples below.
Example: Tyler is secretly holding the letters A-G-H-L-U. He gives the word "M-I-R-T-H" as a clue and announces that he holds 1 of those letters (H). He does not say which letter he has.
Example: Christine is secretly holding the letters A-E-L-N-P. She gives the word "N-E-V-E-R" as a clue and announces the number 3 because her E appears twice in the clue, and her N appears once. She does not say which letters she has.
Example: Chuck is holding the letters D-I-Q-R-S. He gives the word "D-A-D-D-Y" as a clue and announces the number 3 because his D appears 3 times in the clue. He does not say which letters he has.
Each Round
After the initial clues, the game takes place over 6 rounds, beginning again with the start player and proceeding clockwise.
On a turn:
- Choose any other player to question.
- State a 5-letter word and spell it out loud.
- The player being questioned gives a number that indicates how many times the letters in the word appear in their hand (as in the examples above).
- All players should make notes secretly about the answer.
- Pass the Active Player Marker to the next player (clockwise).
Sometimes, the answer might be 0, which can still provide a lot of information.
Example: Manasa is secretly holding the letters S-M-A-R-T. Josiah directs his question to her and states and spells the word "Q-U-I-C-K" out loud. Manasa checks her hand of cards and tells the players that the number is 0 (because she has none of those letters in her hand).
NOTE: A player may not pass even if the player believes they have all of the information possible about the Hooky cards and other players' hands. The challenge for such a player is to use the turn to reveal as little information as possible. A player may not ask the same opponent about the same word twice or about a word with the same 5 letters because this would be the equivalent of passing.
Revealing a Card
After the first full round, once per turn, and before or after questioning another player as normal, the player taking a turn may choose to reveal a letter card from their own hand openly on the table, where it will stay for the rest of the game. Revealed cards are still considered to be part of the revealing player's hand.
This player then gets to draw a single letter card randomly from any other one player's hand to look at privately and then return. The player who is the target of this action has to pass their hand facedown and therefore does not get to know which card the active player saw.
Example: In the third round, Ken believes that several others know he is holding the letter E. Ken decides this would be a good time to reveal that letter and try to learn more about Seana's hand of cards. Before taking his normal turn, Ken reveals his E on the table faceup. He tells Seana he would like to pull a letter from her hand. Seana shuffles her hand of cards and gives them to Ken facedown. Ken pulls a card from Seana's facedown hand, looks at it, and then puts it back. Ken shuffles Seana's facedown cards again and hands them back to Seana, so that she does not know which card he saw.
NOTE: You might learn something new by revealing your card, but you run the risk of seeing a letter you already knew about. Try to reveal cards that you think other players already know you have to avoid giving out free information and bonus points (see below under "End of the Game" for details on scoring).
Rules on Clues
- Every clue must be 5 letters long.
- A clue may be a proper name of a person, place or thing (such as "Paris" or "April").
- Every clue must be a real word.
- Disputes about the validity of a word are resolved by consensus.
End of a Round
Revealing a Card From the Playground After Rounds 1, 2, and 3
When each player has taken a turn in a round, the start player discards the top card from the pile of round cards to show the upcoming round number.
After each of the first 3 rounds (rounds 1, 2, and 3), reveal a single letter card from the Playground stack. Make sure all players can see the revealed Playground cards. Now all players know this newly revealed card is not among the Hooky cards and can update their notes accordingly.
Guessing Hooky Letters After Rounds 4, 5, and 6
Starting at the end of the fourth round, the start player instructs all players to secretly guess 3 letters for that round. Players must guess, and they must mark their guesses down on their sheets next to the number of the round that just ended. Players can earn points through correct guesses (see "End of the Game" for details).
When guessing the 3 Hooky letters, a player must choose 3 different letters in any given round, but that player may repeat letters in future rounds (see "Hooky Letter Guesses" illustration).
End of the Game
After the final round, each player should write down the name of each other player and the 5 letters they think each player has in hand. This includes any cards that the other players revealed on the table. Then, reveal the 3 Hooky cards faceup for all. All players should now reveal the 3 letters that they guessed after rounds 4, 5, and 6 to be the 3 Hooky cards.
Players score points in 4 ways:
- For each Hooky card that a player correctly guessed at the end of rounds 4 and 5, the player earns 5 points.
- For each Hooky card that a player correctly guessed after the final round, the player scores 10 points.
- Players then score 1 point for each letter card that they correctly guessed in the other players' hands.
- Players score 1 bonus point for each other player whose full hand of cards they were able to guess correctly.
The player with the highest score wins!
Example: The students who are off playing hooky have the first initials D, J, and M.
Dillon made the following guesses during the game: After Round 4, he guessed J, I, and R, earning him 5 points for the J. After Round 5, he guessed B, C, and Q, earning him 0 points because none is correct. After Round 6, Dillon guessed J, M, and R, earning Dillon 20 points (10 for the J and 10 for the M since this is the final round). Dillon scores 25 points for these guesses.
Dillon correctly guessed 12 letters in other players' hands and gets 12 points. He only guessed 1 other player's complete hand accurately and therefore gets 1 bonus point. His final score is 38.
Breaking Ties
If there is a tie, the tied player who correctly guessed a Hooky card earliest wins. If there is still a tie, the tied player who correctly guessed the most Hooky cards earliest wins. If there is still a tie, the tied player who revealed the fewest cards during the game wins.
3- and 5-Player Games
3-Player Games: Deal 7 cards to each player. Place 2 cards in the Playground facedown and 3 in the Hooky pile. Reveal a Playground card at the end of rounds 1 and 2. After round 3, nothing special happens. Players begin guessing at the Hooky cards as usual after rounds 4, 5, and 6.
5-Player Games: Deal 4 cards to each player. Place 3 cards in the Playground facedown and 3 in the Hooky pile, and the rest of the game proceeds just as it does with 4 players.
Game Example
Jacob is playing a 4-player game with Erik, Beth, and Vandana.
Jacob secretly holds the letters B-D-H-R-Y and has made a note of that at the top of his sheet.
He certainly knows that none of those letters is a Hooky card. All the players have given their initial clues. It is Beth's turn. Beth asks Erik about the word "A-W-A-R-D."
Erik responds with the number 2. Jacob listens and writes notes about the question and answer.
Because Jacob has the D and the R, he knows that Erik's answer must mean that Erik has the letter A. Jacob also now knows that A is not a Hooky card and that the other players do not have this card. He makes a note on his sheet that Erik has the A.
He can cross the A off the list of possible Hooky cards and use this information to try to learn more from the other players' answers, keeping track of his conclusions in whatever way he finds helpful.
The rulebook illustrates this with a filled-in sample worksheet: Jacob's "Hooky Letters" alphabet grid with A and D crossed off, his "Opponent Letter Guesses" tracker, and his "Hooky Letter Guesses" tracker for the First, Second, and Final guesses, alongside three opponent tracking sheets (for Erik, Beth, and Vandana) each with an alphabet grid and a table of Asker / Clue / # rows recording the clues given during the game — showing, for example, Erik's initial clue "T-H-I-N-K" (1) followed by Beth's question "A-W-A-R-D" (2), and Vandana's initial clue "W-O-K-E-N" (1).
Credits
Playtesting, Development, and Advice: A heartfelt thanks to the following: Beth Arneson, Erik Arneson, Suzanne Badoux, Christine Biancheria, Anna Boettcher, Christopher Coleman, Jeffrey Duclos, Matthew Duclos, Kenneth Drake, Josiah Fiscus, Erin Fiscus, Peter Fiscus, Ruth Fiscus, Bill Frietsche, Trish Frietsche, Susan Frietsche, M. Tyler Gillett, Brittany Green, Payne Helmers, Casey Johnson, Tamara Lloyd, Seana Miller, Linda Pedlow, Steven Pedlow, Manasa Ravi, Tessa Samuelson, Charles Singer, Vibha Shetiya, Jose Silva, Christopher Tandlmayer, Sandy Waters, and Richard Waters.
Our gratitude goes out to all of the others who participated over the years as James Miller developed the original game but whose names we do not have. Certainly, among them are the many wonderful gamers from the Gathering of Friends.
And a tremendous thanks to James, one of the kindest gamers to walk the earth and who offered this game for the charitable purposes served by Friends of Aseema in the year of his untimely passing. A true friend with a big heart.
Illustrations: Tessa Samuelson. Illustrations were sourced with permission from the original artwork of students and alumni of the schools of the Aseema Charitable Trust of Mumbai, India. Aseema provides value-based, high-quality, secular education, and medical care to extremely marginalized children. Learn more at friendsofaseema.org. Your purchase of this game will help support this humanitarian mission.
Alphabet Cards: Tree of Life (Ashish Gaikwad)
Round Cards: Fly Me Home (Neeraj Yadav), Hitch Hiker (Mohan Gaddam), Nation's Pride - Peacock (Kaseem Shah), Kingdom (Ramesh Ghayal), Day and Night (Avinash Pekada), Tree of Life (Ashish Gaikwad)
Graphics: Mirko Akira Suzuki
If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please write to us: Rio Grande Games, PO Box 1033, Placitas, NM 87043, USA [email protected] www.riograndegames.com
© 2022 Rio Grande Games © 2022 Friends of Aseema
Friends of Aseema
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not. — Dr. Seuss, The Lorax
Friends of Aseema is a U.S. nonprofit dedicated to supporting the Aseema Charitable Trust of Mumbai. For more than 25 years, Aseema has been providing high-quality, secular, values-based education and medical care to street and slum children in Mumbai and remote tribal regions. Learn more at friendsofaseema.org.
Proceeds from the sale of Hooky go to support Friends of Aseema — a model for change through educational justice.
Friends of Aseema is offering stunning prints of original artwork by the children and alumni of Aseema. Proceeds from the sale go to Aseema to serve its humanitarian mission. Learn and see more at friendsofaseema.org or etsy.com/shop/FriendsOfAseema.
Aseema is a beacon of what we can achieve when we love without regard to nationality or color or caste or religion or socioeconomic status. It is a jewel in the world and a model for change anywhere. — Christine Biancheria, President, Friends of Aseema
James Marshall Miller was a lover of life. He worked with computers. He was always up for traveling the world. He hated tomatoes and loved applesauce. He played games passionately and collected cards and unusual boxes. He explained games better than anyone and always started with "Welcome to the wonderful world of …" He was a photographer and a giver of bear hugs. He had more friends than a person could count because to know James was to love him. He was fun and funny.
As someone once said, a game convention didn't feel like it really started until James was there.
James died unexpectedly on August 3, 2020, at the age of 50. But before his time was up, he was working out the details of this game and wanted Friends of Aseema to have it to use for a good cause because that's how he was.