Hop to It!
Hop to It! Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 21 tokens with pictures of items
- 1 hourglass
- 3 wooden coloured discs
Game for 2-6 players, ages 5 and up, playing time about 10 minutes.
Object of the Game
Players take turns trying to name as many pictured items as they can in 30 seconds. The more items a player names correctly, the further two wooden discs advance along the row of tokens. The player who names the most items correctly wins the round.
Setup
Note: The blue, third, disc is only useful to experienced players and stays in the box for now.
Place the hourglass and the discs so that all players can easily reach them. Shuffle the 21 tokens, then lay them out in random order on the table in the shape of a semicircle or a spiral.
Important: There must be enough space between the tokens for each one to be fully covered by a wooden disc. We recommend a gap of about 6 centimetres. It must also be clear where the row of tokens begins (left edge) and where it ends (right edge).
Gameplay
The player who is oldest starts the game and becomes the first current player. (For simplicity, the player whose turn it is at any moment is called the current player.) He carefully looks at the pictures on the first two tokens in the row. Once he has memorised the items on the tokens, they are covered with discs and are no longer visible.
Example: Sergei goes first. He memorised that a duck lies at the very start of the row, and a tree right after it. The duck and the tree are then covered with two discs so that they cannot be seen.
The current player turns over the hourglass and starts! He must now name the item covered by the first (leftmost) disc. After the current player has loudly called out his guess, the disc is lifted and moved onto a token to the right of the second disc, so that the picture on that token is fully covered.
Example: Sergei turns over the hourglass and starts! Sergei says "duck". Irina lifts the first disc and moves it to the next uncovered token to the right of the second disc, thereby covering a mushroom.
Important: The discs are moved by one of the other participants, not by the current player. Move them quickly enough, but be careful and do not rush!
The current player must now name the item covered by the next disc, which is now the leftmost. After the current player has loudly named the item he suspects, the disc is lifted and placed on the next free token to the right of the second disc.
Example: Sergei says "tree". Irina lifts the leftmost disc and immediately places it on the next open token, covering a crown.
Continuing in the same way, the current player loudly names the item pictured under the leftmost disc, and that disc is immediately moved to the next free token to the right of the second disc. In this way the discs hop along the row of tokens from left to right.
While guessing, it is very important for the current player to also memorise the next item to be covered, since he will soon have to name it! If you try to do this too quickly, you will most likely make a mistake. So take some time to memorise the next item, and only then give your answer!
The current player keeps giving answers until he makes a mistake or until the sand in the hourglass runs out – his turn ends immediately. The current player then counts how many of the tokens he has uncovered lie to the left of the two discs, and remembers this number.
It is now the turn of the next player, sitting to the left of the current player. Shuffle the tokens and lay them out in a new order, as described above in the rules. Then start a new round.
Ending the Game
Keep playing until each participant has played one round.
The game is won by the player who has correctly named the most items. If convenient, you may write down the number of correctly named items on a sheet of paper at the end of each round (after all players have played a round), and play any number of rounds. The participant with the highest total score at the end of the game becomes the winner.
Variant for Experienced Players
If you want to make the game a little harder, also use the third wooden disc. All other rules remain unchanged.
The current player must again guess which item is hidden under the leftmost disc, and then this disc is moved and covers the token that follows the other two discs.