In the Palm of Your Hand
In the Palm of Your Hand Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 1 rulebook
- 11 Objects
- 100 Memory cards
- 20 Constraint cards
- 24 Rocket tokens (16x 1 victory point, 8x 3 victory points)
- 1 storage bag
Set Up
Note: For a 2- or 3-player game, after reading the general rules, also see the adaptations at the end of the rulebook.
You play the game in teams of 2 or 3 players. Players on the same team must be seated side by side. Begin by forming the teams:
- With 4, 6, or 8 players, divide up into 2-player teams.
- With 5 or 7 players, one of the teams has 3 players; the others, 2 players.
Deal 6 Memory cards to each team. These cards form the team's hand. The players of a team share one common hand. Set the rest of the cards aside on the table, face down, to form a deck.
Choose which team will play first (the active team).
Playing the Game
A turn breaks down as follows:
- Choose a memory
- Mime the memory
- Interfere with the memory
- Peruse the photo album
1. Choose a Memory
The active team sets aside their hand of cards (they will not be used this turn). The active team selects one of their players to be Grandfather, and another player to be Child. Child will consecutively mime 2 memories for Grandfather.
Child draws 1 card from the deck, showing neither Grandfather nor the other teams. The card depicts a memory she will make Grandfather recollect.
Note: In your first few games, if the card seems too complicated, or you have no idea how to mime it, do not hesitate to discard the card and draw a new one.
If the deck is exhausted, shuffle all of the cards in the game to form a new deck, then deal a new hand to each team.
2. Mime the Memory
Grandfather closes his eyes and holds out his hand.
Note: He must hold his hand out flat, palm up, about 20cm above the table (in a way that also leaves the back of his hand accessible). We suggest resting your elbow on the table for more comfort.
Child must mime the memory on Grandfather's hand. Child uses any object she wishes to simulate the "feel" of the image from the Memory card in Grandfather's hand. She can use multiple objects, and can use them however she wishes.
Example: Child draws a card and decides to use several objects for her mime. She drapes the cloth over Grandfather's palm (whose eyes are closed!) like a beach towel. Then she places the ring in the upper-right corner of the cloth and presses lightly on it so Grandfather feels the round shape; this is to simulate the hat on the towel. Finally, Child takes the dart and mimes the footprints going from the towel to the sea.
Restrictions on the mimes:
- Child can NEVER directly touch Grandfather's hand with her fingers!
- Child cannot draw or write on Grandfather's hand (draw = trace lines to reproduce a shape or a word).
- Child cannot test on her own hand before miming.
- Child and Grandfather are forbidden to speak during this phase. The only things Child can tell Grandfather are how he should hold his hand at the beginning of the mime, and when she is switching to miming the second card.
- Child cannot restart a mime, nor can Grandfather request restarting the mime.
- Child must mime in such a way that the other players can see what she is doing.
During this phase, all of the players on the other teams must carefully watch what Child is miming.
3. Interfere With the Memory
Once Child has finished her mime, she announces this, and places the Memory card face down on the table, without letting anyone see it.
Each opposing team secretly chooses 1 card from their team hand and places it face down on the card in front of Child. Each team should choose a card that "resembles" what they saw mimed.
Then, each opposing team draws a new card so they have 6 cards in the team hand.
Once this is done, Child moves on to the second mime, again performing the steps "1. Choose a memory", "2. Mime the memory", and "3. Interfere with the memory".
Note: If the active team is made of 3 players, the same player remains Grandfather for the second mime, but the role of Child changes to the third player.
Move on to the step "4. Peruse the photo album" only after Child has mimed 2 memories.
4. Peruse the Photo Album
Child supplements the face-down cards on the table (the 2 cards she mimed and the 2 cards added by each opposing team) with cards from the deck so there are 8 cards total.
Note: In an 8-player game, this will not be necessary, because there will already be 8 cards.
Grandfather opens his eyes, shuffles the 8 cards, and lays them out face up in front of him.
By attentively observing the cards, he must find the 2 cards that Child mimed for him, and put them in the right order. He indicates the 2 cards and specifies which is the first memory, and which is the second.
While pondering, Grandfather can voice his reflections aloud, which is often interesting and amusing for the other players. Child must be careful not to reveal anything (keep a "poker face", and do not comment on what you hear) until Grandfather has confirmed his 2 cards.
Once Grandfather has confirmed his choice of 2 cards, Child indicates which 2 Memory cards she had actually mimed.
The active team scores 1 point per Memory card correctly guessed. Opposing teams score 1 point for each of their misleading cards that Grandfather chose (i.e. if he chose your misleading card, your team gets 1 point).
Keep track of your points by taking Rocket tokens from the supply; each is worth 1 point.
If Grandfather chose a card that came from the deck, or the wrong card from Child (for example, picking the second memory as the first), no one scores that point.
Example: Grandfather points to a card, saying that he thinks this is the first memory mimed, then he points at a second card, saying it is the second mime. Only then, Child confirms that the first card is right; however, Grandfather has not found the right card for the second mime. He pointed at a card that the other team put in there. The active team gains 1 Rocket token, and the other team also gains 1 Rocket token.
5. End of the Turn
The next team in turn order (clockwise) becomes the active team, and a new turn can begin. When each team has taken 1 turn, switch roles (Child / Grandfather) within each team, and begin a new round.
End of the Game
The game comes to an end once everyone has played the role of Grandfather at least once, which should be two turns per team.
Note: If a team has 3 players, you can play 3 rounds, rather than 2, so that everyone can play the role of Grandfather.
The team with the most points wins. If it's a tie, play again!
Tutorial
Before starting your first game, take the card "The Cottage" and place it face up in the middle of the table. This card serves as a tutorial. It lets you show everyone around the table examples of several possible mimes from the same card. Each player can practice miming and feeling the following situations with the Cottage card:
1. Mime the Typewriter
Put the 4 plastic cubes in a player's hand, and tap on these cubes as if they were typewriter keys (remember, Child's fingers must never touch Grandfather's hand).
2. Mime the Guitar
Take the string, and pass it between a player's fingers so you have two taut guitar strings across their palm, then strum this with the metal coin.
3. Mime the Chess Set
Place the wooden pawn on one end of the hand, then place the top on the other end. Alternate advancing them toward each other one "space" at a time, as if on a chessboard. Finish by using the top to "capture" the wooden pawn, knocking the wooden pawn over to show that the "king" has been captured.
Expert Mode
If this is anyone's first game, we suggest that you play in normal mode. Once everyone is familiar with the game, if you want a higher difficulty level that requires you to find new ways to mime the cards, we suggest that you try expert mode. This introduces the Constraint cards.
Shuffle the Constraint cards at the beginning of the game, and place them as a face-down deck near the Memory cards.
During step "2. Mime the memory", before beginning her mime, Child secretly draws a Constraint card, which indicates a constraint she must respect when miming the memory (use a specific object, mime only on the back of the hand, etc.).
After the first mime, Child discards the Constraint card and draws a new one for the second mime. If the deck is exhausted, shuffle the discarded Constraint cards to form a new deck.
Constraint card icons work as follows:
- Use only (checkmark) the indicated objects.
- Use at least (exclamation mark) the object indicated.
- Mime only (checkmark) on the fingers. / You cannot (crossed-out) mime on the fingers.
- Mime only (checkmark) on the back of the hand. / Grandfather's hand must be vertical (rotated 90 degrees).
- Use at least 3 objects. / Use only one object (of your choice).
Bonus Biography
You can reconstruct the life of Léon (the Grandfather you play in the game) in chronological order to discover his life story in the right sequence. To do this, take all of the cards of the Memory deck, and place them face up on the table in numerical order (each card has a number from 1 - 100 in the lower-right corner). This is how Léon's life unfolds, from his birth through today...
Example biography, told by Léon's grandchild:
This is my grandfather Léon in 1950! Now, he looks more like this: (That's me behind him on the merry-go-round!)
When he was a child, Grandfather Léon met the two loves of his life. He met the first love after being ill. He was sent there to recuperate: "The sea air makes me feel good. The sea is magnificent. I hold you close to me." I think that's where his taste for adventure was born.
When he was old enough to leave home, Grandfather Léon went to sea. His seafaring adventure almost ended quite badly... A newspaper clipping reads: "Fisherman rescued after 35 days adrift at sea."
On his return, he happened to cross paths with Mei and the circus again. He was so thrilled that he joined the circus without hesitation.
He met the second when a traveling circus passed through his village one day. A young acrobat caught his eye, and they enjoyed an incredible summer together. He had no inkling that Mei would become his wife!
After that, everything happened so quickly. They had my mother, Léopoldine, and settled in the countryside, where they renovated a little house.
My grandparents were very proud that she studied hard and worked in the aerospace industry... but were also very sad that she moved to live across the Atlantic.
And that's me! Like my mother and grandfather, I have a taste for adventure!
Rules Modifications for a 2-Player Game
You both play together, cooperatively. Your goal is to earn as many points as possible.
During setup, do not deal out any cards. Play all of the steps of each turn as usual; thus in step "3. Interfere with the memory", add 6 cards from the deck to have 8 cards total.
Note: If you are both veterans of this game, you can add additional cards from the deck (draw 8, 10, or 12) for an even tougher game!
The game ends after each of you has been Grandfather twice.
At the end of the game, count your points:
- 0 - 1: Oops... are you sure this is your box of memories?
- 2 - 3: Not terrible, but perhaps you should recount more of your life story to your family.
- 4 - 5: Not bad, but some of your anecdotes are still unknown.
- 6 - 7: Excellent! You have had a great life, and your family knows it!
- 8: Incredible! No need for you to recount your life story; your descendants already do it for you!
Rules Modifications for a 3-Player Game or for Playing Individually
Note: You can use these rules to play with up to 5 individual players, if you prefer; however, we recommend that you play in teams if there are more than 3 players.
You no longer play in fixed teams, and you score points individually. During setup, deal a hand of 6 cards to each player.
Each turn, one player is Child, and the player to her left is Grandfather. They form a temporary team, and play together for this turn.
1. Choose a Memory
Child chooses a card to mime from her own hand of Memory cards.
2. Mime the Memory
This step goes exactly the same way as in a normal team game.
3. Interfere With the Memory
Only the players not on the temporary team place interfering cards. Complement these cards from the deck to have 8 cards, as usual.
4. Peruse the Photo Album
Child and Grandfather each gain 1 point per card that Grandfather correctly finds. The other players gain 1 point for each card belonging to them that Grandfather chooses.
When each player has played Grandfather once, begin a second round, but playing with the neighbor to your right. This way, the role of each pair will be reversed.
5. End of the Game
Each player counts their points, and the player with the most points wins.