Junior Alias
Junior Alias Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
The game contains: a game board, an hourglass, 6 tokens (pawns), and 300 cards with pictures and words.
Course of the Game
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The cards with words are shuffled and put into the box. The pointer is placed in the deck last. It reminds players that all cards have gone through a full circle and must be shuffled again.
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Before the game begins, the players determine the order of turns.
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The players on each team agree among themselves which team member will explain words first and which will guess. The explaining player takes 10–15 word cards, turns over the hourglass and begins explaining the word on the first card (see "Rules for Explaining" below). On hearing the correct answer, the explaining player sets that card aside and begins explaining the word on the next card.
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Players of the other teams watch the hourglass. When the first team's time is up, all players shout "Stop!" If the first team has a word it has not guessed, the other teams get a chance to guess it and move forward one step on the game board.
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When the last card has been guessed, count the number of words the first team guessed correctly. For example, if there are 7 of them, the team moves its token 7 steps forward on the game board (see also "Steps Back for Mistakes and Skipping a Card").
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The turn passes to the next team. Unused cards are passed to the player from the second team who explains the words.
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The player who explains the words for a team changes every round.
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The team that reaches the finish first is the winner.
Rules for Explaining
It is not allowed to use any part of the word or the picture shown on the card in the explanation. For example, when explaining the picture of a "minibus", you may not say "a bus that drives along a set route". A correct explanation would be: "a vehicle that can carry several passengers"; "a ground passenger vehicle designed for many people"; or simply a synonym, such as "route taxi". Opposite meanings may be used. For example, the word "big" is easy to guess if you say "the opposite of small".
The explaining player may keep giving explanations until the correct answer is heard. Remember: the more precise your explanations, the faster your team will give the correct answer and be able to guess more words in the time left.
Steps Back for Mistakes and Skipping a Card
If the player explaining the words makes a mistake, the word is not counted, and when the points are counted the team receives a penalty of one step back. For example: if a team correctly guessed 6 words, but in two of those words the explainer used forbidden hints, the team moves its token 6 steps forward and then 2 steps back. As a result, the team advances 4 steps on the game board.
The player explaining the words may skip a card with a word that he or she finds difficult. The price of this trick is one step back. However, skipping a word can help save time and earn points on other words!
Quick Rules
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Teams play in turns. The player explaining words for a team changes each round.
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The number of words guessed equals the number of steps the team's token moves on the game board.
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A mistake in explaining a word, or skipping a card, means a step back on the game board.
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The team that reaches the finish first becomes the winner.
Good luck!