Knock Twice
Knock Twice Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 96 Invitation cards (double-sided)
- 1 rewritable game board
- 1 Invitation envelope
- 1 rewritable Password sheet
- 50 Cocktail tokens
- 1 erasable marker
- 4 Round tokens
Setup
Fold the die-cut card stock and prepare the Invitation envelope. Keep all the game components within reach on the table.
Game Overview
A game of Knock Twice is played over 4 rounds. To keep track of how the game is progressing, flip a Round token before assigning roles each round. At the end of the fourth round, the game ends and the player with the most Cocktail tokens wins.
The Roles
In each round, the players split up and take on three different roles:
1. Bouncer — Must come up with the Password connected to the word on the Invitation, and judge how close the Clients' attempts come to the correct solution.
2. Clients — Know the word on the Invitation and must guess the Password.
3. Detective — Knows none of the words and must figure out the word on the Invitation, using the attempts made by the Clients as clues.
Start of the Game
The players freely choose who will be the first Bouncer. The player seated to the right of the Bouncer plays the Detective. All the other players are the Clients.
The Two Words
At the start of each round:
- The Bouncer draws an Invitation card from the deck and inserts it into the Invitation envelope so that only one of the four words present on the card is shown.
- The Clients and the Bouncer read the word. The Detective, however, must not see the word.
- The Bouncer takes the erasable marker and the Password sheet, and secretly writes on it a word connected to the word on the Invitation that the Clients will have to guess in order to get into the club: no one else may read this word.
Note The Password must have a logical connection to the word on the Invitation, but must not be too obvious, since if it is guessed immediately the Bouncer will receive few points (see End of the Round on page 6)! It is not allowed to:
- use words with the same root;
- use the translation into another language of the word on the Invitation.
Game Board
The Bouncer also takes the game board: it will be their job to record the Clients' attempts on it.
The board is made up of:
- 10 Attempt spaces to record the words proposed by the Clients (these represent the maximum number of attempts the Clients have available);
- a segmented scale divided into 5 boxes next to each Attempt space;
- Bouncer points next to each Attempt space;
- Detective points next to Attempt spaces 3, 5, 7, 9, and 10.
Clients' Attempts
The Clients must try to identify the Password chosen by the Bouncer, interpreting the clues it provides on the board and the attempts already made by the other Clients.
Starting with the player seated to the left of the Bouncer, each Client in turn must knock twice on the table and say a word out loud that they think might be the one chosen by the Bouncer. Each word spoken represents an attempt to guess the Password.
When a Client says a word:
- The Bouncer writes the word in the first free Attempt space on the board.
- If the written word does NOT match the Password, the Bouncer marks an X on one of the boxes of the segmented scale next to the word. The box chosen indicates how close the proposed word is to the Password (from "very far" to "very close").
- If the written word matches the Password, the round ends (see End of the Round below).
Detective's Attempts
When an Attempt space has a golden border, the Detective may, at the end of the Clients' turn, make an attempt to guess the word written on the Invitation card.
They may only attempt to guess at the end of turns 3, 5, 7, 9, and 10 (after the Bouncer has marked the X on the scale).
When one of these moments arrives, the Detective must knock twice on the table: at that point, they say the word they believe corresponds to the word on the Invitation. In this case, the Bouncer must only say whether the word is correct or not, without writing it on the board or guiding the Detective through the segmented scale.
Note The Detective may also attempt to guess after the Clients have already guessed (see End of the Round below).
End of the Round and Scoring
The round ends immediately when one of the following conditions occurs:
A Client guesses the Password:
- the Client who said the Password earns 2 Cocktail tokens;
- all the other Clients earn 1 Cocktail token;
- the Bouncer earns the number of Cocktail tokens indicated to the left of the space in which the guessing Client's attempt was recorded;
- when a Client guesses the Password, the Detective may immediately afterward make an attempt to guess the word on the Invitation: if they guess it this way, they earn 1 Cocktail token.
The Detective guesses the word on the Invitation: Only the Detective earns the number of Cocktail tokens indicated next to the Attempt space of the turn in which they guessed.
Otherwise, if the Clients have used all their attempts and neither the Clients nor the Detective have guessed, proceed directly to reassigning roles without anyone earning Cocktail tokens.
Note To score as many points as possible, the Bouncer should come up with a word that is neither too easy nor too difficult.
Role Reassignment
At the end of the round, roles change based on the outcome of the previous round:
- If the Clients guess the Password, the Client who said it becomes the new Bouncer (even if the Detective guessed the word on the Invitation immediately afterward);
- If the Detective guesses the word on the Invitation before a Client guesses the Password, the Detective becomes the new Bouncer;
- If no one identifies the Password or the word on the Invitation within the 10 attempts, the Detective becomes the new Bouncer;
- The new Detective is, as usual, the player seated to the right of the new Bouncer. All the other players become Clients.
Erase the rewritable board and the Password sheet, remove the word card from the Invitation envelope, and start a new round, remembering to flip a Round token.
End of the Game
The game ends after the fourth round. The player with the most Cocktail tokens is the winner.
Example
In this round Mirko is the Bouncer, Giada is the Detective, and Mattia and Giulia are the Clients.
Mirko, the Bouncer, inserts an Invitation card into the envelope (the word is "TIGER") and reads its content together with Mattia and Giulia, the Clients. Giada, the Detective, does not read the word.
Mirko writes the Password "ZOO" on the sheet and covers it, so no one can read it.
Starting with Mattia, the Clients take turns saying possible Passwords. After each attempt, Mirko uses the segmented scale to indicate how close they came to the correct word.
After the third attempt, Giada may try to guess the word written on the Invitation. Analyzing the Clients' attempts, she tries the word "Zebra," which is wrong.
Play continues as usual until the fifth attempt. Mattia guesses the Password, so he earns 2 Cocktail tokens. Giulia, also a Client, earns 1, while Mirko, since the word was guessed on the fifth attempt, earns 3.
Giada may still try to guess the word on the Invitation: she says "Tiger," which is indeed the word on the Invitation, so she too earns 1 Cocktail token (instead of the 4 she could have earned if she had guessed the word after the Clients' fifth failed attempt).
The players reset the game board, the Password sheet, and the Invitation envelope and switch roles:
- Mattia, having guessed correctly, becomes the new Bouncer;
- Mirko, being seated to his right, becomes the new Detective;
- Giada and Giulia are the new Clients.
Quick Reference
Assign roles: a Detective, a Bouncer, everyone else is a Client.
Insert a word into the Invitation envelope: the Detective must not see it.
The Bouncer writes the Password: NO ONE must see it.
The Clients make one Attempt at a time to guess the Password, and the Bouncer evaluates each Attempt.
At the end of the turn in which a golden space is used, the Detective attempts to guess the Invitation Word.
If a Client guesses the PASSWORD:
- that Client earns 2 Cocktails.
- all the other Clients earn 1 Cocktail.
- the Detective may make an attempt and if correct earns 1 Cocktail.
- the Bouncer earns the Cocktails indicated next to the space used to guess.
If the Detective guesses the Invitation Word:
- the Detective earns the Cocktails indicated next to the space used to guess.
- no other player earns Cocktails.