Mutabo
Mutabo Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 55 text cards, sentence beginnings, yellow
- 55 text cards, sentence endings, purple
- 1 drawing pad (DIN-A4) with 50 sheets
- 6 pencils
- 1 rulebook
Object of the Game
MUTABO is a very special game, because nobody wins or loses. There are no victory points and no scoring of any kind.
It is simply meant to be fun — it is communicative, creative, and creates a wonderful sense of togetherness.
If you would still like to award victory points, feel free to do so: together, and using points agreed on beforehand, reward the most original drawings or texts in each round.
Setup
Before the game, sort the text cards by their yellow and purple backs, shuffle each set well, and place them as two face-down stacks in the middle of the table.
Each player receives one sheet from the drawing pad, one pencil, and one face-down card from each of the two stacks.
How to Play — Example for Six Players
Secretly reveal your two text cards and decide on one of the 36 possible little stories that result from combining any two sentence halves.
Once everyone has settled on a "starter sentence," write it at the top of your sheet.
Example: "A fire-breathing anthill plays the drums."
So the others cannot read along, you can shield it with your hand.
Then fold the part of the sheet with the MUTABO logo forward along the dashed line so that it covers the text, and set both cards face down to the side.
If you do not want to make it too easy for the person sitting to your left, pick as bizarre a combination as possible — after all, you will not be the one who has to draw it.
As soon as you are done writing and folding, pass your sheet to the person on your left.
That person secretly looks at the text and draws a small scene matching the "starter sentence" directly in the next field — as well as they can!
When you are finished, fold the text and the drawing backward so that both — especially the text — are no longer visible to the next person, and pass the sheet on again to the person sitting to your left.
That person may unfold the drawing again — but not the text — and now has the task of describing the scene in front of them with a fitting sentence, then folding the sheet backward again so that the drawing is no longer visible, and so on, and so on…
Play continues, alternating between writing and drawing, until each sheet comes back to the person who wrote the first sentence. This ends the round.
Unfold the sheets and enjoy a good laugh — at the resulting "masterpieces" and at the wondrous transformations each original story underwent.
After a few rounds of MUTABO, you can also switch up the direction, so that everyone passes their sheet to the right instead…
We wish you lots of fun playing!
Important
It is not allowed to use letters, words, or numbers in the drawings! Symbols, however, may be used.
More Than Six Players
More than 6 people can play MUTABO together, too! Not everyone has to write and draw on every sheet. PDF files for printing drawing pads for 4 to 8 players can be found at www.abacusspiele.de or via the QR code printed on the rulebook.