Nobody Is Perfect Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Goal of the Game
• Setup
• The Game Begins
• The Bluff
• Now It Gets Hot
• The Reveal
• He Who Laughs Last...
• Curtain Up for Round 2
• Picture Cards
• The Number Spaces
• End of the Game
• What Happens If Someone Actually Knows the Right Answer?
• What Happens If 2 Players Give the Same Answer?
• The 3 Joker Rings

Components

• 1 game board
• Start (space)
• Finish (space)
• 6 playing pieces
• Guessing wheel (Tipfeld)
• 6 guessing markers (Tipsteine)
• Writing sheets (answer sheets)
• 18 joker rings
• 72 text cards
• 56 picture cards
• 1 "Unmasker" (Entlarver)

Goal of the Game

• Whoever leads their fellow players onto thin ice most often with clever, seemingly convincing answers to unbelievable questions advances quickly with their playing piece.
• Whoever, on top of that, also guesses the correct answers with sleepwalker-like certainty is the first to reach the finish in this crazy game — and that, of course, is rewarded, because it wins the player the game.

Setup

• First, each player receives 1 playing piece and a guessing marker (Tipstein) of the same color. The playing piece goes on the start space, the guessing marker goes on the table in front of you.
• The joker rings are so secret that they are only explained on page 12 (see "The 3 Joker Rings" below).
• The text cards are sorted by their colors — "blue" (curiosities, crazy things, record-breaking facts) and "yellow" (foreign/loan words) — and placed into the two compartments provided for them in the game box. The picture cards (everyday things and extraordinary things) go into the 3rd storage compartment.
• Now things get exciting for the first time, because the hunt begins for the ballpoint pens hiding around your house — a hunt that only ends once everyone has their own pen.
• Now each of you prepares a blank answer sheet as shown on this page. That equips you for the first 3 rounds of play.
• The yellow-and-red thing — we simply christened it the "Unmasker" (Entlarver) — stays in the game box for a few more seconds.

The Game Begins

• The player who was never better than a "pass" in math, but who could always be relied on for an A in religion and sports, gets to start the game. For this round they are the "Chef in the Ring" (Chef im Ring). Play then continues around to their left, clockwise.
• The "Chef" takes the top card from either of the two text-card stacks and reads Question No. 1 aloud. For example: "Who knows what a Mansube is?"
• It's best if you actually do this along with us as you read!
• Stay cool, everyone! Of course it's obvious that no normal person has the faintest idea what the answer to this question could be.

And that's exactly what it's all about!

The Bluff

• Each of you thinks up the most convincing, snappy answer you can to the question that was just read out, and writes it on your answer sheet.
• Copying from your neighbor doesn't count — after all, this is a game, not a school test!
• The better and more believable your ingenious and funny answers are, the more likely your fellow players are to fall for them. And that matters, because it moves your playing piece forward faster.
• While you're still cooking up a slick, false answer, your Startspieler (starting player) grabs the "Unmasker," slides the text card that was just read out into the Unmasker until the number of the question appears in the small window on the top left. In our example that's the number 1. And, as if by magic, the correct solution appears in the large window. Heaven help anyone who peeks!
• The starting player writes this correct solution onto their own answer sheet, then gradually collects the other players' answer sheets and shuffles all the sheets together thoroughly.

Now It Gets Hot

• Your starting player reads out all the answers, one after another. In doing so, they give the first answer the spoken code letter "A", the next answer the letter "B", and so on.
• For example: they read the question once more aloud: "What is a Mansube?" Then they continue: "Is it
  • A — a paper frill for flowerpots?
  • or B — a title of nobility of the Inca Indians?
  • or C — a delicious food fish from the Baltic Sea?
  • or D — an Arabic chess problem?
  • or E — the cellar of an attic apartment?
  • or F — an injury sustained in combat among women?"
• All players now place — "on your marks, get set, go" — simultaneously their guessing markers on the guessing-wheel space behind which they suspect the correct answer lies. Obviously, you're not allowed to place it on your own answer.
• One more example: Tom believes that answer "C" is correct, and places his guessing marker on guessing space "C". Joe, on the other hand, is completely convinced by answer "A" and therefore places his guessing marker on space "A" at the very same moment...
• Before you carry on reading the rules, you should treat yourselves to some fun and play the game up to this point.

The Reveal

• Once everyone (except the starting player, who is the only one who already knows the correct solution) has placed their guessing markers, land finally comes into sight: your starting player reads out the correct answer and its corresponding code letter. In our example that is: "D — an Arabic chess problem."
• Once the first joy (or dismay) has settled, all players who guessed the correct answer may take their guessing marker off the board and move their playing piece forward 3 spaces, clockwise.

He Who Laughs Last...

• Now, finally, those of you who led your fellow players onto thin ice with your answer get to celebrate: for every guessing marker that a fellow player placed on your answer, you may move your own playing piece forward 2 spaces, clockwise.

How about an example? Joe ("red") had made up answer "B". 2 fellow players believed that answer "B" was correct, and placed their guessing markers on space "B". (See the illustration on page 7.) Joe was therefore able to lead 2 fellow players onto thin ice. So he gets to move his playing piece forward 4 spaces.

• Now all you need to do is take back your guessing marker and your answer sheet, and Round 1 is already over.
• If you also play through this last little piece of the rule together, then you'll surely have the whole thing down pat.

Curtain Up for Round 2

• The player to the left of the starting player is now the new "Chef in the Ring".
• The color of the space their playing piece is standing on tells them from which of the 3 stacks they should bring the top card into play.
• The numbers on the yellow and blue spaces show you which of the 3 questions on that card you must play with in this round.

Example: The "Chef" is standing on a blue space with the number 3. So they take the top blue text card and read Question No. 3 aloud.

• Whoever is still bobbing about on the start space when it's their turn as "Chef" may read out Question 1 from the yellow or blue stack.
• After everyone has thought up something clever for the new question, the "Chef" collects the sheets again, shuffles them, reads them aloud, and so on.

Picture Cards

• If the "Chef in the Ring"'s playing piece is standing on a red space, then they must take a picture card and show it to all players. The picture cards show everyday and extraordinary things from a perspective you've never seen them from before. With a picture card, the round's question becomes: "Good grief, what on earth could be hiding behind this picture?"
• As with the text cards, every player again gets to come up with something clever. The "Chef in the Ring" pushes the picture card into the "Unmasker" until the solution word appears in the large window. Play and scoring continue as before.

The Number Spaces

• The two spaces with a number worked into them are important for anyone who likes to chase their fellow players down — in other words, for the less successful players in the game. Whoever reaches or crosses the space with the "4" last (this can be several players in the same round) gets to immediately move forward 4 extra spaces.
• On the space with the number "5" it's even 5 extra spaces, which brings the finish almost within sight.

End of the Game

• Whichever of you is the first to reach the finish with your playing piece just before dawn, or overshoots it, has impressively proven that you can know nothing at all and still be a true champion. And for everyone else: never mind, because Nobody is perfect.
• Should several of you reach the champagne bucket (the finish) or go past it in the same round, then you share your good fortune together!

What Happens If Someone Actually Knows the Right Answer?

• This is the once-in-a-lifetime, rare chance for the turbo-know-it-all:
• They think up, as usual, the most amusing but dreadfully wrong answer they can, hoping to lead as many fellow players onto thin ice as possible. When it comes to the vote, they of course place their own guessing marker on the (supposedly) correct answer. That gives them the wonderful opportunity to score twice.

What Happens If 2 Players Give the Same Answer?

• In this special case, the "Chef" gives both answers the same code letter when assigning the letters, but only reads one of the two identical answers aloud.
• Guessing proceeds as usual. Should one or more fellow players fall for this answer, then both players receive the corresponding reward.

The 3 Joker Rings

• After you've dared a few rounds by the basic rules, you should bring the joker rings into play: each player receives 3 of them. During the game, you may cast 3 super-guesses when you're completely sure of your answer: to do this, you may place 1 joker ring on your guessing marker per round.
• If your super-guess is correct, you get double the points; if it's wrong, it's forfeited for you, but counts double for the player whose answer led you onto thin ice.

Here's one last example: Answer "A" is correct. "Yellow" dared a super-guess and turned out to be right: they get to move their playing piece forward 6 spaces. "Red"'s guess missed the mark — the joker ring is forfeited for the guesser, but counts 4 spaces for the player who gave answer "C".