Not Not
Not Not Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview and Goal of the Game
Not Not is a game of quick thinking that combines orientation, logic, and reflexes, based on two cognitive biases:
- multiple negations
- incongruent words*
It's up to you to:
- filter out irrelevant information that slows your reaction time;
- be the fastest to tap the card that meets the criteria given by the dice.
The goal of the game is to have the most cards in front of you by the end of the game in order to win.
*The colors are written in another color than the one they specify.
Components
- 3 special dice
- 2 Criteria dice
- 1 Negation die
- 51 cards
- 40 Portal cards
- 8 Void cards
- 3 Rule cards
Set Up
There are 4 levels of difficulty in this game:
- Discovery: No special rules.
- Normal: Add the Negation die.
- Hard: Add directional arrows.
- Extreme: Add the Liar. You'll gradually encounter the 4 difficulty levels during your first game.
First Game
-
Set aside the three Rule cards (Not Not, Arrow, Liar), along with the Negation die that goes with the Not Not card. The rule cards are easy to tell apart from the others by the black backgrounds and cubes, and are used to mark the increasing difficulty during your first game.
-
Shuffle the Portal cards and arrange 4 of them in the shape of a cross, leaving a space in the center. Place one at the top, one at the bottom, one on the left, and one on the right. The space in the middle will be used to place the deck that you'll make in the next step.
At any point during the game, there can only be one Void card (card without a portal drawn on it) on the table. If a second Void card is drawn, replace it with the next card in the deck as many times as needed so that there is only one Void card among the 4 cards around the central stack.
-
To form the central deck, shuffle and divide the remaining cards into 3 roughly equal stacks. Make sure to mix up the direction of the arrows on the backs of the cards.
Place the Liar card on one of these stacks (A). Place a second stack, with the Arrow card on top, over this first (B). Lastly, shuffle the Not Not card into the third stack (C) and place it on top of the other cards in the deck.
During your first game, you'll play a few rounds in Discovery mode. The Not Not card will be drawn randomly during the first third of the game, changing the difficulty to Normal; the Arrow card will be drawn in the second third of the game, increasing the difficulty to Hard; the Negation card will then signal the final third of the first game, making the game Extremely difficult.
-
Before you start, decide where up, down, left, and right are in relation to the deck.
Gameplay
-
During each round, roll the special dice. The first person to tap one of the cards that matches the criteria of the dice wins that card, then places it in front of them. If it's impossible to tell who tapped it first, either on the same or different cards, each person in the tie takes their cards. If the tie concerns only one card, one person will take another card from the 4 surrounding the deck (must choose a Void card first).
These cards represent the number of points won by each player.
Anyone who mistakenly taps a card that does not match the dice criteria has to give up one of their point cards. If they don't have any cards, nothing happens.
-
Before starting a new round, fill in any empty spaces with cards from the top of the deck so that there are always 4 cards around the central deck.
Dice Criteria
Discovery: There are only 2 Criteria dice. Each die has 2 "Nothing" faces.
-
If both dice display a direction and/or color, you must tap a card that meets at least 1 of the 2 criteria.
Example: UP and RED, you must tap either the card above the deck, or a card with a red portal.
-
If one side has a direction and/or color and the other side is "Nothing", then only the direction and/or color is considered. In this case, action wins over inaction, so you must tap a card that meets these criteria.
Example: NOTHING and RED, you must only tap the card with a red portal.
-
If both sides are "Nothing", then nothing happens and you don't tap on anything.
CAUTION: this is the only time that you don't tap on anything!
If it's impossible to tap a card, nothing happens. Reroll the dice.
Important
- You need to pay attention to the word itself and not the color in which it's written. For example, for BLUE, the information to consider is blue. The font being in a different color than the word itself is only to add confusion.
- Also, it's impossible to tap a Void card without a portal on it! These are traps. The information on the dice only refers to the colors of the portals on the cards, not the background color. Since you can't win a Void card by tapping it, that's the first card to take to represent a point, instead of the actual card that was tapped. This ensures that the Void card doesn't remain in play for the entire game.
Normal Mode: The Negation Die
When the Not Not card is drawn, put it back in the box and pick up the Negation die that was set aside at the start of the game. Now there are three special dice to roll each turn.
Normal: The Negation die applies to both Criteria dice.
-
If the Negation die lands on a Nothing side, play as you would in Discovery mode.
-
If it lands on a NOT side, it's a simple negation and you must do the opposite of what is shown on either of the Criteria dice.
Example: NOT, LEFT and GREEN. You must NOT tap on the card on the left or on the card with a green portal (this means, you have to tap on a card that's above, to the right, or below. You could also tap on a card with a red, blue, yellow, or white portal).
If the card on the left has any color portal other than green on it, you can tap it because you'd be respecting the NOT + GREEN combination.
Reminder: at least 1 of the 2 criteria has to be met, but not necessarily both at the same time!
-
If NOT and the two NOTHING faces are rolled at the same time, you can tap on the Portal card of your choice, since doing the opposite of nothing is doing something, so you can tap any card without any additional constraints.
CAUTION: you still can't ever tap a Void card!
-
If a NOT NOT side is showing, it's a double negative, which is equivalent to the affirmative, so you play as normal. The double negative is simply to add confusion.
Example: NOT NOT, RED and NOTHING, you can only tap a card with a red portal. NOT NOT RED = RED and NOT NOT NOTHING = NOTHING.
Reminder: action wins over inaction.
-
If a NOT NOT NOT side is showing, it's a triple negative, which is equivalent to a simple negation. In this case, follow the same rule as when a single NOT is shown.
Example: NOT NOT NOT, DOWN and BLUE, you must NOT tap on the bottom card or a card with blue portal (so, you have to tap on the card above, on the left or right, or on a card with a red, green, yellow, or white portal).
If the card below has any color portal other than blue, you can still tap it since the combination of NOT NOT NOT + DOWN is respected.
Hard Mode: Directional Arrows
When the Arrow card is drawn, place it back in the box. From now on, the directional orientation will change with each round of the game.
Hard: Use the arrow on top of the deck to determine the new "up" for this round. With this new direction (up), you can work out the other 3 directions: left, right and down, relative to the central deck.
Changing the orientation of the cards will challenge your reading patterns as well as your sense of direction. This is why varying the direction of the arrows on the back of the cards was recommended during setup. If they all pointed the same way, "up" would never change, meaning that both Difficult and Normal modes would have the same difficulty.
(The booklet prints "Difficult" in this paragraph; it refers to the Hard level.)
Extreme Mode: The Liar
When the Liar card is drawn, place it back in the box. From now on, when the Liar symbol appears on the back of the card in the central deck, you have to do the opposite of what the dice say.
Extreme: The Liar is like adding an extra negation, but with an increased level of difficulty, seeing as the negation is on the die and the back of the card as well. This increases the time it takes to think, even though the reasoning stays the same.
Back of the card with the Liar symbol / Back of the card without the Liar symbol.
-
If the card on top of the deck does not have the Liar symbol on the back, play the same way as the Hard level. (The booklet prints "DIFFICULT" here; it refers to the Hard level.)
-
If the card on top of the deck does have the Liar symbol on the back, do the opposite of what the criteria dice say.
Example: Liar symbol, YELLOW and RIGHT, you CAN'T tap a yellow card or the card to the right (so, you can tap a card with a red, blue, green, or white portal on it, or on the card above, to the left, or below).
If the card on the right has any color portal other than yellow, you can still tap it because the combination of Liar symbol + YELLOW is respected.
Example: Liar symbol, NOT NOT NOT, DOWN and BLUE, you have to tap either the bottom card or a card with a blue portal on it.
Reminder: 3 negations are the same as 1 negation; the opposite of a simple negation is the affirmative, so the Liar symbol with NOT NOT NOT is the same as playing normally.
End of the Game
When there are no longer enough cards in the central deck to fill the 4 spots around it, the game is over.
Whoever has the most cards in front of them wins the game. In case of a tie, the tied players all win.
Choosing a Difficulty for Later Games
For your next games, depending on the skill level of the people around the table, choose how difficult you want the game to be by applying the following constraints:
- Normal: Negation die
- Hard: Negation die + Arrow card
- Extreme: Negation die + Arrow card + Liar symbol