Passa Palavras Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• General Rules
• The Clues
• Scoring a Keyword (Hitting a Keyword)
• Game Modes
  • Cooperative
  • Dynamic
  • Expert

Components

• 158 cards
• 1 notepad
• 6 pencils

Note: each Category has 2 blank cards. Leave these in the box for your first games. When you are familiar with the game, write new Keywords on them, one per Category.

Setup

Separate the cards by type, according to their backs, and shuffle each of these decks:

• 1 Letter deck
• 6 Keyword decks, one for each Category: Individual (Indivíduo), Animal, Profession (Profissão), Place (Lugar), Food (Gastronomia) and Object (Objeto)

Place the 6 Keyword decks in the centre of the table, and the Letter deck apart from the others in an easy-to-see spot.

General Rules

The 3 modes of play are based on a few fundamental rules:

• One or more players will hold Keyword cards in hand. Keywords are numbered to add variety to the game and are grouped into Categories to make them easier to guess.
• Before the game, the players who give clues each secretly draw a number from 1 to 8 to determine which row their Keywords will come from for the rest of the game.
• The starting Letters for each round are drawn from the Letter deck. Reveal the Letter cards one at a time until the last card drawn makes the total 7 or more points.
  • Example: The first Letter drawn is "P" (4 points) and the second is "X" (1 point), for a total of 5 points. The third card is "D" (4 points), making 9 points, which is 7 or more. The starting letters for this round are therefore "P X D".
• The players holding Keyword cards must then pass Clues to the other players so that their Keywords can be guessed. Clues must be words that start with the round's drawn Letters. There is no limit on the number of Clues per drawn letter.
  • Example: Paula must pass the Keyword "Londres" (London) from the Place Category. With the drawn starting letters "I Y M U", she manages to pass these Clues: "Inglaterra" (England), "York", "Moderna" (Modern), "Museus" (Museums), "Majestade" (Majesty) and "Urbana" (Urban).
• If a player does not know the Keyword on their card, or knows that their group does not know it, they must return the card to the box and draw a new card from the same Category.
• Passa Palavras is also educational. At the end of the game, discuss and research the Keywords the group did not know. This knowledge increases the fun of future games.
• The designers chose to include a large variety of Keywords, some of them harder. They prioritised replayability and not limiting guesses to only common options.

The Clues

Clues can be words, slang, names, works, nicknames, places, brands, well-known acronyms, etc.

Names and terms with more than one word are allowed as Clues, even if the second and later words do not start with the round's Letters.

• Example: "Nova York" (New York) is a valid Clue if the letter "N" was drawn in the round, even if "Y" was not.

Words in other languages are only allowed as Clues if they are original names or words adopted into Portuguese vocabulary (loanwords, estrangeirismos).

• Example: The following are allowed as Clues: Abajur (lampshade), Francis Bacon, Download, Pen Drive, IL Principe, La Divina Comedia, Hamlet, Principia etc.

The following are NOT allowed as Clues:

• Words that do not start with one of the round's drawn Letters.
• Words, acronyms, names etc. invented during the game.
• Words in a language other than Portuguese, unless they are original names or loanwords.
  • Example: Therefore the following are not allowed as Clues: "Dog", "Cheese", "Boy", "Bleu", "Ensalada", "Sonne" etc.
• Words present in the Keyword or directly derived from any of its terms, as well as translations of these into other languages that the player knows (even if they follow the exceptions for foreign words).
  • Example: For the Keyword "Jogo de tabuleiro" (board game), the following Clues would not be allowed: "Jogo" (game), "Tabuleiro" (board), "Jogar" (to play), "Play", "Board", "Game", "Jugar", "Spiel" etc.

Clues may be given in any order that makes the guess easier, including forming sentences.

• Example: With the drawn starting letters "M G N", "Grande Mamífero Marinho Nadador, Magnífica." (Great Marine Mammal Swimmer, Magnificent.) would be a good set of Clues for the Keyword "Baleia" (whale).

Miming, or giving any other information beyond the Clues, is not allowed.

Consider the option chosen in these rules as also the Keyword for the purposes of the not-allowed Clue rules.

• Example: If the Keyword "político" (politician) was "Winston Churchill", the following would not be allowed as Clues: "Político", "Política", "Winston" and "Churchill".

Scoring a Keyword (Hitting a Keyword)

In all 3 modes of play, a "Guess" (Palpite) is an attempt by a player to hit a specific Keyword.

Besides guessing the exact Keyword, the following also count as hits:

• Gender change: If the Keyword is of feminine gender, a Guess with the masculine version of the Keyword counts as a hit, and vice versa.
  • Example: For the Keyword "Cantor" (male singer), "Cantora" (female singer) is a hit.
• Synonym: If the Guess is a synonym of the Keyword.
  • Example: For the Keyword "Cantor" (singer), "Vocalista" (vocalist) is a hit.
• More specific: If the Guess is a more specific version of the Keyword.
  • Examples: For the Keyword "Cachorro" (dog), the following Guesses count as hits: "Poodle" and "Pitbull". For the Keyword "Brasil" (Brazil), Guesses such as "Salvador", "Juiz de Fora" and "Rio Grande do Sul" count as hits.
  • Attention: The reverse is not valid. For the Keyword "Cascavel" (rattlesnake), the Guess "Cobra" (snake) is not considered a hit. Therefore be as specific as you can in your Guesses.

Keywords with "/": For Keywords that contain "/", any Guess that matches one of the options is considered a hit.

Keywords with an icon: Some Keywords begin with an icon. The printed rulebook shows two icons here: a person silhouette (the Individual Category symbol, as in the examples below) and a round badge with a question mark. The rulebook does not name the question-mark badge.

• For Keywords that begin with these icons, what is written on the line does not count as a hit. The player giving Clues must instead try to get the guessers to hit a Keyword that fits that description and Category. For example, for the Individual Category, the Keyword must be a person, character, mythological figure etc.
  • Example: For the Keyword "[person icon] gênio da computação" (computing genius), you could choose to pass Clues for "Alan Turing", "Ada Lovelace" or another person or character who is a computing genius.
  • Example: For the Keyword "[person icon] gênio da ficção" (fiction genius), you could choose to pass Clues for "Moriarty", "Mycroft Holmes", "Victor Frankenstein", "Gênio da lâmpada" (Genie of the lamp), "Isaac Asimov", "Arthur C. Clarke" or another person or character who is a "gênio da ficção" (fiction genius).

On the backs of the cards there are lists of what can be expected from each Category. When explaining the rules, remind the other players of these possibilities. For example: in the Individual Category there are myths, characters, people etc.; in Objects there are vehicles, machines etc.

Before the game, let the players become familiar with the general contents of the cards.

Game Modes

Cooperative

In the Cooperative mode the players pool their efforts in a race against the clock to hit one Keyword from each Category.

• For 2 or more players, 10 minutes of play.

Additional Setup

1. Split the players into 2 groups:
   • Clue Passers (Passa-Dicas): the players who will say the Clues for the Keywords.
   • Guessers (Adivinhadores): the players who will try to guess the Keywords.
2. One of the Clue Passers draws, and shows only to their group, a number from 1 to 8. This number indicates the row of Keywords for this game.
3. Take 1 Keyword card from each Category and leave these 6 cards face down in front of the Clue Passers. These will be the cards passed during the game.
4. From the Letter deck, reveal cards until there is a minimum of 7 points (p. 2).
5. Prepare a timer, set from 0 to 10 minutes.

The Game

One of the Clue Passers picks one of the Keyword cards in front of them and shows it to their group. At this moment, start the timer.

The Clue Passers say their Clues out loud. The Clues must follow the drawn starting letters and the other rules for Clues (p. 3). Any Clue Passer may give Clues in any order.

As soon as the Clues start to be spoken, the Guessers may call out their Guesses out loud. Players may give as many Guesses as they want at any time. There is no limit on the number of Clues or Guesses.

In case of:

• ERROR: Nothing happens. Continue with the Clues and Guesses as normal.
• HIT: The Clue Passers set aside the card that was hit, and take one new card from the 6 separated cards, continuing with the Clues and Guesses for their new Keyword. If the hit card was the last one, stop the timer and go to scoring. You win!
• TIME'S UP (10 MINUTES): The game ends. Not this time!

Swaps (Cooperative)

If the players stagnate, all of them, by common agreement, may swap the Keyword card (for one of the same Category from the centre of the table) or the drawn Letters (discarding the current ones and drawing a new set until there is a minimum of 7 points, p. 2).

• Keep these discards separate in order to count the penalty.
• For each swap made, the team is penalised with an additional 30 seconds added to the final time.
• Number of swaps that are free of penalty:
  • 2 for 2 players, 1 for 3 players, and none for 4 or more players.

Scoring (Cooperative)

See how your team did:

Time	Rank
Up to 1:59	Perfection (Perfeição)
2:00 to 2:59	Prodigies (Prodígios)
3:00 to 3:59	Professors (Professores)
4:00 to 4:59	Professionals (Profissionais)
5:00 to 5:59	Perceptive (Perspicazes)
6:00 to 6:59	Standard (Padrão)
7:00 to 7:59	Struggled (Pelejaram)
8:00 to 8:59	Need to practise (Precisam praticar)
9:00 to 9:59	Danger! Barely made it! (Perigo! Passaram por pouco!)
10:00 or more	You lost! (Perderam!)

The rank names alliterate in the Portuguese original ("P" words); the English names here are translations.

Dynamic

The Dynamic mode is a fast mode, where the Guesser who hits the most Keywords of the Clue Passers wins.

• For 3 or more players, 20 minutes of play.

To play the Dynamic mode use the Cooperative rules with the following changes:

• Additional setup: 2 Keyword cards from each Category instead of 1, for a total of 12 cards in front of the Clue Passers.
• There is no timer and no penalty for swaps. Swaps are still made by common agreement as in the Cooperative mode.
• The players in the Guessers group (minimum 2 players) compete against each other.

During the game:

• ERROR: Nothing happens. Continue with the Clues and Guesses as normal.
• HIT: The card is placed face down in front of the guesser who hit it. The Clue Passers then take a new card from the 12 separated cards, continuing with the Clues and Guesses for their Keyword. If the hit card was the last one, the game ends and the Guesser with the most hits wins.

In case of a tie, play an additional round with only the tied players guessing. Draw the Category of the card to be taken from the table. The player who first hits this Keyword is the winner of the game.

Expert

The Expert is a turn-based mode, with individual scoring and a great challenge, with each player trying to pass up to 3 Keywords in the same round and hit as many as they can.

• For 3 to 6 players, 30 minutes of play.

Additional Setup

1. Each player takes sheets from the notepad and a pencil.
2. Each player secretly draws a number from 1 to 8 to determine which row their Keywords will come from for the rest of the game.
3. Draw the starting player.

The Game

Carry out the following steps in sequence:

• CARDS: Each player chooses and draws Keyword cards, without repeating a Category they already have, until they have 3.
  • At this point, remember that you must swap cards for an unknown Keyword (p. 2).
• STARTING LETTERS: From the Letter deck, reveal cards until there is a minimum of 7 points (p. 2).
• WRITE CLUES: One player prepares and starts a timer of 2 minutes and 30 seconds. This is the time limit for each player to write the Clues for their 3 Keywords in the round. If you are in the middle of writing a Clue when the time runs out, you may finish writing that Clue.
• GUESS: Starting with the starting player:
  • The player chooses one of their Keywords, revealing its Category to the others (indicated on the back of the card), and reads the Clues they noted for it. The other players each have one chance to hit the Keyword, starting with the next player in turn order (to the left in odd-numbered rounds and to the right in even-numbered rounds).

In case of:

• ERROR: Pass the chance to hit to the next player.
• HIT: The Clue-passing player discards the hit Keyword card, face down, in front of them into a scoring pile. The player who hit takes a card of the same Category as the hit card from the centre of the table and discards it in front of them into their own scoring pile, face down. Alternatively, the player who hit may discard from their hand a card of the same Category as the hit Keyword card (only do this if you are having difficulty passing this Keyword).

This turn ends when all the other players fail to hit the Keyword, or immediately when a player hits it. (With 3 players, if they do not hit in this turn, make a second attempt where the players guess in turn order.)

When the turn ends, restart this step with the next player in turn order as the Clue passer. Keep going until each player has had a chance to pass each of their 3 Keywords, closing the round. If a player has no Clues for a Keyword, their turn to pass that Keyword is skipped.

• Example: Laura chose her Keyword from the Animal Category, and read the Clues she had noted for it: "Animal Africano Ameaçado" (endangered African animal) and "Ambição" (ambition). Ana, seated to the left of Laura, is the first to try and says: "Elefante" (elephant). Laura reveals that the Guess was an Error. The chance to hit then passes to Augusto, seated to the left of Ana, who says: "Rinoceronte" (rhinoceros), and the Guess is correct! Laura then discards the Rhinoceros card, face down, in front of her into her scoring pile, and Augusto takes a card from the Animal Category from the centre of the table and discards it into his scoring pile. The step is then restarted, now with Ana reading her noted Clues for her Place Keyword. Augusto will be the first to try to hit it...

End of the Round

• Is it over? If any player has 8 or more cards in their scoring pile at the end of the round, proceed to "SCORING".
• If this did not happen, discard the Letter cards drawn for this round and start a new round from the "CARDS" step. Remember that for the next round you keep the Keyword cards that were not hit, and you accumulate the Clues for them, so you may read the Clues from earlier rounds in addition to the new Clues.
  • Example: In the previous round you only managed to write "Vitamina" (vitamin) as a Clue for your Keyword "Mamão" (papaya), and nobody hit it. In this round, with the drawn starting letters "F S M", you manage to add: "Fruta Saudável" (healthy fruit) and "Manhã" (morning). When it is your turn to give Clues, you can read all the Clues you noted, including "Vitamina".

SCORING

• The player with the most cards in their scoring pile is the winner of the game.
• In case of a tie, subtract from each tied player the largest group of cards of the same Category that each one of them has. If the tie persists, repeat this subtraction until one of the tied players has more cards and is the winner, or until each of the tied players has 0 cards remaining, in which case the victory is shared among them.