Speed Colors
Speed Colors Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Aim of the Game
Each player memorizes the colors of the drawing on his card, and then reproduces the drawing by coloring in the black-and-white version on the other side of the card as quickly as possible. This is repeated for 4 rounds (with an additional difficulty each round). The faster and the more accurate you are, the more points you get! At the end of the game, the player with the most points wins.
Game Components
- 55 image cards
- 5 double-sided scoring cards
- 6 markers with sponges
Image Cards
Each card has a colored drawing on one side and the same drawing but in black-and-white on the other. Each drawing is divided into six areas.
Setup
- Flip the box cover and put the 6 markers inside.
- Each player takes a scoring card and places it the "snake" side up within his easy reach on the table.
- Shuffle the image cards. Make sure the cards in the deck are all facing the same direction! Place the deck black-and-white side up in the center of the table.
Playing the Game
The game is played in 4 rounds. Each round is played as follows:
The youngest player takes the top card from the deck without looking at its colored side. The player to his left takes the next card and so on until each player has a card. Each player places his card on the table in front of him black-and-white side up.
Each player takes his card in his hand black-and-white side up. One of the players counts to 3. On "3" the players flip their cards colored side up (make sure your card is not upside down) and try to memorize the colors of their drawing.
As soon as a player thinks he is ready, he flips his card once again and puts it back on the table black-and-white side up. The player can now color in his drawing. The players don't need to flip and start coloring their cards at the same time! Each of them may take as much time as he wishes memorizing the colors of the drawing on the card, but once he flips the card black-and-white side up, he can't flip it again.
When coloring in the black-and-white drawing, remember:
- Color directly on the card (you wipe it at the end of the round).
- You may take any marker from the box cover but only one at a time.
- You must put back the marker you've just used before taking a new one.
- During the round, you may only use each marker once.
- Remember: one marker - one area! If you took a marker and changed your mind, you can put it back in the box cover without using it. But if you have started coloring an area - you cannot change your mind and color this area with another marker.
- It is forbidden to wipe any colored area before the end of the round.
- Always put the cap back on the marker before putting the marker back in the box cover.
End of the Round
When a player finishes coloring in all 6 areas of his drawing, he puts the marker he has just used back in the box cover, and shouts "STOP!". Now, each player has the opportunity to use the marker in his hand to color in (or finish coloring in) an area of his drawing (each player can take as long as he needs). However, the players cannot take a new marker. When all players finish, proceed to the scoring.
Each player compares the original drawing to the black-and-white drawing he has just colored in. Points are distributed as follows:
- A player gains 2 points for each area fully colored with the same color as on the other side of the card (take any marker and color 2 leftmost uncolored areas of the snake on your scoring card).
- A player gains 1 point for each area fully colored with a wrong color (take any marker and color 1 leftmost uncolored area of your snake).
- A player doesn't gain any points for uncolored (i.e. white) areas, partially colored areas or areas colored outside the lines.
- If one color was used more than once, only one area of that color brings you points!
Example: The player gains no points for the blue area (it is colored outside the lines), no points for the purple area and the big red area (they are partially filled). He gains 2 points for the green circle area (fully covered with the correct color) and no points for the second green area (green is used twice). He gets 1 point for the yellow area on the right (fully colored with a wrong color).
Setup for the Next Round
Each player wipes his drawing with the sponge at the cap of a marker and discards his card.
Then the player with the shortest colored queue on a scoring card (in case of a tie - the youngest of the tied players) selects two markers and swaps their caps! At the end of each round you may only swap the caps that have not been swapped yet: in the second round there will be only 4 markers with matching caps, in the third round - only 2, and in the fourth round all markers will have mismatched caps.
Play the next round following the same rules.
End of the Game
The game ends after scoring of the fourth and final round. The player with the longest colored part of the snake on a scoring card wins.
Game Variants
Playing with Young Children
If you're playing with young children, don't swap the caps of the markers at the end of each round.
Expert Mode
During the setup, place your scoring card the "flowers" side up. The gameplay is the same as in the basic variant, only the scoring is different:
- For each area fully colored with the correct marker a player colors the leftmost small uncolored flower on his scoring card.
- For each area fully colored with a wrong marker a player colors the petal of a big flower at the topmost line of his scoring card.
- As soon as a player has 3 big petals colored he may erase the big flower and color a small one instead.
- All other scoring rules are the same as in basic scoring variant.
The player with the longest colored queue of flowers on a scoring card wins. In case of a tie, the player with most colored petals wins.
Note. You may add even more challenge to the game by playing with an additional rule: A player doesn't gain any points (doesn't even color a petal of a flower) for the areas fully colored with a wrong marker.
Hint. In case the players at the table have different experience of the game, you may balance the difficulty level by giving them scoring cards different sides up (e.g. "flowers" for adults and "snakes" for children).