Tabu Body Talk
Tabu Body Talk Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
The Goal of the Game
The teams use the players of the opposing team as "human puppets" for the pantomime portrayal of the search terms. The first team to reach 25 points wins the game.
Contents
230 double-sided cards, 1 hourglass, 1 squeaker and 1 scorepad.
Warning: Please do not give the squeaker to children. It is not suitable as a toy for babies and toddlers.
Setup
The players split into two teams that are as equal in strength as possible. These are called "the blue team" and "the red team." If one team has one player fewer than the other, one player on the "weaker" team takes two turns to even things out.
Take a stack of cards, making sure all cards of one colour lie in the same direction, and shuffle the cards well. Place the stack in the middle of the playing area. The card side facing down is played first.
Get Ready
Decide which team goes first. Let us assume you play on the red team and your team goes first. You are also the first player of your team and take on the role of the "puppeteer."
As puppeteer, choose from the blue (i.e. opposing) team a player who will act as your "human puppet." The puppet acts on your instructions. The puppeteer makes the puppet perform movements that should bring the puppeteer's own team to the search term to be guessed. Position yourself and your puppet so that every player can see both of you well.
The Spy!
A player of the blue team is named the "spy." The spy draws the top card from the stack and shows it to you (the puppeteer), but NOT to the puppet or the other players of the red team. The remaining players of the blue team may look at the card calmly.
Each side of a card shows two search terms: a simple term worth 1 point and a harder term worth 2 points. You must always act out the simple term first before moving on to the harder term. (The exception to this rule is described on the back, under "Skipping a Term.")
Tips for the Human Puppet
The human puppet should behave as follows:
- be flexible (not stiff or too "limp"), and let itself be "bent" into different poses, staying in a pose for as long as possible;
- work together with the puppeteer and not wilfully resist the puppeteer's instructions.
Stand in front of your puppet so that only the puppet can see your face when you make the grimace. You may also tell your puppet whether to keep making the grimace constantly (for example, opening and closing the mouth continuously like a "goldfish") or whether the grimace should be used at a particular moment (for example, smiling), namely when you call out "Now!"
Ready, Set, Go!
The spy takes the squeaker, while another player of the blue team turns the hourglass. Your time starts now!
The other players of the red team (that is, your own team) must now guess the search terms on the card. A search term can be a person (fictional or real), an action, or an object of any kind. You are the puppeteer, so move your puppet in a way that gives the players of your team a hint toward the search term. Now "make the puppet dance": it will carry out each of your prescribed movements, as long as no personal limits are crossed (for example, putting one's feet behind one's ears!). Remember: TABU - BODY TALK should be fun for all players!
Making Faces
To make a search term even clearer, the puppeteer may have the puppet make different faces.
Taboo!
The first idea that usually comes to mind for portraying a search term is TABU. Under each search term on the card is an action that is absolutely TABU for you, and therefore also for your puppet, and must not be performed. Should this happen nonetheless, the spy will point it out by "squeaking" you. As a penalty, 1 point is credited to the opposing team for that term.
The spy must also make sure that you do not break your silence: the puppeteer may not say a word. (This rule does not apply when making faces; see the back.)
If you are caught speaking, the portrayal of the affected term is stopped immediately without any points, and you move on to the next term.
Guessing, Guessing, and More Guessing!
While you twist and bend your puppet wildly, your team can (and should!) call out as many terms to you as it needs to arrive at the correct search term. There are no penalty points for wrong guesses.
As soon as your team has correctly guessed what your puppet is showing, move on to the harder term on the card. Once you have played through both terms, the spy draws the next card from the stack and shows it to you. The game then goes on in this way: try to portray as many terms as possible with your puppet. The hourglass runs relentlessly on and runs out after about 1.5 minutes.
Note: The search term your team has to guess is the action, person, or object printed in bold on the card, and not the TABU action printed beneath it.
If the puppeteer forgets the terms just played in the heat of the moment, the puppeteer may have them shown again by the spy at any time.
Skipping a Term
If you believe that you cannot portray a search term, then skip it and continue with the next one. For example, if you consider the portrayal of a simple search term impossible, you may move on to the harder term underneath it. OR you may skip a harder term and continue with the simple term on the next card.
While you are the puppeteer, you may skip a term twice:
The first term may be either a simple term (1 point) or a harder term (2 points). In that case, no point is credited to the opposing team.
The second term you skip may only be a harder term (2 points). If you skip it, the opposing team gains 1 point. Afterwards, you must still play through all remaining terms.
End of a Round
As soon as the hourglass has run out, the blue team calls loudly "Time out!" The points of this round are then added up as follows:
- for the red team: 1 or 2 points for each search term your team guessed correctly;
- for the blue team: 1 point for each term that was "squeaked," plus 1 point for the second skip of a term;
- if a term had not been fully played through when the hourglass ran out, it is not scored.
Write the points of both teams on the scorepad. Then collect the cards already played and set them aside. Now the other team is up.
This time the puppeteer of the blue team chooses a puppet from the red team. The blue team, meanwhile, appoints a player as spy, who takes over the squeaker. The round then follows the course already described.
Every player should take on the role of the puppet at least once!
Have you played through one side of the cards completely? Then simply turn the stack over and continue playing with the other side.
And the Winner Is...
... the team that first scores 25 points. (Make sure that both teams have had equal turns - only then does it count.)
Before the game begins, you are of course also free to set a target number of points yourselves. It is up to you how long you wish to play!
Rules at a Glance
- Set up 2 teams: the red team against the blue team.
- One player from the red team is the "puppeteer." The puppeteer chooses from the blue team a "human puppet."
- One player of the blue team is the "spy," who watches the puppeteer.
- The spy draws the top card from the stack and shows it to the puppeteer.
- Without speaking, the puppeteer moves the puppet so that the red team guesses the simple (1 point) and harder (2 points) search terms on the card. To support this, the puppeteer may have the puppet make faces.
- The players of the red team call out to the puppeteer the terms they think the search term is. The puppeteer plays as many terms as possible before the hourglass runs out. Per round, the puppeteer may skip a term twice: for the first skipped term (simple or harder) the opposing team gains no point; for the second skipped term (harder) the opposing team gains one point.
- The spy holds the squeaker ready and squeezes it audibly as soon as the puppeteer has the puppet perform the TABU action printed beneath the search term. Each "squeaked" term gives the opposing team 1 point.
- Add up the points when the hourglass has run out and note them on the scorepad.
- The teams swap roles and the next round begins.
- The first team to reach 25 points wins.