Visual Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Players
• Components
• Object of the Game
• Setup
• The Visual Game Cards
• How to Play
• If the Team Guesses
• If the Team Does Not Guess
• Changing the Drawer
• The Proverbs and Famous Phrases Category
• The "Bonus" Tokens
• End of the Game
• Tournament

Players

For 4 or more players.

Components

• 1 game board
• 1 deck of 500 cards in a cardboard box
• 4 coloured tokens (team markers)
• 1 hourglass
• 4 pads of drawing paper
• 4 pencils
• 40 numbered tokens, as follows:
  • 18 worth 100 points
  • 13 worth 200 points
  • 5 worth 500 points
  • 3 "Bonus" tokens
  • 1 spare

Object of the Game

In Visual Game, the team that scores the most points wins, by winning the numbered tokens placed on the game board. To move along the track, a team must guess the subjects drawn by one of its teammates.

Setup

1. Detach the 40 tokens from their punched sheet.
2. Shuffle the 40 tokens and place one on each numbered space of the game board.
3. Divide into two or more teams of at least two players each, trying to make the teams as evenly balanced as possible.
4. Each team chooses a coloured marker and places it next to space no. 1.
5. Each team takes a pencil and a drawing pad.
6. Determine the turn order and decide who will be the first drawer of each team.
7. The first time you play, shuffle the 500 cards contained in the cardboard box thoroughly.

The Visual Game Cards

Each card is divided into five sections of different colour and different value, each corresponding to a category of subjects. The five categories, with their corresponding values, are also shown on the game board.

The categories listed on each card, from top to bottom, are the following:

• Household items (value 3) - simple objects that can be found in the home.
• Risk (value 4) - a bit of everything, sometimes easy and sometimes difficult.
• Verbs and places (value 5) - actions and places that can be generic or very specific.
• Hobbies and sports (value 6) - from gymnastics apparatus to the description of activities.
• Proverbs and famous phrases (value 8) - the most demanding category, to be tackled by everyone together.

How to Play

• The drawer of the team whose turn it is announces aloud the category of subjects they intend to draw, choosing from the first four available (with values 3, 4, 5 and 6).
• The category PROVERBS AND FAMOUS PHRASES (worth 8 points) can never be chosen, but it comes into play in a special situation described below.
• The drawer has a few seconds to think about how to draw the subject, after which the hourglass is started.
• The drawer has the time of one hourglass to get their teammates to guess the subject shown on the card.
• During this time, the teammates may say anything they want, but the drawer must absolutely not speak, nor suggest anything with gestures.
• The drawer also may not draw letters or numbers.

If the Team Guesses

If, within the time available, the team correctly guesses the exact name of the subject drawn, the team's marker advances a number of spaces equal to the value of the chosen category. If a token is on the landing space, the team takes it and keeps it prominently displayed on the table.

The team's turn ends and the game continues with the next team (clockwise).

If the Team Does Not Guess

If, within the time available, the team does not correctly guess the exact name of the subject drawn, it loses one of the tokens it has previously won, of its choice (obviously the one of lowest value).

The discarded tokens must be placed in the centre of the game board, where they form the prize to be awarded to the team that first crosses the finish line.

If the team has no tokens, it loses nothing.

Changing the Drawer

Whether or not the subject was guessed, the drawer passes the card and the pad to one of their teammates, who becomes the new drawer of the team. It is important that every member of each team takes a turn in the role of drawer.

The Proverbs and Famous Phrases Category

It may happen that the coloured space of the chosen category does not show anything. When this happens, the drawer must announce to everyone that the subject to be guessed will be a proverb, and shows the drawn card only to the drawers of every team, on which the proverb to be drawn is printed.

All the drawers, after starting the hourglass, begin drawing at the same time.

The teams compete with each other to guess the proverb before the others.

The first team that guesses within the time limit may move its own marker a maximum of 8 spaces forward or backward.

The game then continues following the normal sequence of play.

If no team manages to guess, the game continues with the next team in turn.

IMPORTANT: normally, the utmost precision is required when naming a subject, but in the case of proverbs and famous phrases it is better to be more flexible. Many proverbs are in fact known in slightly different forms from region to region, and this could give rise to disputes.

The "Bonus" Tokens

If a team's marker ends on a "Bonus" token, the team may steal a numbered token from an opposing team of its choice.

The "Bonus" token itself is immediately discarded.

End of the Game

The game ends at the moment a team passes the last space of the track (with any result). The team that first crosses the finish line is awarded all the numbered tokens discarded during the game.

The team that totals the highest score by adding the value of the tokens in its possession wins.

Tournament

Since Visual Game is a fairly quick game, a mini individual tournament can be organised in a single evening using the following rules:

1. Decide how many games you will play.
2. At the end of each game, change teams.
3. In each game, the team's score must be divided equally among the members of that team.
4. At the end of the agreed games, the player with the highest score wins.