Walkie Talkie
Walkie Talkie Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction and Goal of the Game
Walkie-Talkie is a cooperative game for 2 to 8 players in which you try to get rid of your cards as fast as you can while also trying to get the highest number of points.
Contents
50 letter/color cards and 1 rules.
Getting Ready
Split the cards into two decks that are about the same size. Turn one of the decks over, then shuffle both decks together so that the letter sides and color sides are mixed.
Take the first two cards and place them so that one shows a letter and the other shows a color.
Then, deal each player 6 cards but do not turn them over. This means that, for example, 2 cards may have been dealt with the letter side up and 4 cards with the color side up, then they stay that way in the player's hand.
Set the time for the game: Set the time by counting half a minute per player. This means there would be 1 minute for 2 players, 3 minutes and a half for 7 players, etc. Start the timer on your phone and you are ready to go!
How a Game of Walkie-Talkie Is Played
In Walkie-Talkie, everybody plays all at once until the game has come to an end, which can happen because of either of the reasons below:
- A – All the players have run out of cards.
- B – The time has run out.
There are no "turns" in Walkie-Talkie: any player can play a card any time they want to, by following the steps below.
Playing Cards
When a player wants to play, they must carry out the following two steps:
- A – Play a card from their hand on top of one of the two piles of cards.
- B – Say a valid code out loud.
A: Play a card from their hand on top of one of the two piles of cards
Play a card from your hand on the corresponding pile. If you are looking at a letter in your hand, then you have to play it as a letter; while if you see a color, you have to play it as a color.
All the players play at the same time, so it could happen that one player runs out of cards while the other players still have some or even all of their cards. But everyone keeps playing until the end of the game!
B: Say a valid code out loud
After playing your card, you have to say a word that starts with the letter that is visible in the center of the table and that can be associated with the color that is next to it. Anything goes: proper names, animals, brands, mobile apps... You and the other players decide amongst yourselves which words are valid and which are not. The only things you cannot do are repeat a word or say the name of a color. For the letter R and the color red, for example, you would not be allowed to say "RED", but "ROSY" would be okay.
Of course, it is possible a player will have to explain the justification for their word. If the word or its justification does not win over the group, the player must return the card to their hand and they must also draw a card from the pile that they did not play on (i.e., if they played a letter, from the color pile). In the case that there are no cards in that deck, then it is not required to draw the card.
Examples as printed:
- Player A plays the "T" card and says "TANGERINE."
- Later, he plays the green card and says "TOM." At first glance, this has no connection… but Tom is a vegetarian and everyone (including Tom) agrees that his name can be related to the color. Player A does not have to return the card to his hand, nor does he have to draw another card.
- Player B plays the "C" card and says "CAULIFLOWER" thinking of the color of the plant's leaves, but someone points out that cauliflower is white so it is not correct. Player B tries to convince them of her logic but is unable to change their minds. Player B must take back the "C" letter card that she played and draw the green color card.
Are You Out of Ideas?
At any time, a player can yell one of these two words. After doing so, all players follow these instructions for the word they yelled:
ROGER!
After someone says "Roger!", all players must turn over all the cards in their hand. For example: If you have 2 color cards and 1 letter card in your hand, after the "Roger!" you will have 2 letter cards and 1 color card.
Note: When the cards in the hands are turned over, the players have different letters and colors to make words with.
OVER!
After someone says "Over!", all players must hand all of their cards to the player on their left without turning them over. This may cause some players who have run out of cards to come back into the game while the player to their right suddenly has no cards to play.
Note: All the players give their hands to the player seated to their left. Now they have different letters and colors.
End of the Game and Scoring
Note: the printed heading reads "CWhen the game comes to an end"; the stray "C" is a typo in the source and is omitted here.
When the game comes to an end, count the number of asterisks (*) that are shown on the letter cards all of the players have played. That is your base score. However, if the time ran out, you must subtract 1 point for each card that you have left in your hands. You can note down the number of players and the score on the table at the end of these rules.
In Walkie-Talkie, nobody wins or loses, you just score all together. When the game ends, the score table allows you to compare your score to how you have done in your previous games together.
Example: When the 1 minute 30 seconds ends, the players still have a total of 4 cards in their hands. They must subtract 4 points from their score.
Example: For each asterisk, the players get one point. In this case, the players have obtained 7 points, but 4 points are subtracted for the cards that were not played. This time the players got a total of 3 points!
Score table (printed at the end of the rules): "Note down your scores here and you can see how your communication and cooperation improve!" The table is a blank grid of "Pl. / Sc." (players / score) entries for recording the number of players and the score of each game.