Wavelength Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal
• Setup
• How a Round Works
  • Psychic Phase
  • Team Phase
  • Left/Right Phase
  • Scoring
• Game Flow and Catch-Up
• Winning
• Clue-Giving Rules

Goal

Each round, your team turns the red dial as close to the center of the hidden colored target as possible. The target is behind a screen at a random location, but one teammate — the Psychic — knows exactly where it is and gives a clue on the spectrum between two opposing concepts.

Setup

Wavelength plays entirely inside the box. Place the device (dial and rotating wheel) into the tray slot and insert the two "heads" scoring tokens and the guessing token. Divide into two teams of roughly equal size (Left Brain and Right Brain), and choose the first Psychics. The team going first starts at 0 points; the team going second starts at 1 point.

How a Round Works

Each round has four phases: Psychic Phase → Team Phase → Left/Right Phase → Scoring.

Psychic Phase

The active team's Psychic, acting secretly so no one sees the target:

1. Close the screen completely.
2. Choose a wavelength card (double-sided — pick the "normal" or "weird" side you like), place it in the slot with the chosen side forward, and read it aloud.
3. Randomize the target by turning the wheel (screen closed) until the target is in a completely random position. (If the 4-point center wedge isn't visible at all, spin again; a sliver on the left/right edge is valid.)
4. Open the screen completely and note where the target's center is.
5. Give a clue that conceptually sits where the target is on the spectrum between the two concepts on the card.
6. Close the screen and turn the box to their team.

After giving the clue, the Psychic must say and reveal nothing — no clarifications, and a straight face.

Team Phase

The Psychic's teammates discuss freely and rotate the dial to where they think the target's center is, then finalize their position. (Avoid numbers/percentages — use gut phrases like "way more to the right." Anyone on the team may turn the dial.)

Left/Right Phase

The other team then guesses whether the target's center is to the left or right of the finalized dial, placing the marker in the LEFT or RIGHT slot next to the card.

Scoring

The Psychic opens the screen to reveal the target:

• Psychic's team: scores the points printed on the wedge the dial is in (2–4 points; on an edge between two, take the better). Scores 0 if the dial misses the target area.
• Other team: scores 1 point if they correctly guessed left or right — unless the Psychic's team hit the perfect 4-point wedge, in which case the other team cannot score.

Move both teams' scoring markers.

Game Flow and Catch-Up

After scoring, the other team takes its round (a new player is Psychic each time), unless the catch-up rule triggers: if the Psychic's team scores 4 points and is still losing after that round's scoring, they immediately take another turn (with a different Psychic). This can chain, so a badly-losing team can catch up.

Winning

Once a team reaches 10 points, the game ends and the highest score wins. Ties are broken by a sudden-death round (including the left/right guess), repeated until a team wins.

Clue-Giving Rules

Clues should be wildly creative, but a few firm rules keep the game fair:

1. Convey a single thought — don't combine multiple ideas (words like "and/but/while" are only OK if they don't fuse two clues).
2. Don't invent something — the clue must exist outside of this moment (fictional is fine).
3. Be on topic — the clue must relate to this card's two concepts (no using a side as an unrelated double meaning, unless both words share the same double meaning).
4. Don't use the words on the card or any synonyms (e.g., for "Peaceful – Warlike," "Gandhi" is OK but "Peace" or "a pacifist" is not).
5. No numbers — no numeric shorthand for the location (numbers in a proper name are OK).

Suggestions (not strict): be concise (five words or fewer), avoid modifiers ("very," "slightly," "kind of"), and use proper nouns for "_____ person"-type cards (e.g., "Freddy Krueger" rather than "someone who…").