How to Play



Becoming a Contestant:



This is a perennial hassle -- we need contestants who actually want to play the game - and we always get a few that are really just here to show off.

Because we’re on two different nights, we’re doing a total of three rounds - Quarter Finals (8 teams, 4 winners advance), Semi Finals (4 teams, 2 winners advance), Finals (2 teams) -- Quarter Finals are on Friday night, the Semi Finals and Finals are held on Saturday night.

Description of Game Play:


In successive rounds with 2 teams of two, players face off.
The “civilian” player is offered the choice of giving or receiving clues to/from the “celebrity” player. The teams are placed such that their members sit and face each other. The player giving the clues needs to see the board, while the other person faces away.
For each round, reveal the categories one at a time to the clue giver. The team has 30 seconds to correctly guess all 6 categories. The player gives clues to his partner. But he may not say the word involved. For instance, if the category is parts of the body, he can say “head,” “feet” or “hands,” but he may not say “body.” If the guesser is stumped, she may say pass to move onto the next category.
Advance play when the other teammate guesses the correct categories until that team reaches the top and wins the round. Repeat play with the other team through three rounds. Then determine the winner by adding the number of categories correctly guessed and how fast the guesses took. As noted, the prize is the somewhat comical “big sack of 10,000 pennies” — additional prizes may be supplied in the grand tradition of American game show consolation prizes (Rice-a-Roni, or similar useless prizes)



Game Play Shortform:


  • Beginning with eight teams total, playing four games.
  • Each game will begin with 2 teams – one “celebrity” and one contestant each.
  • At the beginning of their turn, a pair will choose one of 6 topics in the “pyramid”.
  • The attendee player is offered the choice of giving or receiving clues to/from the celebrity player.
  • The teams are placed such that their members sit and face each other.
  • The player giving the clues needs to see the board, while the other person faces away.
  • In turn, each pair will be given 30 seconds to give clues describing each of 7 words/phrases per topic.
  • Using any part of the word in the clue, results in an automatic pass (failure to score) on that word.
  • The other player must attempt to guess the target word from the clues given.
  • Players may also choose to pass if they are unable to complete the word.
  • Points are awarded for each correctly guessed target word/phrase.
  • Whichever team has the most points after 2 rounds moves on to the quarter final (two) games.
  • From those four teams, playing against each other, 2 teams will remain in the finals.
  • The final round will be 3 rounds of game play, winner being the the team who has the most points.
  • Prizes will be awarded at the conclusion of all games.