This game involves visual memory and requires the players to recall details of a photograph. You can deliberately bluff by making a false statement about the photograph. If nobody challenges you, you earn extra points.
Synopsis
During each round, one player (designated as the judge) turns over a photograph and lets other players study it for a minute. After a minute, he takes the photograph away and holds it in such as way that only he could see it. Other players take turns to make a statement about the photograph. Correct statements get a point. Incorrect statements that are correctly challenged by any player earns a point for the challenger. Players lose a point for making an invalid challenge. If a player bluffs with a deliberately incorrect statement and no one challenges it, the bluffing player gets two points.
Purpose
To study a photograph for a short period of time and recall the details.
Participants
Minimum: 3
Maximum: 6
Best: 5
Time
10 to 20 minutes
Supplies
This game is best played with a deck of Photo Jolts!® cards created by Glenn Hughes. This is a collection of varied photographs that are of high resolution, high quality, and high impact.
You can also use your own photographs to play this game. Make sure that you have at least 10 different photographs.
Flow
Select a judge. One player is selected to be the judge. The judge takes a card, any card, from the deck of photo cards and places it face up in the middle of the table so everyone can see it.
Study the photograph. All players have a minute to study the photograph. They are not permitted to talk to each other or to take notes. The judge starts the timer and announces the end of a minute.
Make statements. The judge takes the card and turns it around so only she (or he) can see the photograph. (The other players do not see the photograph again until the game ends.) The player to the left of the judge is the first player. This player makes a statement about the photograph on the card.
Follow up the statement. After the player makes a statement, any other player may challenge if the statement is incorrect. If nobody challenges, the player who made the statement may claim he bluffed. If there is no challenge and if the statement is not a bluff, the next player takes his turn. Each of these actions result is score points as indicated below:
Challenge. If anyone thinks that the first player’s statement is incorrect, he shouts “Challenge”. The judge checks the photograph (without showing it to the others) and decides if the challenge is valid.
If the challenge is valid (that is, the first person’s statement is incorrect), the challenger earns a point and the player who made the statement loses a point.
If the challenge is invalid (that is, if the original statement is correct), the challenger loses a point and the player who made the statement earns two points.
Bluff. If the first player deliberately makes an incorrect statement and no one challenges him, he says, “Bluff” after a suitable pause. The bluffing player gets two points.
No bluff, no challenge. The player who made the statement gets a point, and the next player gets a turn to make a statement.
Continue the game. Game continues in the same fashion, with each person getting to make a statement. The judge does not make a statement and the other players keep going round and round until the game ends (as explained in the next paragraph).
Conclude the game. The game ends when one player accumulates a total of 7 points. This player is the winner.
Repeat the game. During the next game, the player seated to the left of the original judge acts as the new judge.
Variations
Want to increase the complexity? Ask the judge to turn over two different cards. The player could make statements (or bluff) about either of these cards.
Want to give equal opportunity to every player? Play ends when each player gets two turns to make the statements (or bluffs). The player with the highest score wins.
Play Sample
During a recent game, the first judge turned over this photo:
Here are some correct statements made by different players during their turns:
There are five people in the group around the table..
There is only one man in the group.
Two people have both of their ears hidden under the hair.
Only one of the women is a blonde.
Four people have drinks. One does not.
There are two cups on the table.
All five people are smiling.
There is one blue chair and one red chair in the room.
One of the women wears her hair in a ponytail.
The two glasses have bendable straws.
Here are four attempted bluffs from different players:
None of the women have earrings.
The man is seated in the middle.
Everyone’s hands are on the table.
The table has four legs.