Concept rules: how to play and how to score

Concept quick rules

The goal

You get words guessed without speaking, by placing pieces on the universal icons of a big board. Two players form a team and pick a word, a title or an expression for the others to guess. When the word is found, players score points; the most points wins.

A turn

The team draws a card and picks a word from one of its three difficulty levels. The two teammates place pieces to get it guessed, conferring in low voices, as many pieces as they want. Meanwhile, the others make as many guesses as they want.

The main concept and the cubes

First place the question mark on an icon: it shows the nature of the word. For “bee,” you point to an animal. Then cubes of the same color, placed on other icons, narrow down that concept: an animal that flies, yellow and black. The order of the pieces matters, and so does the number of cubes on an icon.

Sub-concepts

To develop an idea, place an exclamation mark, then cubes of its color. For “bee,” a sub-concept can say the animal is linked to a yellow liquid food, honey. The sub-concept narrows down the main concept.

Guessing and scoring

Teammates can only answer yes, when the right answer is announced or when the others are on a good track. The first player to find the word scores 2 points, and each member of the team scores 1 point. If the others are lost, the team can remove pieces and start over a different way.

If the word isn’t found

After some time, the team can call in a third person to help, or pick another word on its card. If the word still isn’t guessed, it’s dropped and nobody scores. Then the next two players form a new team and draw a new card.

The end of the game

The game ends as soon as twelve cards have been played. Everyone counts their points, and the most points wins; on a tie, the victory is shared. The game also works very well without counting points.

How to score Concept

Finding the word

+2 points for the first player who calls out the right word.

Getting the word guessed

+1 point for each player on the team that got the word guessed.

Word dropped

0 points for everyone.

Total

The sheet keeps a single line per player: their point total after the 12 cards.

Worked example

Over the 12 cards, Emma finds 3 words (3 × 2 = 6 points) and gets 2 words guessed with her teammate (2 × 1 = 2 points). One of her words is dropped: 0 points. Total: 6 + 2 = 8 points.

Common mistakes

• Giving 2 points to each player on the team: it’s 1 point each; the 2 points go to the player who finds the word.
• Scoring a dropped word: nobody scores, even after a third person helped.
• Stopping too early or too late: the game ends as soon as 12 cards have been played.
• Looking for a tie-breaker: on a tie, the players share the victory.

How to set up Concept

Setup is the same for 4 to 12 players. The first team is two players sitting next to each other; the rules don’t say how to choose them.