EP 2 Game Rules: Do As I Say, Not As I Do | GAMEBREAKER

WHAT IS THIS?

This post explains the rules of the game featured Episode 2 of Gamebreaker.

These posts will be split into two sections:

Section 1 is the rules of the game as presented in the episode. This is for viewers who find reading rules helpful for game comprehension, or wanted to check a specific rule.

Section 2 is for people who want to try and play the game themselves with friends. It will include extra information on top of the rules explained in section 1, and suggestions to adapt the game outside of the competition format. Section 2 may contain spoilers for the episode.

SECTION 1: RULES FOR EPISODE

Game 2 of the competition is... Do As I Say, Not As I Do!

AIM:

Players will face off against each other in a series of six challenges. Players gain 1 point for every challenge they successfully complete. Players will not be told the results of the challenges until the game ends.

COMPETITION:

Whoever scores the most points will win a complete gamebreaker token. Whoever places 2^nd will earn half a token. Whoever scores the least points will get a strike.

Gamebreaker Advantage: Choose one challenge to automatically succeed in (gain a point). You must use this ability before attempting the challenge, and subsequently cannot participate in the challenge.

Discussion time:

Players were given time to discuss strategy every challenge. When the discussion timer runs out, any players yet to submit an answer are escorted to the “private area” and forced to answer instantly or lose that challenge.

It is better to watch the episode first for the challenge rules, as they are easy enough to understand.

SECTION 2: RULES FOR PLAYING YOURSELVES

RUNNING THE GAME: 

If you are running the session alone, rather than timing the discussion, you can simply ask for volunteers to submit, and if no one steps forward, select the next player at random.

Alternatively, this game also works if players don’t get an opportunity to discuss strategy at all before submission, as part of the fun is trying to predict how others will act.

Here’s how that format could work:

Have all players in a “holding area” where they can talk freely between challenges. Then, each challenge, take players one at a time into the “private area”, inform them of that challenge’s rules, and give them two minutes to complete the challenge alone. Once they have submitted an answer, escort them into a third “waiting room”, where gathered players are again able to talk freely.

For each Challenge I will give the rules as seen in the episode, followed by suggestions on how to run the challenge yourself.

CHALLENGE 1:

Button Challenge: There is a red button in the games’ area. The fifth person to press the red button scores 1 point. You must press the button before the end of the game for the button press to count.

Play suggestions: The challenge in the episode is quite difficult to recreate (and moderate).

I recommend you do an alternate version from UK taskmaster. In this version, take each player individually into the “private area” and tell them they have 2 minutes from when you say “start” to press “the button” (use whatever item you want as a button stand in). To gain a point the player must be the fifth person out of all the players to press the button, based on time elapsed. They must stay in the room for the duration of the 2 minutes. Start filming when you say “start”, and stop filming once the 2 minutes are up. Once everyone has completed the challenge, you can refer to the footage to judge who pressed “the button” fifth time wise, remembering (as in the episode) that the rules don’t prevent a player from pressing the button repeatedly!

CHALLENGE 2:

Shape Challenge: Draw a shape with the least corners to score 1 point. However, if you draw the same shape as someone else, you will score nothing.

Play suggestions: As Games Master, it is up to you what constitutes a shape, or what shapes count as “matching”.

However, the definition of the shape I found is quite loose: “A shape can be defined as the boundary or outline of an object.” So I was lenient with my judgement.

As seen in the episode, there are many possible 0 corner shapes besides a circle. I’d recommend having a shorter discussion time for this challenge, or not even permitting discussion, to try and create a scenario where some players realise this and others don’t.

CHALLENGE 3:

Number Challenge:

Write a number. The player closest to the average (mean) of all submitted numbers will score 1 point.

The "mean" in maths is the average of a data set, found by adding all numbers together and then dividing the sum of the numbers by the number of numbers.

Play suggestions:

Again, this challenge also works fine when players can’t discuss strategy beforehand. Have some manner of calculating the result in case people do crazy numbers like negatives or in the millions.

CHALLENGE 4:

Face Challenge:

Pick a player’s face in the private area.

You cannot pick your own face.

Whoever’s face is picked the most, will score 1 point.

Play suggestions:

You can just get players to write the name of the person they want to vote for on paper, survivor style. This challenge does benefit from some discussion.

CHALLENGE 5:

Word Challenge:

Write a word.

The word with the most unique alphabetic letters will score 1 point.

It must be a real word and spelt correctly.

(Proper nouns, abbreviations, prefixes, suffixes or words with hyphens are not allowed)

Play suggestions:

I have an admission to make... I messed up the wording of this challenge and realised too late, so how it plays out in the episode wasn’t my original intent (that’s why it doesn’t really match the theme like the rest.)

The original idea was if any of your word’s letters match another players letters, they don’t count as “unique”.

For example, in a 3 player game (purple = match letters with another player, red = matches with yourself, black = unique letter)

Player A: dribble

Player B: foxy

Player C: loved

Player A = 2 unique, Player B = 3 unique, Player C = 1 unique, Player B wins!

I would recommend playing this version! You have to predict which letters others will use when thinking up your word (rather than just coming up with the longest word with the most varied letters). It also incentivizes the game break of using languages with different alphabets!!

CHALLENGE 6:

Poison Challenge:

Part 1: Add one drop of poison to exactly one of the six cups set out in the private area.

Part 2: Drink water from only one of the cups in the private area. If your drink is not poisoned, you will score 1 point.

Play suggestions:

There should be as many cups as there are players (or one extra). As in the episode, I recommending separating part 1 from part 2, so players don’t know the full rules of the challenge when they poison a cup. The cups should all be uniquely identifiable. The poison should be somehow identifiable, I used vinegar for it’s smell, but you could use strong food colouring to change the water’s colour.

As seen in the episode, turn order does matter here, so giving players the chance to volunteer to go first is important, as a game break is to finish the water in the cup (I recommend filling the cups with quite a lot of water so this isn’t immediately obvious).

That’s it! As always I encourage you to tweak rules as you see fit, or come up with your own challenges. Thanks for reading!