OBJECTIVE OF UP A BIT: To put the players’ descriptive, perceptive and drawing skills to the test.
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 3 to 6 Players
COMPONENTS: 6 privacy screens, 6 pencils, a 5-minute sand timer, a pad of score sheets, a pad of 250 double-sided grid sheets, a deck of 100 object cards and a rule sheets.
TYPE OF GAME: Drawing Card Game
AUDIENCE: Ages 8 and Up
OVERVIEW OF UP A BIT
Players take turns describing an object on a card hoping that their descriptive powers are strong enough to lead to a correct guess.
SETUP
Every player is given a pencil, screen and a grid sheet. These grid sheets are marked with numbers and letters to help players determine the placement of their drawings if need be.
The object cards are shuffled and placed face down where all the players can easily access them.
A player is chosen to be the first to pick a card and describe the object drawn on it and that player doesn’t draw in that round.
GAMEPLAY
The chosen first player picks a card from the deck and studies the object. He must inform the other players whether the object is positioned vertically or horizontally and they turn their grid sheets in the proper direction.
The person describing is referred to as the Up-A-Bitter and he/she has five minutes to describe the object to be drawn to the other players. He can only describe but give no clues. He is only allowed to describe the object using lines and shapes. He cannot use descriptive phrases.
For example, if the card picked is a life ring he can only say “draw a big circle and then a smaller circle and connect them in four places using eight short lines”, he cannot say “draw a wheel and then connect the two circles”
The Up-A-Bitter is not allowed to look at what the other players are drawing, hence the screen.
Players can try guessing the object at any time during the time allotted without suffering any penalty but the Up-A-Bitter can only answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and no more.
The Up-A-Bitter continues to describe until a player guesses what is being described or the allotted time runs out.
The next player to the right then becomes the Up-A-Bitter and play continues until everyone gets a chance to be the Up-A-Bitter.
The cards are returned to the base of the deck once used.
SCORING
Everybody starts off with 10 initial points.
If the object is correctly guessed, the person describing earns a point. If he/she succeeds in describing the object without making reference to the numbers or letters on the grid, another point is earned, so two points in all.
The player who guessed right earns a point as well.
If nobody is able to guess what is being described, the Up-A-Bitter loses a point.
If the Up-A-Bitter uses a descriptive phrase, he loses a point and his turn.
END OF GAME
The players decide how many rounds to play. The winner is the player with the highest total score.
