How to Play Say What?

Game Objective

In Say Whaaat!?, players try to guess the order of importance among objects, ideas, and notions. In each round, one player acts as the Judge, who secretly orders five randomly revealed cards. The other players try to guess this order to earn points. The game ends after all players have been the Judge once, and the player with the most points is the winner.

Setup

1. Place the board in the center of the table.
2. Each player chooses a color and takes all 5 Ranking Cards of that color into their hands.
3. Place the Wooden Meeples of the chosen colors on the starting space of the Scoreboard.
4. The player who most recently shared a funny story is the starting player and becomes the Judge for the first round.

Gameplay Flow

The game progresses in rounds, each with the following phases:

3.1 Round Setup

At the beginning of each round, the Judge shuffles the deck of cards and draws 5 cards. These are the cards that will be used in the round. The cards are placed in a random order, side by side, in the center of the table.

3.2 Ranking

Without making any comments, the Judge secretly considers the order of importance of the cards. This ranking is based entirely on the Judge's personal opinion but must be done honestly. The Judge will place their Ranking Cards face down above the row of cards, placing their #1 card above the card they deem most important, the #2 card above the second most important, and so on. It is important that the other players do not understand the ranking of each card at this point. It is recommended that the Judge decides the ranking by arranging the Ranking Cards in their hands first and then placing them on the table from left to right. After the Judge completes the ranking, all other players will try to guess how the Judge ranked them. To do this, each player places their Ranking Cards face down below the row of cards, side by side.

3.3 Scoring

After all players have made their guesses, the Judge will reveal the ranking. It is recommended that the Judge reveals the cards starting with their #1 choice, then #2, and so on. After the Judge's cards are revealed, players reveal their guesses one at a time. It is fun to explain your reasoning at this point. After all cards are revealed, each player, except the Judge, scores points. Each player scores 1 point for each card that matched the Judge's ranking. The player with the highest number of matches in this round receives 1 extra point. If multiple players tie with the highest number of matches, they all receive the bonus point. Points are recorded on the Scoreboard, with each player moving their Meeple one space per point received during the round. After scoring, the player to the left of the Judge becomes the new Judge, all cards used in this round are discarded, and a new round begins.

Actions and How to Play

Refer to the manual for details on this section.

End of Game and Scoring

The game ends after all players have been the Judge once. The player with the most points is the winner of the game. In case of a tie, the player who scored the most points in a single scoring round is the winner. If there is still a tie, the players share the victory.

Tips for Winning

• When being the Judge, decide the ranking of the cards by arranging your Ranking Cards in your hands first and then placing them on the table from left to right, to prevent other players from understanding the order prematurely.
• When guessing, try to understand the Judge's personal logic for the ranking, as the order is based on their opinion.