This Family Edition is the first release in the Time's UP versions that is made for the whole family to play! Kids and adults can finally compete together in this edition that uses everyday items as the answers! As usual, our favorite clue giving and charades game builds the laughter and excitement through three hilarious rounds. You have 30 seconds to get your team to guess as many items in the Deck of Stuff as possible. Round 1, say or do anything; Round 2, use just one word; and Round 3, gestures only ... no words allowed! Comes with over 500 unique items, the basic sand timer, PLUS expanded rules that allow for an odd number of players! Also includes a dry erase marker and score sheet right on the box!
Setup of Time’s Up Family:
Divide into teams with team members sitting across from each other. Time’s Up works best when played in teams of two players each. Choose a player to keep score of Time’s Up game.
Decide whether you’ll be using the ORANGE or the BLUE names. Make sure everyone knows which color you’re using! Do not mix colors within the same game.
Deal out 40 cards evenly among all players of Time’s Up Family (for a longer game, deal out more cards). Then deal two more cards to each player. The rest of the deck won’t be used and should be put back in the box.
Each player may look at their cards and discard two of them. All remaining cards are then shuffled together and stacked face down in the center of the table. This stack is the Deck of Fame.
Choose a starting team to take the Deck. The next team clockwise from the starting team takes the timer and will use it to time the other team’s turn.
How to Play Time’s Up:
Round 1: Almost anything goes with cluegiving but passing is not allowed.
On each team’s turn, one member of the team is the Cluegiver and the rest are the Guessers. (On successive turns, the Cluegiver will be a different member of
the team.) The Cluegiver takes the Deck, draws the top card from it, and looks at the word in the color everyone agreed upon at the start.
Once the Cluegiver has looked at the word, the next team says, “Go!” and starts the timer. The Cluegiver begins giving clues to their teammate(s). The Cluegiver can say or do almost anything: they can sing, hum, point, charade, give descriptions of the word, etc.
The only restrictions are:
- No part or variant of the word can be used in the clue. Ex: You can’t use “Willy” or “Bill” to get the Guesser to say WILLIAM.
- “Rhymes with” clues are acceptable, provided the Cluegiver doesn’t actually say the rhyming word. Ex: “Sounds like the animal that oinks” would be OK, but not “Sounds like pig.”
- No spelling of the item is allowed, nor is any clue designed to give away specific letters of the word (the only exception is for items using initials, such as H.G. WELLS, although for such names the cluegiver is still forbidden to say the initials outright).
The Guessers try to guess the word on the Cluegiver’s card. The Guessers can make as many guesses as they wish; there is no penalty for a wrong answer. Guessers on Time’s Up must say the word as printed on the card, although words in parentheses are optional.
If the Guessers call out the correct word, the Cluegiver sets the card aside, draws a new card from the Deck, and begins giving clues for the name on that card. The Cluegiver cannot pass and move on to a new name until the Guessers call out the correct word. If the Cluegiver doesn’t recognize the word drawn, they’ll have to be more resourceful with their clues.
If the Cluegiver gives an illegal clue, their turn ends immediately and the card they goofed on is returned to the Deck.
When time expires, the Cluegiver shuffles the card they were currently working on back into the Deck. Each card of the Time’s Up game that was guessed correctly is put into a score pile near them. Pass the Deck to the next team clockwise, who in turn passes the timer to the next team clockwise from them.
IMPORTANT: If time runs out before a word is guessed, players may NOT discuss the word with each other. The cluegiver can’t reveal what they were trying to convey, and players on other teams who think they figured it out can’t tell their guesses to each other. A card may come up multiple times before it is guessed correctly.
The round ends when all words have been guessed and the Deck is empty. When the deck runs out and all words have been guessed, pause the timer of the Time’s Up game immediately. The current team will take the first turn in the next round, using only the remaining time on the timer. If they feel there is not enough time left to use, they can pass to the next team who will start the round with the timer reset back to 30 seconds.
Each team now adds up all the cards they collected and scores 1 point for each card. The scorekeeper tallies the score. After scoring, each team reads aloud all the words from their pile of cards to refresh everyone’s memory about which words are in the game. (If necessary, check the Glossary for a brief description of any unfamiliar words.) When all words have been read, put all the cards back into the Deck and shuffle well.
Round 2: plays just like Round 1, with the following changes:
The Cluegiver may not use more than one word per card to describe each word.
The same word may be repeated as often as desired, but once a word is said only non-verbal clues may be added. If the Cluegiver accidentally uses more than one word they must set the card aside face down, draw a new one from the Deck, and continue with the new word.
Each team in Time’s Up game may make only 1 guess per card. If the guess is incorrect, the Cluegiver must set that card aside face-down, draw a new one and continue with the new word.
The Cluegiver may pass during this round. To do so, simply say “Pass”, set the card aside face-down, draw a new one from the Deck and continue with the new word. At no point are Guessers ever allowed to Pass.
At the end of the turn, any cards set aside due to passes, clue goofs, or incorrect guesses are shuffled back into the Deck. There is no penalty for such cards.
If a Cluegiver finishes the deck during their turn, their turn is over. They are not allowed to revisit cards that they set aside due to incorrect guesses, passes, etc.
At the end of the round, don’t bother reading all the words aloud again; everyone should know them by now. Tally each team’s score pile then shuffle all the cards back into the Deck again as before.
Round 3 plays just like Round 2, with the following change: The Cluegiver may not use any words at all. Only sounds and pantomime.
OVER 5 MILLION TIME'S UP! SOLD!
Ages 8+ | 3 or more players | Playing time 60 minutes
