Hear Me Out

Today's game is one of my favorite family games. It's called Hear Me Out. The instructions say it's appropriate for ages 18, 21, 29-35 and 38-65. Haha! I love it when game instructions have a sense of humor. I do think this can be played with younger kids, but they may not know what some of the topics are. You can easily come up with your own topics for certain categories.

The Point:
You want to be the one to score the most points.

Gameplay:

First of all, everyone grabs a pad and pencil. Choose a playing piece and its matching scoring meter. All players will begin the game with 10 points, so rotate your scoring meter so that the number 10 shows through the hole. Don't forget, your score can never be less than zero!

Start by rolling the dice and moving that amount of spaces. The person whose turn it is will be called "The Voice". All other players are referred to as "The Ears".

This space is the water cooler space. Everybody is going to start here. When you pass the water cooler, add five points to your scoring meter and take a drink. Yes, an actual drink. If you don't have a drink, go get one. If you land directly on the water cooler, collect 10 points.

When you land on The White House, "The Voice" takes two points from every other player. (You are taxing "The Ears".

When you land on Party Change, you must change identities and places with another player of your choice. That means your colors are switched, you exchange seats, scoring meters, cards, and all points!

When you've completed the switch, the player now seated on the left of The Voice will go.

If you land on The Out House, your turn is over. You're busy.

At the beginning of your next turn, you can try to get out by forfeiting 10 points or rolling a 7, 11 or doubles. Beware, if you roll anything else you actually lose a point.

If you land on Skid Row you lose all your points. Set your scoring meter back to zero and you may now beg other players to donate some of their points to you! There is no obligation but they can donate points if they feel persuaded.

If you land on Stock Market, you must roll again. If you roll a 7, 11 or doubles, you lose half your points. If you roll any other number, add that many points to your score. You can actually stay in the Stock Market as many turns in a row as you want, rolling the dice once per turn.

 If you land on a Brainstorm card, draw one of the "Hear Me Out" cards. You're going to read the topic out loud and all players write down as many things as they can that go with that topic. When the timer runs out, The Voice reads his list out loud. When The Voice and The Ears have a matching response, they each get one point. 

When you land on Survey Says, draw a card. Read the topic to the group. All players have 45 seconds (the timer) to write down 3 responses. The Voice is trying to predict what The Ears will come up with. When time is up, The Voice reads his responses to The Ears. Again, one point is received to both The Voice and The Ears when they match.

 When you land on Sound bite, draw a card. Read the topic to the group. The Voice now has to speak for 45 seconds on the top and is scored by other players on sheets from the voting pad.

Scoring should be based on the quality of the argument, the style of presentation, and persuasiveness. 1 point would be weak, 2 would be average, and 3 is outstanding.

To vote, you write the COLOR of The Voice on a piece of paper, write down the score, and place the secret ballot into the ballot box. Secret ballots are tallied at the very end of the game.

 If you land on a DRAW space, draw a DRAW card and read it to yourself first. Some are secret, but some say not to show this card to anyone. Follow the instructions on the card.

How to win:
At the beginning of any turn, you may choose to call for a vote to see who the winner of the game is. You must have at least 30 points on your meter for a 2-player game, 40 points for a 3-4 player game, and 50 points for a 5-6 player game.

Tally all the points from the ballot box and award them to the person with that color playing piece. The person with the highest points wins.

Just because you have enough points on your meter to call for a vote doesn't mean you have enough points on the secret ballots to win!

Verdict:
This is such a funny game. The Sound Bite cards are hilarious!

Great for Learning:
Quick thinking, brainstorming skills, public speaking, persuasion, debate