I still remember the afternoons spent on a hill, looking at the sky while daydreaming: we stretched our hands, imagining ourselves able to grab those clouds of cotton that were flying fast up in the sky.
«Do you wanna play a game? I choose my cloud and I show it to Anna as the others keep their eyes closed. Do not peek, huh?
Anna, you'll have to tell the others what the cloud looks like, but you have to be careful about what you say: if the description is too easy, they'll guess it immediately; however, if no one guesses, I win!
The best thing for you is to make the others guess my cloud with more attempts as possible. So let's try! I have already picked my cloud...»
Components
- 80 Cloud cards
- instructions
Object of the Game
Players alternate in the roles of Lookout, Daydreamer, and Spectators.
All roles have the same goal; they have to catch the largest number of Cloud cards:
The Lookout does it by choosing a Cloud and hoping that no one will recognize it easily;
The Daydreamer does it by the most difficult task; they try to mislead the greatest number of Spectators, except one;
Each Spectator does it by guessing the Cloud chosen by the Daydreamer.
Setup
The player who most recently looked at the sky is the first Daydreamer: they have to take all the Cloud cards and shuffle them to form one deck face-down at the center of the table.
Game Play
Every round is played as follows:
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The Daydreamer draws from the top of the deck a number of cards equal to the number of players, without looking at them
(Exception: they must draw 4 cards in a 3-player game, and 6 in a 4-player game), and then gives these cards to the player on their right, which is the Lookout: he peeks them secretly (no other player has to see them).
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The Lookout observes them carefully, and chooses one specific card.
They put the chosen card on the bottom of the stack, with the other drawn cards on the top (the order of the latter is not important) and returns the stack to the Daydreamer (so the chosen card will be the first visible at the bottom of the stack).
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The Daydreamer picks up the stack, secretly looks only at the card on the bottom, and after observing it carefully, without showing it, invents the "name" of the Cloud depicted.
He must say this name to the benefit of all the other players, which are the Spectators. The "name" describing the Cloud CANNOT be composed of more than five words. It's better to invent a name which is neither too "explicit" nor "impossible" to decipher.
The Daydreamer should do their best to make one of the Spectators guess which cloud was chosen by the Lookout. However, the more Spectators are going to be misled by the name, the better for the Daydreamer, provided that a Spectator manages to guess it!
Once the name has been proclaimed, the Daydreamer shuffles the stack and displays the Cloud cards face-up on the table so that they are all visible.
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Starting with the first Spectator, which is the player on the left of the Daydreamer, and proceeding clockwise, each Spectators plays as follows. They look at the Clouds revealed and indicate one, trying to guess the card related to the "name" invented by the Daydreamer.
If the Daydreamer says the indicated card is NOT the right one, the indicated card is momentarily assigned to the Daydreamer. The turn passes to the next Spectator to the left (proceed clockwise) who can now try to guess, indicating one of the Clouds displayed on the center of the table.
If the Daydreamer says that the card IS the exact one, the Spectator gains the chosen card as well as the others that are still at the center of the table, while the Daydreamer gains all the cards that were momentarily assigned to them. The current round is over.
If none of the Spectators manages to indicate the chosen Cloud, the round is over and the Lookout gains ALL the cards used in this round, including those that were momentarily assigned to the Daydreamer.
Special Rules for 3 or 4 Players:
Spectators have two attempts to indicate the chosen card (in a 4-player game, the two Spectators must alternate before making the second guess). If after the second attempt the chosen card has not been guessed, the Lookout gains ALL the cards.
When the round is over, if there are still enough cards in the deck to create another stack and play a new round, the Lookout passes his role to the player to their right and so does the Daydreamer. Players start a new round following the rules described from point 1.
Example of a round:
Guido, Martino, Giacomo, Gabriele, Livio and Demis, participate to the game and they are so arranged around the table (in clockwise order).
Guido assumes the role of the Daydreamer: draws 6 cards and without looking, gives these cards to Demis, the player on his right that assumes the role of Lookout for this round.
Demis looks at all the 6 cards and chooses one, places it at the bottom of the 6-card stack and gives it back to Guido. Guido looks at the card at the bottom of the stack and invents the name: «Crowning!».
Now Guido shuffles the 6 cards and displays them on table in random order.
Martino is the first player to the left of Guido, therefore the first of the Spectators: he looks at the cards, considers the "name" and the visible Clouds... and chooses a Cloud, pointing to one of the six cards.
Guido informs all players that Martino's choice is not correct, then removes that card from the center of the table and puts it momentarily in front of himself.
It is Giacomo's turn to choose one of the five cards left on the table; unfortunately, even Giacomo indicates a different Cloud. The card chosen by Giacomo is assigned momentarily to Guido.
Now is Gabriele's turn, who indicates again a different Cloud. Guido now has 3 cards assigned to himself.
It's Livio's turn, with only 3 cards remaining on the table: his choice is correct! Guido, in the role of Daydreamer, obtains the 3 cards he was assigned momentarily (3 points will be awarded at the end of the game).
Livio obtains the chosen card and the remaining cards at the center of the table (2) for a total of 3 points.
Demis, in the role of Lookout, is quite unhappy. If Livio had failed, he would have obtained all the 6 cards in play (those on table plus those momentarily assigned to Guido).
Now Demis gives up his role as Lookout to Livio and Guido gives up the role of Daydreamer to Demis. A new round begins and the game continues...
End of the Game
When you are about to start a new round but there are not enough cards in the stack, the game ends immediately.
Each player counts the cards obtained during the whole game: whoever has obtained the most cards is the winner.
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