Bob's Your Uncle: Review

Bob's Your Uncle (Time's Up): Review

Information:

Mechanics: Party, Deduction, Charades
Player Age: 12+ 

Player Count: 4 - 18 Players 

Time to Play: 90Minutes 
Game Designer: Peter Sarrett
Game Artist: John Vetter

Publisher: R and R Games

Year Published: 2018

BGG Weight: 1.22

Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.

WARNING! This game is highly addictive and extremely enjoyable but may also cause frustration, anger, and loss of relationship for the unfortunate.

Objective:

In a team of at least two, you are going to try and be the best team at guessing the words on cards throughout three rounds, and an optional fourth. For the first round, basically anything can be said as a clue other than the actual words on the card. The second round clues will consist of only one word, and for the third round the clues can only be acted out without sound. Throughout all of these rounds, the same 40 cards will be cycled through, so by the third, and possibly fourth, round all players will have jokes and memorable reminders for what answers are in the bunch. This makes it only slightly easier, as soon as speech is taken away it is hilariously harder.

Setup:

- Split into even teams so each team has the same amount of players.
- Decide as a group if you are using the blue side or yellow side of the cards. This is the colour that will be used for the whole game.
- Split 40 cards between all players.
- Deal each player two more cards.
- Each player will now discard two cards (these are normally the hardest cards to guess).
- Create a deck with the 40 remaining cards and choose a team to begin.

How to Play:

To begin a round, one team will have a player start as the clue-giver who will attempt to portray the card to the rest of their team. A sand timer will keep this time relatively short before the unguessed cards are passed along to the next team to be guessed.

Each of the three (maybe four) rounds will continue until all 40 cards have been guessed. This means that the teams will have multiple turns in the same round. When this happens, each turn a team has at guessing, the clue-giver will change. This helps to increase the chance at correctly guessing the card as the previous clue-giver is now a guesser.

The First Round:

To expand more on the introduction, anything is allowed to be spoken as a clue during the first round. The only exception to this is using the text on the card. During this round any amount of clues and guesses are allowed, and whenever a clue is guessed correctly the card will be discarded and that team will score a point. An easy way to keep score is to keep the card in front of the clue-giver to physically represent the point. This first round is the only one where a card cannot be passed if it is not guessed. When moving on to the next round, shuffle all 40 cards back together and start from the team that ended the last round.

The Second Round:

Differing from the first, the second round allows for any amount of cards to be passed/skipped if they’re proving too difficult. Of course, there are also added rules. Only one word is able to be given as the clue and only this word is allowed to be used as the clue, this sounds hard but by this stage there will be earlier hints to build off from the first round. The clue can be changed if the card comes around after skipping others, but only one word can be used for a clue and only one clue per card. Similar to this, only one guess is allowed to be presented. If it is incorrect, the card goes to the back of the deck and the next card is in play.

The Third Round:

The third round is one of the most fun. If you love charades then you will definitely enjoy this round. The third round consists of no talking, only sound affects and acting. Cards can be skipped/passed (if for some reason your team just aren’t getting your awesome clues) and any amount of different clues can be tried for a card.

The Fourth Round (Optional):

The absolute most embarrassing, difficult and enjoyable round of all. For the fourth round, the clue-giver gets to pose it out! Only one clue can be given for each card and no sound or movements are allowed. Firstly, the guessers are told by the clue-giver to close their eyes. Next, the clue-giver strikes a pose to represent the card. They must be frozen in a pose by the time they tell the guessers to open their eyes. Just like the second round, only one guess is allowed per card/pose. If it is incorrect the clue-giver tells them to close their eyes while the card is changed. Hopefully everyone remembers at least some of the cards in the deck by now! 

At the end of all the rounds whichever team has the most points are the winners.

Final Thoughts:

Pros:
- The game allows players to create in-jokes through repetition of words.
- There is an abundance of variability.
- it is fun in both large and smaller groups.
- By the end of the game everyone will know those unfamiliar card topics.

Cons:
- The first round can feel like it goes on too long.
- At first there will be words that players do not know.

'Bob's your Uncle' is a party game that can easily be played with anyone. It creates an abundance of jokes during the first round that helps players to memorise the words for the later rounds. The game does have some small issues such as player competitiveness can increase throughout the game, and also words that are confusing to some players which cannot be skipped in the first round. Thankfully, there is a reference explaining each word and each player discards two cards at the start of the game to hopefully decrease the risk of this happening. Overall, I can happily see myself bringing out this game constantly at family gatherings or with players who are new to the hobby. 'Bob's Your Uncle' has earnt a Go to Golden Game Seal.

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