How to play, Study notes of Physics

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How to play

Your team’s goal

Turn the red dial as close to the center of the colored target as you can.

Fortunately, one of your teammates is Psychic

and knows exactly where the target is!

They draw a card that has two opposing concepts on it, like “Underrated - Overrated” or “Hot - Cold.” Smells bad Smells good Wet^ Dry Rough^ Smooth

In this example, the target is slightly to the “hot” side, so the Psychic says “Coffee” since coffee is hot, but not the hottest thing imaginable.

The Psychic gives a clue where the target is located

ON THE SPECTRUM between the two concepts

Coffee!^ OVERVIEW Hot Cold

Finally, the Psychic opens the screen to reveal

whether the dial is in the target area

The closer to the center of the target, the more points your team scores! (The other team also gets a chance to score)

OVERVIEW

SETUP

Screen Device

SETUP

Wheel Right Brain scoring token Guessing token for non-Psychic team Left Brain scoring token Dial Target Wavelength cards

PSYCHIC PHASE

Each round begins with the current team’s Psychic spinning the wheel to randomize the target’s location, drawing a wavelength card, and giving a clue ON THE SPECTRUM between the two concepts on the card. The Psychic should do all of this secretly, so players on both teams can’t see where the target is. Here’s the official order the Psychic should go in (it’s a little over-detailed, but in practice it’s easy):

1. Close the screen : Rotate the screen using the plastic handle until it’s entirely closed and clicks into place.
   2. Choose a wavelength : Draw 1 wavelength card from the deck. They’re double sided, and the Psychic can choose the side they want to use for their clue. On most cards there’s a “normal” side and a “weird” side. Don’t think too hard about it: just pick the one you find most interesting! Place the card in the slot in front of the device, with your chosen side facing forward, and read the card text so both teams can hear.
   3. Randomize the target location : Turn the wheel—using your fingers along the wavy edges—until you’re sure that the target is in a completely random position. The plastic screen should be CLOSED while you spin: you can’t keep it open to select the target’s location.

PSYCHIC PHASE

4. Open the screen : Using the plastic handle, open the screen and look at where the target is located. You should always open the screen COMPLETELY, even if you can see the target with it partially open: otherwise, players watching you will be able to guess the general target location. Very infrequently, the target’s center (the 4 point wedge) won’t be visible at all. If that happens, close the screen and spin again. If the center target is ever partially in view on the left or right extreme, that’s valid—even if it’s just a sliver.
5. Give a clue : Look at where the target’s center is located spatially along the visible area of the wheel. Now think of a clue that is conceptually where the target is located ON THE SPECTRUM between the two concepts on your card. Rules for how to give clues can be found later in this book.
   6. Close the screen : Using the plastic handle, close the screen completely. Now turn the box to face your team, so they can interact with the device. Now the Psychic stops communicating ENTIRELY! After the Psychic has given their clue, they are no longer allowed to say ANYTHING—not even clarifications—and must keep an entirely straight face. If a Psychic ever gives away the target location after giving their clue, either verbally or nonverbally, it’s up to everyone playing to decide whether to penalize the team. We tend to just let the Psychic give a new clue with a new card and target location, but we’re generous that way.

TEAM PHASE

LEFT/RIGHT PHASE

In Wavelength, BOTH teams always have a chance to score points from a clue. After the Psychic’s team has finalized their dial position, the other team gets to guess whether the center of the target (the 4 point wedge) is to the left or right of the dial. This discussion should be fairly brief, since it’s a simple binary choice: LEFT or RIGHT. The team makes their guess by placing the marker in either the LEFT or RIGHT slot next to the wavelength card. For example, the image on this page shows the team guessing LEFT, i.e. they think the Psychic meant to convey something MORE HOT than the current team guessed.

Hot Cold

SCORING PHASE

Once both teams have finalized their guesses, it’s time for the most exciting part of the game: THE REVEAL. The Psychic opens the screen to reveal the target. Their team scores points if the dial is within the colored target area, as listed on the colored wedges (2-4 points). If the dial is ever on an edge between two results, the Psychic’s team always scores the better of the two results. The other team scores 1 point if they correctly guessed whether the target is to the left or right of the final dial position. If the Psychic’s team guessed perfectly (the 4 point wedge), the other team cannot score. Move each team’s scoring marker by those amounts. PSYCHIC TEAM Scores the number of points printed on the wedge that the dial is in. Below, the team scores 3 points. OTHER TEAM Scores by guessing if the center of the target is to the left or right of the dial. Below, if the team had guessed LEFT, they would score 1 point.

CLUE GIVING: FIRM RULES

Wavelength is all about wildly creative clues. So we tried to give players as much freedom as possible to do that. These rules are here only to restrict clue giving methods that frequently broke the game—feel free to adapt them to whatever works best for you and your friends. And if you do, please share them with us!

1. Convey a single thought : A clue shouldn’t combine mul- tiple ideas or give a lot of explanatory context. Words like “AND,” “BUT,” “WHILE,” “WHO,” and “WHEN” are some- times OK, but not when they basically combine two clues together. A dead giveaway is a team debating one part of the clue, then debating the other part, and figuring out how to weigh both. EXAMPLE: Safe – Dangerous ALLOWED: “A Honda Accord” or “Texting while driving” NOT ALLOWED: “Texting while driving a Honda Accord” or “Bungee jumping over crocodiles” 2. Don’t “invent” something : The clue must exist as a thing in the universe outside of you giving the clue. It can be fictional, just not something you’re making up exclusively for this situation. EXAMPLE: Masterpiece – Failure ALLOWED: “The Mona Lisa” or “The monkey Jesus fresco” NOT ALLOWED: “A Beatles album performed exclusively by Nicolas Cage” or “A gritty reboot of The Odyssey”

CLUE GIVING

3. Be on topic : Your clue has to be related to the concepts on this round’s card. You aren’t allowed to use one side as a double meaning, e.g. “hot” meaning attractive—though if both words have the same double meaning, like the exam- ples below, you can use those meanings. EXAMPLE: Dirty – Clean ALLOWED: “My bedroom” or “Stand up comedy” or “A cop” NOT ALLOWED: “The speed of light” or “Ennui” 4. Don’t use the words on the card or any synonyms : You can’t use words from the same “family” as those on the card. EXAMPLE: Peaceful – Warlike ALLOWED: “Gandhi” or “America” NOT ALLOWED: “Peace” or “A pacifist” or “Siege warfare” 5. No numbers : You can’t use numbers, percentages, ratios, or anything numeric to sneakily suggest the location of the target. If a number is in the proper name of a thing, that’s OK. EXAMPLE: 80s – 90s ALLOWED: “One by U2” or “Three’s Company” NOT ALLOWED: “1991” or “A B+ grade”

CLUE GIVING

FAQ

If this round’s card is “Sad Song – Happy Song,” can I say “Happy” by Pharrell even though it has a word from the card in the title? Yes, assuming the clue is still on topic, since you’re referenc- ing the name of a thing not the concept. Can I use a pun or play on words? In general, puns nearly always break the “on topic” rule. For example, imagine a wavelength of “Jack of all trades - One trick pony” and the clue being “Ginuwine,” since Ginuwine has a song called “Pony.” That’s kind of clever, but basically cheating. Can I use rhymes, homonyms, and such? No funny business! When the target is in an extreme position to the left or right, we can see a tiny section of colored wedge area on the opposite side of the spectrum as well. Can our team score points if they guess there? Because of the laws of geometry, there wasn’t any way to prevent this from happening. But you should just ignore any visible target area on the opposite side of where the center target (the 4 point wedge) is. That’s the one you’re aiming for.

Clue by @MesaGameLab Soup dumplings Hot Cold Clue by @gemini6ice

EXAMPLES OF REALLY GOOD CLUES (All of these are from players of our daily Twitter challenge @wavelengthdaily)

Daenerys Targaryen Daenerys Targaryen Q-tips Hard to spell Feels bad Easy to spell Feels good