Once you have a poet the timer is turned and they the poet starts giving clues to their team. The catch being that you can only use one syllable words - you are a cave person after all! If you use a word of more than one syllable the other teams can club you with the inflatable ‘NO’ club and you will lose points. You are allowed to say correct words once your team has said them though. So if the clue was sore eye and your team said ‘eye’ you could then start saying it too.

Year: 2020 | Publisher: Asmodee, Exploding Kittens | Designer: Elan Lee | Artist: Matthew Inman, Elan Lee During each round the Poet and Guesser try to score as many points as they can. At the end of the round you will add up the total number of points that the Poet and Guesser earned. These points will be added to the both players’ (Poet and Guesser) past scoring totals. While the Poet is describing the word/phrase with one syllable words, one of their opponents sitting next to them is in charge of making sure that they aren’t breaking any of the rules listed above. Should you successfully get your teammates to guess the three point word, you will place the card on the corresponding section of the Poet Point Slate. The Poet got their teammates to guess the three point word. They will place the card in the three point section of the Poet Point Slate. The final issue – though it’s unlikely to come up for me, since I tend to play with the same people – is that experience is a huge advantage. As soon as you know the three-point phrase for each clue, you can leap right there, freeing up precious time to grab more cards and more points before the timer runs out.The Poet chooses which side of the Poetry Cards all players will read from (gray or orange) for the whole game. Each team will add up the points earned from the cards placed on the three sections of their team’s side of the Team Point Slate. The team that scores the most points wins Poetry for Neanderthals. At the end of the game these are the cards that each team scored. Team Mad scored nine points from their three point cards, four points from their one point cards, and negative three points from the negative one point cards. They scored a total of ten points in the game. Team Glad scored twelve points from their three point cards, four points from their one point cards, and negative three points from their negative one point cards. They scored thirteen points. As Team Glad scored more points, they have won the game. Grok’s Words of Love and Sad If there are only two or three players you will have to slightly tweak some of the Poetry for Neanderthals rules to play the game. Two Players Divide the players into two teams (Team Glad and Team Mad). You should divide the players as equally as possible. If there is an odd number of players, the extra player becomes the judge for the game. If the Poet thinks that they were penalized incorrectly, they will shout out “Wait!”. The timer is set down on its side to temporarily stop it. All of the players will then decide as a group whether the punishment is valid for what happened in the game. The players will deal with the Poetry Card in a way agreed to by the players.

You can immediately go for the three point phrase and ignore giving clues for the one point word. If your teammates end up providing the one point answer, you can tell them that they guessed the right word for one point. You can then use the one point word as part of the clue for the three point phrase. Skipping A Card Now you may be wondering why we’re covering this, as it’s a physical card game. The reason, at least for me, is that this is a physical card game that is made possible only by the online connectivity of videoconferencing during the pandemic. While we’re tired of video calls on Zoom and other platforms, they’re a lifeline that is preserving our social lives and mental health during a very tough time. I have some friends who don’t like games much. They think it’s dull, or takes too long – but last week, for the first time, they asked to play one: Poetry for Neanderthals. If the Poet feels they were penalized incorrectly, they shout "WAIT!" and turn the timer on its side. Decide as a group if the challenge is valid. Then decide as a group what to do with the Poetry Card in question.They were hoarding” the prototypes, Lee said. “The videos showed them laughing hysterically. I wouldn’t go all the way to say this is an essential service, but here we are giving them a toolset to hang out, and to laugh, and enjoy themselves — all the things that are so hard to do during quarantine.” Once the Poet starts describing the word/phrase, their teammates can start yelling out answers. There is no penalty for incorrect guesses, so you should try to yell out as many answers as possible. The words/phrases can be multiple syllables, so there is no punishment if a teammate says a multi-syllable word.