Fragments

by Allan Stagg

1. Fragments from two headlines are presented to players each turn. Players have to identify the year the headline refers to.

2. When a headline is first presented, players are told the number of characters (not including spaces) in the headline, and one in ten of these characters are revealed.

3. For each headline, a player may either make a guess at the date or nominate a character to be revealed, either by position or by letter (e.g. '8th letter' on 'an S'). For one of the headlines a player may, instead of guessing the date or nominating a character, ask for an analysis of the headline. That player will be informed of the number of words in the headline, and the number of letters in each word.

4. In the game report the GM will reveal unsuccessful guesses for each headline, and will disclose another ten percent of the characters in headlines that were in play at the beginning of the turn. The GM will also reveal an incorrect guess at the date of a headline. The GM may also reveal two new headlines.

5. Players who correctly guess the date of a headline will score a number of points that is determined by the number of turns that the headline has been in play. If the date of a headline is guessed after the first turn, the player will score ten points. If it is guessed after the second turn it will score 9 points, reducing to 1 point after ten turns. A headline that is more than ten turns old will always score 1 point.

6. The first player whose score reaches a limit set at the start of the game is the winner. If there is a tie, the player with the highest total score is the winner. If two or more players finish with the same score, the player who made the fewest number of requests for analysis is the winner.

7. Headlines may be straightforward or cryptic. For instance, 'Normans win victory near Hastings' pretty clearly refers to 1066. But so could 'One in the eye for Harold as William wins at Hastings'.