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This is a guide for how to play the game Hues and Cues.

1. How do I win?
By having the most points at the end of the game.

2. How does the game end?
The game is a set number of rounds, and a round is when each person has been the Clue-Giver. We normally go two rounds, but the official number is higher.

3. How do I get points?
By putting your token close to the color square that the clue giver is getting you to guess. The closer you are, the more points you get. If you are the clue giver you get points for each guess that is close, so you are incentivized to give good clues.

4. How do you give clues?
You draw a card from the draw pile. It has four color with coordinates on the board so you know exactly where it is. Pick one of the colors as yours, and say a one-word clue to describe it (other than a normal color name such as Roy G. Biv). Then once everyone has put in their guess, you get to give a two-word clue to refine the description, and people get to place their second tokens.

5. How do you make guesses?
The board is made of a bunch of different colored squares. You put your token (playing piece) on the square you think best matches the description given. Only one token per square, so if someone before you takes the square you wanted, you are out of luck and must choose a different square.

It’s a fairly easy game, not much to it. It is more of a social game, where the official point of the game is to score points but the unofficial point of the game is for people to interact over the shared task of agreeing what color “fresh salmon” is or what the difference is between “teal” and “aqua” or if “blue-green” is one word.

There, now go play Hues and Cues.

This is a guide for how to play the game Flip 7.

1. How do I win?
By having the most points at the end of all the rounds. Once someone reaches 200 points, the game ends.

2. How do I get points?
By accumulating cards. Each card has a point value, just add them up each round.

3. How do I get cards?
At the start of each round, the dealer gives each person one card. All cards are dealt face up. And then whoever wants another card, the dealer deals another card. You can keep taking cards if you want, or you can stop with what you have and take those points. If you bust, you don’t get any points. If you make a set of 7, then you end the round.

4. How do you bust?
If you get two cards of the same point value, you bust. The higher the point value of the card, the more of them there are in the deck, so the more likely you are to bust. When you bust, you are done for the round and get no points for that round.

5. How do you make a set of 7 cards?
You get a bonus 15 points if you collect 7 cards of different point values. There are regular number cards and special cards, the special cards do not count toward the set of 7, but they can give you points.

It’s a fairly quick game, not much to it. It leans towards the luck side of things, more than skill, but it’s fun nonetheless.

There, now go play Flip 7.

This is a guide for how to play the game Azul.

1. How do I win?
By having the most points at the end of all the rounds.

2. How do I get points?
By placing tiles on The Wall during The Wall Phase. Update your score each round.

3. How do I place tiles?
You place them on The Wall from each line you’ve completed in your Pattern Lines during The Factory phase (or Pattern Line phase).

4. How do you get tiles in your Pattern Lines?
You draw them from the Factory, in turns until all tiles are gone. You draw all tiles of one color from one pile at a time. Fill in your pattern lines, making sure to complete pattern lines during this time so that you can place tiles on The Wall after The Factory phase.

5. How does the game end?
On the round when someone fills one horizontal row with all 5 tiles, that becomes the last round. You do your scoring like normal, and then you add in the bonus scoring to finish.

It took us a round or two for it to make sense. I recommend paying attention to the bonus scoring items so you know what your goals should be.

There, now go play Azul.

Now it is time for another PSALM.

Gamma made this one, like last time. This one was titled “2001 A Space Odyssey” by him. It is supposed to re-create part of the opening sequence of that movie.

Now only 139 more to go.

I’ve written about the game Fluxx before. I decided it needs an update.

I decided that after hearing the news these last few weeks, specifically around what is coming out of the White House, and even more specifically the record number of executive orders that Trump is making.

I’m not going to weigh in on the pros and cons of said executive orders, my only personal opinion on the topic is that I am disappointed he has not issued an executive order reinstating Pluto as a planet.

Anyway, the number of executive orders and the effect they’re having on people and businesses got my attention and reminded me of the game Fluxx, where the rules and the goals keep changing.

I took it upon myself to start making an Executive Order Fluxx game. The Rule cards and Action cards can really stay the same, as the game flow works fine that way. The main change is to the Goal and Keeper cards. The only thing I would add to the Action cards is the Filibuster card.

Here is my initial set of XO Fluxx cards. Print them off and play to your heart’s content. I could have come up with more Goals and Keepers, but with more news being generated every day I had to cut it off at some point.

This is a guide for how to play the game The Chameleon. This game is simple in concept but after playing it I found that it is difficult to play, in that it’s quite nuanced and you need the whole group of people to have the same level of nuance. You can certainly play regardless, but to play correctly takes some practice. Without that, you can still play and it might be funnier than normal, which might be what you’re looking for. There’s a difference between playing a game right and having fun with it. This game isn’t easy to play right but it is easy to have fun with, if any of that made sense.

1. How do I win?
By blending in well with the others.

2. How do I blend in?
By being able to guess the secret word that everyone but you knows.

3. How does everyone else know the secret word if it is secret?
At the beginning of the round, cards are dealt face down so that everyone gets one card. The front of the card has the secret decoder key, except one card. If you get the one blank card then you are the chameleon. Everyone else gets matching decoder keys so they all know to find the word.

4. How do they find the word?
There is one card that goes face up in the middle of the table and that is the word card. There are different word cards, and it lists the theme and then a bunch of words related to that theme. The secret word is one of those words, and the decoder key tells everyone which specific word it is. Your job as chameleon is to guess which word on your turn it is based on the vague clues that everyone else is giving, and you do that by giving your own vague clue so that no one else would know you’re the chameleon.

5. How do I guess the word if I happen to be the first person to give a clue but I’m the chameleon that round?
That’s a tough one – you’ll just have to guess well and give a clue that’s vague enough to cover some of the bases but not so vague that people know that you don’t know the word. At the end of the round people will vote for who they think the chameleon is, but there’s usually a lot of chatter before that and you’ll get a feeling for how well (or how poorly) you’ve done.

We played it and everyone seemed to have fun, even though my poker face is so bad that people knew I was the chameleon as soon as I was dealt my card.

There, now go play The Chameleon.

I was looking at some things at Michigan State University and I noticed that a lot of them looked like they should be in Star Wars.

So I put together this little quiz of silhouettes. Can you tell for each of these if it is from MSU or Star Wars?

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H.

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Answers:
A. MSU – Wilson Hall
B. MSU – Breslin Center
C. MSU – Snyder Hall
D. Star Wars – Destroyer
E. MSU – Weiser Hall
F. MSU – West Fee Hall
G. MSU – Broad Art Museum
H. Star Wars – Death Star