Nebulous Connections

Welcome to SimplyFun's How to Play Nebulous Connections, a game where players make and guess word connections while building vocabulary, spelling, and language skills.

You can play Nebulous Connections with two to five players, ages eight and up.

Players make connections between the cards in their hands and the homophones in play, building vocabulary skills. The reveal of each match expands language skills by allowing the discussion of definitions and the context of the word associations.

Additionally, homophones are very tricky words to spell because they are words that sound the same but are spelled differently. By writing words down, some of which are hidden, players can practice their spelling skills.

SETUP
The player reading these rules gets to be the alien for the first round. The other players will be humans. Humans all sit on one side of the table while the alien sits on the opposite side facing them.

These roles will change every round until each player has been the alien once.

Take a handful of signal cards from the box, shuffle them to form the signal card deck, and then deal out six signal cards to each player. Keep these hidden from the other players.

Place the Earth cards and their holder near the alien side of the table. Shuffle them if needed.

Place the Earth card stands side by side in the center of the table. Hold off on placing the Earth cards into the stands until the game starts.

Give all the players a score sheet and a pencil. As the alien, flip your score sheet over to the alien side.

OBJECTIVE
The goal of the game is to get the most points by making recognizable connections. Players get points when another player correctly guesses their intended signal and Earth card connection, and additional points for correctly matching signal and Earth cards played by other players.

The alien role is a little more difficult, so they get extra points for communicating like a local human.

STARTING A ROUND
To start the round, the alien draws six Earth cards and places them into the stands, making sure that as they draw, they can see only one side of each card and the other side is only visible to the humans.

Each Earth card is double-sided with twin homophones, words that sound the same but mean different things, on the front and back.

Human players look at their cards and individually try to find the best match between one of their signal cards and one of the Earth cards.

You want the best connection between words you can find because you will get a point for every other player who guesses the same match you picked. There are no wrong choices, just choices that might be better than others.

Remember that the alien is seeing a different word that sounds the same on the other side, so it will benefit you to keep in mind how they might guess.

Once you have chosen a match, write down the card you've chosen and the Earth card it goes with in the topmost section of the score sheet on the human side. Then place the chosen signal card face down in front of yourself to indicate you are done.

THE ALIEN'S TURN
While the humans are picking words and cards on their side, the alien player is too. The alien sees different words from what human players are seeing, a homophone that sounds similar but has a different meaning.

As the alien, your goal is to match as close as you can to the homophones you cannot see. You will be rewarded if the humans cannot guess that your signal card belongs to an alien. Communicating like a local earns you extra points.

Once you have chosen a match, write the signal card you've chosen and the Earth card it goes with in the topmost section of the alien side of the score sheet. The alien side is found on the backside of the score sheet.

Once everyone has selected a signal card, the alien shuffles their card and all the human cards together, mixes them up, and places them face up where all the players can see.

GUESSING MATCHES
Now all players aim to correctly guess each signal card's intended Earth card.

First, write down each signal card that is not your own. Then in the column next to it, write which Earth card you think it goes with. Humans and aliens have the same goal here.

Note, everyone selected their pairings in secret, so it is possible that multiple signal cards go with the same Earth card.

You may write down the homophone from either side of the Earth card. So long as the word exists on that card, it counts as getting it correct.

When all players have finished making their matches, the humans will take an additional moment to select which signal card they believe was placed by the alien and mark that guess on their sheets.

Once that step is taken, it's time to score.

SCORING
To start scoring, the first human player tells everyone their signal card and which Earth card it's paired with.

Everyone, including the alien, who got the word pairing right raises their hand, and each player with their hand up gets a point. The first human player also counts the number of hands and gets that many points.

The human players each take turns going down the line telling everyone their pairing.

Next, the alien tells everyone their card and their match.

Everyone who got the word pairing right puts their hand up, and each player with their hand up gets a point. The alien player also counts the number of hands and gets that many points.

Lastly, the alien asks who guessed that their card was the alien.

Each human who guessed correctly raises their hand. These players spotted the alien and were unaffected by their charm, so nothing changes.

The players with their hands down just inadvertently met a new friend. Their first act of friendship is allowing the new alien friend to copy their points. The alien asks how many points they earned that round and writes down the same amount in their clone points section.

SPELLING CHALLENGE
After points have been allocated, players get a chance to exchange one of their signal cards for a new one.

The alien asks each human, left to right, if they'd like to do a spelling challenge to exchange one of their signal cards for a new one.

If a player says yes, the alien selects one of the Earth cards and asks the human to spell the word on the side that only the alien can see.

Tip: as the alien, it's best to pick an Earth card that no player selected this round to make it a challenge.

Players may spell the word out loud or use the back of their score paper to spell it out in writing.

If a player gets it right, they may exchange one of their cards, placing it face up in a signal discard pile. Then the alien gives them two more signal cards so they have six cards again.

If a player gets it wrong, they don't exchange cards this round.

For any player who either said no or failed the spelling challenge, the alien gives them only one more signal card so they have six cards again.

Once all the humans have six cards again, the alien also draws back up to six cards in hand.

END OF ROUND
After all players have received new cards, the alien cleans up the center of the table by putting the played signal cards into the signal discard pile and removing the Earth cards from the stands and placing them at the back of the Earth card holder.

Now a new round begins and another player becomes the alien.

Players shift clockwise, bringing their cards and sheet with them, so the previous alien moves to the human side and the human player next in line moves to the other side of the table and becomes the alien.

The new alien draws six new Earth cards from the front of the holder, places them in the stands, and a new round begins.

After all players have gotten to play as the alien for a round, the game is over and the player with the most points from all the rounds is the winner.

SimplyFun's Nebulous Connections is a game of homophones and vocabulary that is out of this world.