GAMEPLAY

OBJECTIVE

In every gameplay option, players use lyric cards to create a song verse. Each player will use four What’s Your Verse? cards to craft their four-lyric verse. The player who writes the best song verse wins the round. Gameplay can proceed in different ways, but in each case the objective is the same... create the best verse!

OPTION 1

Before you begin, each player receives one What’s Your Verse? WILDCARD to be used at some point during gameplay.

Choose the first dealer of the night. Deal 6 cards to each player. Look at your cards and go to work crafting a song verse using four of the cards. When everyone is ready, discard two cards and draw two cards from the What's Your Verse? deck. After reconsidering your verse, once again discard two cards and receive two cards. You should always have six cards in your hand. You have 3 minutes to finalize your verse. Discard the two cards you are not using, place face-down your four remaining cards in the order of the verse. Then each player sings, well, at least dramatically reads, their verse flipping over each card as they perform. After listening to all verses, the group decides the best verse, either by consensus or vote; in a tie, the dealer decides. You may ask for all players, or just some players, to perform their verse again to help decide. The winner gets one point. Cards are collected and reshuffled when needed. The next dealer is the player to the left. The game ends when a player collects the predetermined number of points; pick a number based on group pace and available time.

WILDCARDS

Each player receives one WILDCARD. During any round a player can replace one of their cards with a WILDCARD. The player must write their own lyric on the card prior to players sharing their verse. If a player uses their WILDCARD and wins the round they receive a new WILDCARD. (A player can only earn one extra WILDCARD).

GAMEPLAY NOTES

The What’s Your Verse? cards do not have any punctuation, this is intentional. Each player can sing/recite the line imagining where they need a punctuation and each line could be a statement, a question, or an exclamation.

Players may use the following conjunctions at the beginning of a lyric to connect one lyric to the next:

and if since

because just so

but or though

Pronouns can be changed in three ways:

The gender of a pronoun can be changed - for example, “There was no telling her to stay” could be changed to “There was no telling him to stay.”
He/she and him/her can be changed to you/your and vice-versa to make a verse consistent.
Pronouns can be changed between singular and plural - for example, “He was running wild and free” can be changed to, “They were running wild and free.”

COMMERCIAL BREAK CARDS

In between each round a COMMERCIAL BREAK card is flipped over for all players to see. These cards are discussion cards; there are no right answers, just fun conversations!

"COMMERCIAL BREAK" can be used in any version of gameplay, or left out if you are having too much fun creating verses!

OPTION 2

Each player receives four What's Your Verse? cards. The remaining cards are placed in a stack in the middle of the table. The top card is flipped and placed next to the stack of cards - a discard pile. Play begins with the first player to the left of the dealer. Each player can pick a card from the stack or choose the face-up card from the top of the discard pile. After picking a card, you must place one card in the discard pile, face-up. You should always have only four cards in your hand. Take turns selecting cards until one player calls, “What's Your Verse?” At that point, players continue picking cards until you get back to the dealer, so all players see the same number of cards. You now have 3 minutes to finalize your verse. Each player then sings, well, at least dramatically reads, their four line verse. After listening to all verses, the group decides the best verse, either by consensus or vote; in a tie, the dealer decides. You may ask for all players, or just some players, to perform their verse again to help decide. The winner gets one point. Cards are collected and reshuffled when needed. The next dealer is the player to the left. The game ends when a player collects the predetermined number of points, pick a number based on group pace and available time. No WILDCARDS are used in this version.

OPTION 3

HOUSE RULES!

What's Your Verse? is all about creativity and why would we stop with the rules? There are so many gameplay options we tried. While we love the options presented here the most, we know that you may have even better ideas. So, give them a shot. Try making up your own rules for how you can turn these cards into the most fun game you have ever played.

OPTION 4

TEXAS HOLD'EM STYLE

Just like Texas Hold'em, this version uses community cards! Start with a FLOP... place three What's Your Verse? lyric cards in the middle of the table. Everyone has to use at least one of these lyric cards in their final 4-lyric verse - but you could use two or all three. Deal each player three WYV? lyric cards. After considering your verse possibilities, each player has the opportunity to discard up to all three cards in their hands and get the same number of cards from the deck. Now, with the three cards in your hand and the three community cards, everyone finalizes their 4-lyric verse - remember, you must use at least one of the community cards. Then each player sings, well, at least dramatically reads, their verse flipping over each card as they perform. After listening to all verses, the group decides the best verse, either by consensus or vote; in a tie, the dealer decides. You may ask for all players, or just some players, to perform their verse again to help decide. The winner gets one point. Cards are collected and reshuffled when needed.

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