Overview

Breadcrumbs is a clue-giving game where the Cluegiver describes a Secret Phrase, but doesn't want everyone to guess it right.

Gameplay

1. The Cluegiver gets a Secret Phrase to describe and a target number showing exactly how many Guessers they need to get it right in order to score.
2. The Cluegiver gives up to 5 clues, one at a time.
3. Each Guesser gets one guess, which they can make after any of the five clues.
4. Correct Guessers score more for guessing sooner than the other players.
5. Keep giving clues until every Guesser has guessed. Anyone still waiting after the fifth clue must guess then.

Clue Rules

Clues can be almost anything: words, names, phrases, descriptions, or personal references.

Each clue must be truthful and add new information about the Secret Phrase.

Clues cannot:

• Be false
• Repeat an earlier clue
• Be so vague that they give no real information, such as "it's a thing"
• Be a broad negative, such as "it's not a shoe"

Scoring

Cluegiver:

• Exactly the required number of Guessers got it right: 3 points
• Too few or too many Guessers got it right: 0 points
• No Guessers got it right: -1 point

Scores can go below zero on BGA. In the box version you can't lose a token you don't have, which means an early Cluegiver with no points yet can never be penalised, while a later one can. Allowing negative scores applies the penalty equally, whatever the turn order.

Guessers:

• First correct guess: 3 points
• Second correct guess: 2 points
• Other correct guesses: 1 point
• Wrong guess: 0 points

End of Game

Each player takes one turn as Cluegiver, except in a 3-player game where each player takes two turns as Cluegiver.

After the final round, the player with the most points wins.

This differs from the box version, which is played to 10 points. Here the game lasts a fixed number of rounds so that everyone gets a turn as Cluegiver.