Honor System

Mystery date

A game for 2, 3, or 4 girls

Here is a game full of surprises, where the players are preparing to go on a “MYSTERY DATE”. It may be a FORMAL DANCE, a SKIING TRIP, BOWLING or a BEACH PARTY. They must be “READY” when their DATE arrives at the door. The thrill of it is that when a player opens the DOOR, she never knows which DATE will appear. She may be ready for SKIING only to find, upon opening the DOOR, the DATE is dressed in a “tux” ready to go to a FORMAL DANCE. Worst of all, she may open the door to find the “DUD” and lose valuable time in getting rid of him. The first girl to open the door and find the proper “DATE” for which she is “READY”, is the lucky winner.

THE OBJECT OF THE GAME is for a player to select cards so as to be READY for a DATE that appears when she OPENS THE DOOR.

EQUIPMENT

1. The BOARD — The playing spaces, arranged around the outside edge of the board, contain messages instructing the player how to proceed.

The MYSTERY DOOR is attached to the center of the BOARD. The knob opens the door to reveal one of the four DATES, or the DUD. They are as follows:

FORMAL DANCE DATE is dressed in a tuxedo and holding a corsage box.

BOWLING DATE is dressed in a jacket and red sweater, and carrying his bowling bag.

BEACH DATE is dressed in a blue sport shirt and trunks and carries a beach umbrella, towel and picnic cooler.

SKIING DATE is dressed in skiing outfit and carries his skiis and poles.

THE PEST is dressed so shabbily that no one will go on a date with him!

2. The CARDS — There are 48 “OUTFIT” cards of 4 colors, equally divided, (red, green, blue and orange) and numbered as l’s, 2’s, and 3’s. They picture the proper outfits needed by the player for the 4 different DATES in the game.

A player is “READY” for the “Formal Dance Date” if she holds the 1, 2, and 3 RED cards; the 1, 2 and 3 GREEN cards go with the “Bowling Date”; the 1, 2 and 3 BLUE cards go with the “Skiing Date”; and the 1, 2 and 3 ORANGE cards are needed for the “Beach Date.”

3. There are four "GIRL" playing pieces on plastic stands, in four different colored housecoats.

4. There is 1 die (dice) which governs the moves of the players.

Rules

1.One player shuffles the cards and deals TWO, one at a time, to each player. The remaining cards are placed, face-down, on the board at one side of the DOOR to be used as a DRAW PILE. The top card of this Draw Pile is placed, face-up, at the other side of the DOOR, becoming the DISCARD PILE.

2. Each player chooses a “Girl” playing piece and places it on the board in a BLUE “OPEN THE DOOR” CORNER space nearest her TO START.

3. They take turns, starting to the left of the dealer. Each player, in turn, throws the die and moves her playing piece, CLOCKWISE, around the board from space to space according to the number thrown. For example, if a player throws a “3”, she moves her playing piece 3 spaces. Two or more pieces may stop on the same space. Players ALWAYS MOVE CLOCKWISE AROUND THE BOARD.

4. Each space a player STOPS ON gives her instructions as follows:

A. In the “TAKE” spaces, the player takes the cards as directed, from the top of the pile, and adds them to her hand — UNTIL SHE HOLDS SIX CARDS. Whenever the “TAKE” cards bring her hand to OVER SIX, she MUST discard enough cards to bring her hand back to six. These cards are placed face-up on the DISCARD PILE.

For example: if the player has 5 cards in her hand, and lands on the “Take 2 Cards from. Draw Pile” space, she must draw 2 cards from the top of the Draw Pile and then discard one card OF HER CHOICE, leaving her hand with 6 cards at the end of the turn.

B. In the “SWAP” spaces, the player swaps a card, as directed (with player to “right”, “left” or “any player”). To SWAP, the player FIRST places ANY card she chooses from her hand, facedown, in front of the player she is to swap with. Then she draws one card from this opponent’s hand who must hold her cards with their backs to her so she cannot see which card she is drawing. The player must add this card to her hand, while the OPPONENT adds the “face-down” card to her hand.

C. In the “TAKE 1 CARD FROM EITHER DRAW OR DISCARD PILE” spaces, the player has a choice. If the player chooses, she may take the top card from the DISCARD PILE, knowing the card, or draw the card from the DRAW PILE.

5. Whenever the DISCARD PILE is used up, take the top card from DRAW PILE to start a new one. When the DRAW PILE is used up, shuffle the discards (leaving the top card) to start a new DRAW PILE.

6. When a player stops on an “OPEN THE DOOR” space and she has a complete outfit for a “Date” (that is, the 1, 2 and 3 cards of ANY ONE COLOR), she is "READY” and opens the door. But if she does NOT have a complete 3-card outfit of one color, she does NOTHING in that turn.

7. TO OPEN THE DOOR, a player must show her 3-card outfit to the opponents. Then she makes sure the door is COMPLETELY CLOSED. She then TURNS or SPINS the door knob and SLOWLY opens the door wide to disclose which “DATE” has arrived.

8. If the “Date” that appears at the opened DOOR is NOT the correct one to go with the 3 “outfit” cards shown, the player must close the DOOR and her turn ends. The player should close the door COMPLETELY then SPIN THE KNOB so as to make it impossible for the following player to know which date will appear next.

9. If a player opening the door finds the “DUD”, she must discard the 3-outfit cards she has shown onto the Discard Pile and immediately draw 3 more cards from the Draw Pile to end her turn.

Note: It is possible that a player might be READY for two “Dates” at the same time. For example, she might be holding the 1, 2 and 3 GREEN cards and the 1, 2 and 3 BLUE cards. In this case she must choose which of the “Dates” she wishes to find and place these 3 cards face up on the table. The other 3-card sequence she holds in her hand for future play.

10. Players continue to move around the board (clockwise), taking, swapping, discarding and opening the door according to the rules until one is the winner.

11. When a player opens the door and finds the “Date” for which she is READY (showing 1, 2 and 3 cards of the same color which apply to this date), she has WON THE GAME.

Milton Bradley Company
Springfield, Massachusetts
makers of the Worlds Best Games

Made in U.S.A.