Here are the rules:
OBJECTIVE: Three players compete. The object is to gain more time than your opponents, then use that time to earn as many picks as you can inside the Treasure Chamber for a chance to win one of the Three Treasure Chests of Good Fortune, with the Bronze, Silver, or Gold Treasure Chest, all while trying to avoid the wrath of Tiamat.ROUND 1
At the beginning of the game, all 3 players are given 15 seconds for free. To accumulate more time, though, the players must answer questions. A total of 195 seconds are available in the first half of the round, with questions ranging in value from 5 to 25 seconds of time. Questions of the same value are also of the same category, and the more valuable a category is, the fewer questions are in that category. Three questions worth 5 seconds are multiple-choice questions with two possible answers; three 10 seconds, three possible answers; two 15 seconds, four possible answers; two 20 seconds, standard questions with one answer; and one 25 seconds, a two-part question. The highest-valued question of each round is known as the "Grab Bag" question, and has no category attached to it.
Anytime a player answers a question correctly, they will receive that number of seconds, plus a Bonus Question about that answer for 5 additional seconds with no risk.
Any questions answered incorrectly will incur a 5-second penalty. Upon a correct answer, that player gets to choose the next question to be asked.
90-SECOND SHOOTOUTAt the second half of the first round, three sets of questions were played, but there was 30 seconds on the clock for each one. Each of these questions were either true/false or this-or-that. Each set consisted of nine questions, each worth 9 seconds. If the player gets all 9 right, that player earns a 9-second bonus, for a total of 90 seconds.
Once the round is over, the player with the most seconds will win $1,000 in cash. If there is a tie, a tiebreaker question will be asked.
ROUND 2
The second round plays similarly to the first. This time, there are six questions, worth 20, 30, or 50 seconds, but only 3 questions will be asked, one from each level. Again, the 50-second question is a Grab Bag. However, the 20-second and 30-second questions each have different categories. Questions in this round had several correct answers. The player in last place will get to go first by picking a category at the 20-second area. Each player got to give one answer, starting with whoever buzzed in first, after which any player who had answered correctly could try to give answers to any or all remaining parts of the question. A miss at any time cost the player no seconds, but froze him/her out of the rest of the question. Four correct answers are possible in 20-second questions and 30-second questions, seven correct in the 50-second questions.
The player with the most amount of time at the end of this round will move on to the Big Time Warp Showdown, wins $1,500 in cash, and gets a decision to make.
If the round ends in a tie involving the player in 1st place, one 5-second question is asked to break that tie.
The leader then has the opportunity to open one of four treasure chests. One chest contains a prize worth $750-$1000, another chest adds time to the player's score,
one does both, and one is empty. The leader can open one chest at the cost of 20 seconds from his or her score. If he/she refuses, the host can then sweeten the pot by offering cash, making the cost of playing less than the amount of bonus time available (meaning he/she can come out ahead if he/she picks a chest with bonus time), or even reducing 5 treasure chests that contains "Fools Gold" traps in the bonus round, making them 6 instead of 11.
Between 2nd and 3rd place, if the 2nd-place player is ahead by 100 seconds or more, s/he automatically moves on to the Big Time Warp Showdown.
CATCH-UP ROUNDAt this point, the Catch-Up Round is played between 2nd and 3rd place players. The number of chances each player has to catch up depends on how far apart they are in the scores.
- If both players were tied after the second round, both receive 2 chances.
- If the players are within 50 seconds of each other, the 2nd-place player receives 3 chances while the 3rd-place player gets 2.
- If the players are more than 50 seconds apart, the 2nd-place player will have 2 chances to catch up, while the 3rd-place player only gets 1.
Beginning with the player who's behind, the host asks a question. If correct, that player moves into 2nd place by 5 seconds and forces his/her opponent to play.
If not, the scores stay the same. Play continues until one player runs out of chances to catch up, at which point the leader moves on the Big Time Warp Showdown.
After the Catch-Up Round, the lowest-scoring player will be eliminated from the game.
FINAL ROUND: BIG TIME WARP SHOWDOWN
The 2 players who survived Round 2 are now playing the Final Round for a chance to enter the Treasure Chamber, but they have to defeat the defending champion in order to do so. The champion entered the game and gets the combined total of seconds from the 2 challengers.
As before, a series of tossup questions were asked. The object for all three players was to eliminate the opposing player by having their clocks run down to 0, with the champion trying to eliminate both challengers while avoiding losing his/her own seconds. The winner of the second round was given a choice of whether to play against the champion first or allow the runner up to play.
Any correct answer knocked an opponent's time off of their time bank, while any incorrect answer cost a player that time from their own. If the champion lost time, the challenging player kept control until either diminishing the champion's time bank completely or having some seconds from their own time bank lost. Once the latter happened, control passed to the other player. If at any point a challenger ran out of seconds, that player was eliminated from further play and the game continued.
The first 5 questions are worth -30 seconds, the next 4 questions are worth -40 seconds, then the next 3 at -50 seconds, then the next 2 at -75 seconds, and then one question at -150 seconds, with an additional -50 for a new question, to a maximum of -1000 seconds.
If the champion managed to deplete the challengers' time banks, he/she retained the championship and advanced to the Treasure Chamber. If the champion has their time bank depleted, the challenger who took away the last seconds of the champion's time bank became champion.
The winner receives $2,500 in cash, a prize worth $2000-$3000, and advances to the Treasure Chamber Bonus Round.
BONUS ROUND: TREASURE CHAMBER
First of all, the champion will get a chance to use some of that money that they just earned to add more time to the clock or for an additional pick in the Treasure Chamber.
1 second for every $100, and 1 Bonus Pick for every $500.
Now, one of three puzzle themes will be used for the game.
"To Sing the Least"This game will combine the premises of two Tom Kennedy game shows from the 1970s--one true classic ("Name That Tune") and one short-lived gem ("To Say the Least"). You must identify the 20 hit songs below. It won't be that easy, obviously. I have eliminated most of the lyrics and replaced them with dashes. As the game progresses, one fewer word will remain in each song. Song #1 will have twenty words intact, song #2 will have nineteen words intact, on down to only one word intact for song #20. In keeping with the theme, all of these songs were hits in the 1970s and each year will be represented twice. I will give you the year for each song.
"Say That Again?!"If you've played the game Mad Gab before, you're already familiar with the rules to this week's puzzle. Below are 25 nonsense phrases that will actually become familiar names and phrases when sounded out quickly. You'll receive 1 pick for each phrase that you can decipher, for a maximum of 25 picks. The category for each solution is given in parentheses.
"Scrabble Battle!"I'm not handing out any Chuck Bucks this week... but I do have 50 picks up for grabs. For those who have always wanted to appear on the classic 1980s game show "Scrabble", this puzzle is for you. Below are 25 crossword clues, along with the number of blanks that correspond to the number of letters in each solution and one free letter in each solution. All you have to do is come up with the intended answers. As you know, "Scrabble" clues are often misleading, so you'll have to think outside of the box to come up with the right words.
An example clue would be: IT'S THE BEST PLACE TO BUY A LOT -- _ _ _ _ _ _ N
The answer would be AUCTION, as an item sold at an auction is typically called a "lot".
This game will be played in two parts. In part one, I will show you a "letter pool" for each word, which will contain all of the missing correct letters mixed in with three "stoppers" (or letters that don't belong in the word). For each correct answer you identify, you will receive 2 picks. Once half of the time expires, part one will be over. In part two, you will have the opportunity to salvage 1 pick for each word you fail to identify in part one.
In part two, you may now pick letters from the "letter pools" next to each word. Correct letters will drop into place. Incorrect letters are stoppers. If you draw all three stoppers on any one word, you will be locked out of that word and cannot score on it.
--On the 5-letter words (#1-#5), you may draw 3 letters.
--On the 6-letter words (#6-#10), you may draw 4 letters.
--On the 7-letter words (#11-#15), you may draw 5 letters.
--On the 8-letter words (#16-#20), you may draw 6 letters.
--On the 9-letter words (#21-#25), you may draw 7 letters.
You may draw your letters individually or all at once. It may be better to draw your letters all at once since you're up against the clock, but you may play it however you wish. In either case, you get only one guess on each word. Each correct guess is worth one pick.
Once one of the three games are played, the champion will now go into the "Treasure Chamber", where there are now 100 Boxes in there. Here's the lowdown.
11 (or 6) boxes contain "FOOL'S GOLD", meaning that any cash and prizes that you have earned up to that point will be lost forever.
1 (or 6) boxes contain DOUBLE CASH, meaning that the current cash total will be doubled.
2 boxes contain SLICE CASH, meaning that the current cash total is sliced in half.
10 will contain the DULL PRIZE boxes that will contain a prize that is worth less than $100.
3 will contain the TREASURE CHESTS OF GOOD FORTUNE that will contain Bronze ($250,000), Silver ($500,000), and Gold ($1 MILLION).
1 will contain TIAMAT THE CHAOS KARMA DRAGON. She will always be next to the Gold Treasure Chest, and if you find her, you will LOSE EVERYTHING, and the Game is Over.
If you find a box that either contains TIAMAT, a DULL PRIZE, or a TREASURE CHEST OF GOOD FORTUNE, you will then have a decision to make. You can take $2,500 for every pick earned from the Puzzle Game or go for what's inside the Box.
But to make things even more difficult, each box contains a guaranteed cash amount, ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. The player can either keep that cash or trade it for what's inside the box.
Once all picks are used, or if Tiamat or a Treasure Chest of Good Fortune is found, the Bonus Game is over, and the champion will get to come back on the next show to defend the title.
