Round & Revel / Partial-information communication

Two Windows

Two small views must become one clear answer.

3–6 players in three teams of 1–2; no permanent hostEstimated 20–30 minutes; not live-playtested.

Original authored print-and-play game. Time is a planning estimate; this edition has not had a live group playtest.

Good for: A quieter game night for people who like careful clues and shared deductions.

What you need

One public catalogue, enlarged or copied for comfortable reading
All 18 matched pairs of private reports; cut apart and sort into packets
Covered answer guide, scrap paper and pens
Six small envelopes or folded covers for the selected packets

How to play

Three teams, one outcome

Form exactly three teams, as evenly as possible, and name them Oak, Pine and Reed. With three players, each is a team of one. Your teams cooperate and share every point. Choose six different numbered packets without studying their reports or answers. Keep each A/B pair together. Leave the public catalogue visible. All eight descriptive words are literal printed categories; ordinary assumptions about what a fictional name looks like never supply evidence.

Rotate the windows

Play six rounds. In round one, Oak decodes, Pine holds A and Reed holds B. Rotate these jobs clockwise after every round, so each team decodes twice and holds each report twice. In a pair, alternate the spokesperson each time your team receives the same job. The two informant teams privately read their own reports. A report gives two truthful attributes of the same target. Neither may inspect the other report. The decoder sees neither.

Choose a first transmission

Each informant quietly chooses one of its two printed facts. Write that fact, including its field name, on a slip. Lock both slips before revealing either. Send only the exact field and value, such as FORM ROUND. Do not add a candidate name, emphasis, explanation, signal, or comment about the unused fact. Informants may inspect the catalogue and reason about which fact seems useful, but cannot coordinate with the other informant before locking.

Decode or request the second view

Reveal both slips together. The decoder may discuss within its own team, mark candidates and ask for a transmission to be repeated exactly. Informants stay neutral. The decoder now chooses either a FINAL answer naming one catalogue entry, or MORE. A first-stage correct FINAL earns 2 shared points; a wrong FINAL earns 0 and ends the round. There is no free exploratory guess. MORE asks both informants to reveal their remaining printed fact, with no substitutions. The decoder then makes one final answer for 1 point if correct, otherwise 0.

What the evidence guarantees

Both facts from both reports together identify exactly one catalogue entry. A first pair of transmissions may leave several possible entries. The decoder is allowed to take a chance, but is never required to claim certainty. An informant must send the fact it actually selected, even after seeing that the other signal would have made its unused fact more helpful. Colour, physical resemblance, alphabetical order and packet numbers have no evidential meaning.

Check after commitment

Write the chosen name and stage before opening only the matching answer. Check the name rather than the spelling: a clear spoken name or pointing to one catalogue entry is sufficient. Reveal both reports after scoring and talk about the choice of first facts. Keep answer pages covered between rounds. A player who already knows a selected target should say so before reports are dealt; replace that packet. Never award speed bonuses.

Exposure and access

If a report is accidentally exposed before the first reveal, replace the packet without scoring. If an unused fact is exposed after the first reveal, advance to the second stage and its 1-point maximum. An accidentally exposed answer requires a replacement packet. Read public material aloud and enlarge the catalogue as needed. An informant may dictate privately to a teammate or a neutral scribe; writing speed has no role. Use as much discussion time as the decoder needs.

Finish and replay

After six rounds, add the shared score out of 12. There are no individual winners or tie-breakers. Keep played packet numbers on a record so a later session can use six different pairs. The 18 packets provide three non-overlapping standard sessions, although some targets recur with different divisions of information. A known catalogue is useful; remembering a particular packet’s answer is not the intended challenge.

A worked example

A separate four-entry practice catalogue works like this: Acorn and Brook are ROUND and SMALL; Cloud and Drift are SQUARE and LARGE. Acorn and Cloud are PLAIN and SMOOTH; Brook and Drift are STRIPED and NOTCHED. Practice report A says FORM ROUND and SIZE SMALL. Practice report B says SURFACE STRIPED and EDGE NOTCHED. Sending FORM ROUND and SURFACE STRIPED identifies Brook at the first stage, worth 2 points. Requesting the remaining facts before answering would reduce a correct result to 1 point. These four practice entries are not in the scored catalogue.

Printable materials

Print the public catalogue openly. Cut reports apart, match their packet numbers and fold the faces inward before play. A and B must remain separate from their decoder. Keep the answer guide in a separate covered pile.

TW-CAT

Public catalogue

Alder: FORM ROUND, SIZE SMALL, SURFACE STRIPED, EDGE NOTCHED | Birch: FORM ROUND, SIZE SMALL, SURFACE PLAIN, EDGE SMOOTH | Cedar: FORM SQUARE, SIZE SMALL, SURFACE STRIPED, EDGE NOTCHED | Dahlia: FORM ROUND, SIZE LARGE, SURFACE PLAIN, EDGE SMOOTH | Elm: FORM SQUARE, SIZE LARGE, SURFACE STRIPED, EDGE NOTCHED | Fern: FORM SQUARE, SIZE LARGE, SURFACE PLAIN, EDGE NOTCHED | Gorse: FORM ROUND, SIZE SMALL, SURFACE STRIPED, EDGE SMOOTH | Hazel: FORM ROUND, SIZE SMALL, SURFACE PLAIN, EDGE NOTCHED

TW01-A

Packet 01 / report A

PRIVATE REPORT A. The target has both of these facts: FORM ROUND; SIZE SMALL. First transmission: choose exactly one of these two facts. Second transmission, if requested: send the other fact. Do not show this card.

TW01-B

Packet 01 / report B

PRIVATE REPORT B. The target has both of these facts: SURFACE STRIPED; EDGE NOTCHED. First transmission: choose exactly one of these two facts. Second transmission, if requested: send the other fact. Do not show this card.

TW02-A

Packet 02 / report A

PRIVATE REPORT A. The target has both of these facts: FORM ROUND; SURFACE STRIPED. First transmission: choose exactly one of these two facts. Second transmission, if requested: send the other fact. Do not show this card.

TW02-B

Packet 02 / report B

PRIVATE REPORT B. The target has both of these facts: SIZE SMALL; EDGE NOTCHED. First transmission: choose exactly one of these two facts. Second transmission, if requested: send the other fact. Do not show this card.

TW03-A

Packet 03 / report A

PRIVATE REPORT A. The target has both of these facts: FORM ROUND; EDGE NOTCHED. First transmission: choose exactly one of these two facts. Second transmission, if requested: send the other fact. Do not show this card.

TW03-B

Packet 03 / report B

PRIVATE REPORT B. The target has both of these facts: SIZE SMALL; SURFACE STRIPED. First transmission: choose exactly one of these two facts. Second transmission, if requested: send the other fact. Do not show this card.

TW04-A

Packet 04 / report A

TW04-B

Packet 04 / report B

PRIVATE REPORT B. The target has both of these facts: SURFACE PLAIN; EDGE SMOOTH. First transmission: choose exactly one of these two facts. Second transmission, if requested: send the other fact. Do not show this card.

TW05-A

Packet 05 / report A

PRIVATE REPORT A. The target has both of these facts: FORM ROUND; SURFACE PLAIN. First transmission: choose exactly one of these two facts. Second transmission, if requested: send the other fact. Do not show this card.

TW05-B

Packet 05 / report B

PRIVATE REPORT B. The target has both of these facts: SIZE SMALL; EDGE SMOOTH. First transmission: choose exactly one of these two facts. Second transmission, if requested: send the other fact. Do not show this card.

TW06-A

Packet 06 / report A

PRIVATE REPORT A. The target has both of these facts: FORM ROUND; EDGE SMOOTH. First transmission: choose exactly one of these two facts. Second transmission, if requested: send the other fact. Do not show this card.

TW06-B

Packet 06 / report B

PRIVATE REPORT B. The target has both of these facts: SIZE SMALL; SURFACE PLAIN. First transmission: choose exactly one of these two facts. Second transmission, if requested: send the other fact. Do not show this card.

TW07-A

Packet 07 / report A

PRIVATE REPORT A. The target has both of these facts: FORM SQUARE; SURFACE STRIPED. First transmission: choose exactly one of these two facts. Second transmission, if requested: send the other fact. Do not show this card.

TW07-B

Packet 07 / report B

TW08-A

Packet 08 / report A

PRIVATE REPORT A. The target has both of these facts: FORM SQUARE; EDGE NOTCHED. First transmission: choose exactly one of these two facts. Second transmission, if requested: send the other fact. Do not show this card.

TW08-B

Packet 08 / report B

TW09-A

Packet 09 / report A

TW09-B

Packet 09 / report B

PRIVATE REPORT B. The target has both of these facts: SIZE LARGE; SURFACE PLAIN. First transmission: choose exactly one of these two facts. Second transmission, if requested: send the other fact. Do not show this card.

TW10-A

Packet 10 / report A

PRIVATE REPORT A. The target has both of these facts: FORM SQUARE; SIZE LARGE. First transmission: choose exactly one of these two facts. Second transmission, if requested: send the other fact. Do not show this card.

TW10-B

Packet 10 / report B

TW11-A

Packet 11 / report A

TW11-B

Packet 11 / report B

PRIVATE REPORT B. The target has both of these facts: SIZE LARGE; EDGE NOTCHED. First transmission: choose exactly one of these two facts. Second transmission, if requested: send the other fact. Do not show this card.

TW12-A

Packet 12 / report A

TW12-B

Packet 12 / report B

PRIVATE REPORT B. The target has both of these facts: SURFACE PLAIN; EDGE NOTCHED. First transmission: choose exactly one of these two facts. Second transmission, if requested: send the other fact. Do not show this card.

TW13-A

Packet 13 / report A

TW13-B

Packet 13 / report B

TW14-A

Packet 14 / report A

TW14-B

Packet 14 / report B

TW15-A

Packet 15 / report A

TW15-B

Packet 15 / report B

TW16-A

Packet 16 / report A

TW16-B

Packet 16 / report B

TW17-A

Packet 17 / report A

TW17-B

Packet 17 / report B

TW18-A

Packet 18 / report A

TW18-B

Packet 18 / report B

Host material: Open the separate Two Windows answer notes. Contains solutions. Keep this guide away from players.

Round & Revel. First edition, October 2026. Uses only the listed printable materials and ordinary supplies.