Pointing Fingers Board Game: Rules for How to Play

Objective

The objective of Pointing Fingers is to be the first player to score 21 points by correctly guessing who did some wacky and outrageous things.

Set Up

If the game has never been played before, you will have to assemble the Truth Meter boards.
Shuffle all of the cards.
Each player takes a Truth Meter and a foam finger.
All of the players will turn the finger on their Truth Meter to “No! Never!” and the number at the top to 0.
Whoever is the most outrageous becomes the first reader.

How to Play Pointing Fingers

Each turn starts with the current reader drawing one of the cards. There are two different types of cards in Pointing Fingers. Have You Ever cards are about things that players have done in the past. Would You Ever cards are about things that the players may want to do.

The reader reads through the three questions printed on the card. They will choose one of the three questions to use for the current turn. If the chosen question has a blank on it, the reader can fill in the blank with whatever they want when they read off the question. When the reader reads off the question they need to make sure they say “Have your ever” or “Would you ever” depending on what type of card they have.

Pointing Fingers Card — For the current round, this card was chosen. The current player chooses one of these three questions about things players have done in the past. If the player chooses the middle question, they will decide what to fill in the blank with.

Each player then considers the question they were asked. They will secretly turn the finger on their Truth Meter to the response that fits their answer to the question that was asked. Players need to be honest when they choose their response.

Choosing your answer on your Truth Meter — For this round the player chose the question: Spent all day playing video games? This player decides to choose sometimes on their Truth Meter.

Voting For the Most Likely Player

Once everyone has chosen their answer, the players count down from 3. All of the players then point their foam finger towards the player that they think was most likely to pick the answer “Yes! Always” on their Truth Meter. You cannot point at yourself.

Pointing the foam finger — Each player will point their foam finger at the player that they is most likely to answer “Yes! Always.”

The players will count up how many people pointed at each player. The player that received the most votes reveals their Truth Meter to the rest of the players. If there is a tie, the youngest tied player reveals their Truth Meter.

Players that pointed at the player that got the most votes will score points based on what the player chose on their Truth Meter. See the Scoring section below for more details.

After you have scored the player that received the most votes, you will move to the player on their left. Each player that received at least one vote reveals their Truth Meter. The players that voted for them score points in the same way as the player that received the most votes.

Scoring

When a player reveals their Truth Meter to the other players, you will look at what response they pointed the finger on their Truth Meter towards. All of the players that pointed towards the player scores points based on the response that the player chose.

No! Never – 0 points
Once – 1 point
Sometimes – 2 points
Yes! Always – 3 points

To record points that you score, you will turn the dial on your own Truth Meter counter-clockwise the corresponding number of spaces.

Scoring one of the player's answers — The player on the left got the most votes so they reveal their Truth Meter. They picked sometimes (2). The player on the right pointed at the left player so they score two points.

End of Round

Once all of the players that had at least one player point at them are scored, the round ends. Place the card used this round face up in a pile.

The player to the left of the previous reader becomes the reader for the next round. They will draw a new card and play the next round in the same way as the previous round.

Winning Pointing Fingers

You will keep playing until one of the players reaches 21 or more points. The first player to score 21 points wins the game.

If there is a tie, all of the other players will count down from three. They will then point at the tied player that they think should win the game. The player with the most players pointing at them wins the game.

Variant Games

If you want to change up the gameplay you can choose to use some of these variant rules.

Sneaky Pete

Should no one point at you during a round, you will score points equal to the response that you pointed your own dial at.

Shoot the Mooner

You can only use this variant if there are five or six players.

Should all of the players (except the player themselves) point at one player, that player receives three points and no one else scores any points this round.

The Bigger the Better

If you purchase a second copy of the game, you can play with up to twelve players.

Pointing Fingers FAQ

If you have any questions about how to play the game, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.

Components

6 Foam Fingers
6 Truth Meters
100 Cards
Instructions

Year: 2013 | Publisher: Hasbro | Designer: Dan Sanfilippo

Genres: Party

Ages: 12+ | Number of Players: 3-6 | Length of Game: 20 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: Moderate

For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.

Written By:

Eric Mortensen

Eric Mortensen is an owner and head writer on Geeky Hobbies since 2014. He is an avid board game player and collector with over 3,000 board and card games in his collection. Since 2014 he has written more than 1,100 board game how to play guides.