That's Not A Hat Board Game: Rules for How to Play

Setup

Shuffle all of the cards.
Deal one card face up to each player.
Place the rest of the cards in a face up draw pile in the middle of the table.
The player who last received a gift starts the game.

How to Play That’s Not a Hat

To start the game the first player draws the top card from the gift shop. They should show the card to the rest of the players. They will then place the card face down in front of themselves. Once a card has been turned face down, no player can look at it until a player refuses the card.

Drawing a New Gift card — The first player drew the duck card from the draw pile.

On the back of the card is an arrow that either points to the left or right. The direction that the arrow points indicates what direction you will pass the gift. You will pass the gift that you just drew. As you pass the gift you will say out loud “I have a nice _____ for you.” You will fill in the blank with the item that is pictured on the other side of the card. If you don’t remember what the item was, you should bluff and make up what is pictured on the other side of the card. You can either say the phrase confidently or cautiously in order to keep the next player guessing about whether you actually know what was on the card.

Passing a Gift card to the left. — After flipping over the duck card, an arrow pointing to the left is revealed. They will tell the player on their left “I have a nice duck for you” as they pass the card to them.

The player that was handed the gift has a decision to make. They can either accept or refuse the gift.

Accept the Gift

When you receive a gift and you think the other player is telling the truth about what is on the card, you should accept the gift. To accept you should say “thank you”. You will then place the card face down above the card you already had in front of you.

Accepting the passed gift — Since the player that was passed the card just saw it, they know that they were passed a duck. They will accept the gift.

Now that you have two gifts in front of you, it is your turn to give a gift. You have to give the gift that is closest to you (the card that you have had longer). If this was your initial gift card, you should flip it over so the picture is no longer visible. Pass the gift card to the player in the direction shown by the arrows on the back of the card. When giving the gift follow the process detailed above.

Passing a gift to the next player — After accepting the duck gift, the player flips over their hourglass card. Based on the arrow, they will pass it to the player on their left.

The player that receives this new gift then has the same option of accepting or refusing the gift.

Refuse a Gift

When you receive a gift but you think the player incorrectly identified it, you should refuse the gift. You will refuse the gift by saying “That’s not a ____.” Fill in the blank with whatever the player that gifted it to you said it was. You do not need to know what the gift is, you just need to think that the player incorrectly identified it.

After refusing the gift, you will flip the card over. Compare the card to what the giver said it was.

If the giver was correct, the player who refused the gift takes the card and places it face up in their own discard pile. This counts as a penalty point against the player.

Refusing a gift that was identified correctly — This player refused the gift shown above. It turns out the gift was a football which is what the other player said it would be. The player that refused the gift has to keep the card in their own discard pile.

If the giver was incorrect (the card is different than what they said it was), the giver takes the card and puts it face up in their own discard pile as a penalty point.

Refusing an incorrectly identified gift — The player that passed this player a gift said it was a clock. The player refused the gift. It turns out that the gift was a hat. The player that gifted the card has to take the hat and add it to their discard pile.

Whoever received the penalty point draws the top card from the gift shop (draw pile). They will show the new card to all of the players. Then they will turn the card over and pass it to the player in the direction shown on the arrow on the back of the card. When giving the gift, follow the same steps as detailed in the how to play section above.

Winning the Game

That’s Not a Hat ends when a player receives their third penalty point.

All of the players count up how many penalty points they have received. Each card in their personal discard pile is worth one point. Whichever player has the least penalty points wins the game.

Winning That's Not A Hat — One of the players received their third penalty point. This ends the game. The players collected the following cards during the game. The bottom player collected the least cards, so they have won the game.

You could also decide before starting the game to play a number of rounds equal to the number of players. A round ends once a player receives their third penalty point. Each player writes down how many points they score each round. After all of the rounds have been played, whichever player scored the least total points wins the game.

Additional Rules

That’s Not a Hat has a couple of additional rules that you can implement in order to change up the gameplay.

If you want to make the game more challenging, you can sort all of the cards based on the color of the arrow on the back of each card. You will then choose to either play with the black or white arrow cards.

Should there only be two players, each player starts with two cards in a column in front of them. You can also use these rules if you want to make the game more challenging. Each time a player receives a new gift, they will place it above the other two cards they already have. They will then gift the card that is closest to them (the card they have had the longest).

Components

110 Cards
Instructions

Year: 2023 | Publisher: Ravensburger | Designer: Kasper Lapp

Genres: Bluffing, Memory, Party

Ages: 8+ | Number of Players: 3-8 | Length of Game: 15 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.