What's That Smell Board Game: Rules and Instructions for How to Play

What’s That Smell? How to Play Quick Links | Objective | Setup | Playing the Game | Winning the Game

Objective of What’s That Smell?

The objective of What’s That Smell? is to score more points than the other players by accurately guessing the smells on different cards.

Setup

Choose a player to be the master of ceremony. They will handle the scoring at the end of the round.
Each player takes a cardholder, a scorecard, a whiff strip and a Mystery Whiff card. If there are more than six players, you can play in teams.
Place your card into your cardholder so the smell zone is visible, but you can’t see the answer.

If you are playing with the accompanying app; select the game mode, number of cards in play, and the time limit for each round. If you aren’t using the app chose whether each round will last 30, 45 or 60 seconds.

Playing What’s That Smell?

When everyone is ready start the timer.

At this time each player will use their whiff strip and gently brush it against the smell section of the card. If you scratch too hard you can damage the cards.

Using a whiff strip to try and determine the smell. — Each player will use a whiff strip to lightly brush the area of the card that says “brush here to release smell!”. You are trying to determine the smell of the card.

Write the number from your cardholder on the first line of your scorecard.

Analyze the smell from the card and write down what you think it is.

Make a mark in the smell category that you think the smell fits into.The smell categories are as follows:

Tutti Fruity – Includes fruits to artificial flavors that smell like fruit.
Sweet Stuff – Sugary smells.
Spice It Up – Various spices.
Bloomin’ Fresh – Includes smells such as plants, grass, peppermint, etc.
Smoke Factor – Earthy smells.
All Things Chemical – Smells from artificial ingredients such as things under the sink, in medicine cabinets or in the garage.
Just Plain Stinky – Things you would not consider for air fresheners.

Finally write down your funniest memory that you associate with the smell from the card.

A player writing down their guesses in What's That Smell?. — For their first card, this player thought they smelled ice cream. They also choose the “Sweet Stuff” category and wrote down a funny smell association they had with the smell from the card.

When the timer runs out, the round ends. Each player passes their cardholder to the player on their left. Players will play a new round with the card that was just passed to them.

Winning the Game

Players will keep playing rounds until they have smelled and tried to guess all of the cards drawn by players at the beginning of the game. Essentially you will play one round for each player in the game.

Scoring Your Guesses

Players will then tally the points they scored during the game. The master of ceremony will collect all of the cardholders and reveal the answer for each card one at a time. You will score points as follows:

If you guess the top answer for the smell you will receive five points for your answer. If you guessed the second or third answer, you will score two points.

Next you will compare the smell category you chose versus the correct category. If you chose the correct category you will receive one point.

Scoring points for one of cards in What's That Smell?. — It turns out this card contained the small of Vanilla. Any player that wrote down vanilla scores five points. Players that wrote down ice cream, or caramel will score three points. Each player that choose the “Sweet Stuff” category receives one point for the category.

All of the players then reveal their smell memory for the card. The player that had the funniest memory (chosen by the whole group) gets two points.

Finally if you are playing with the app there is a chance to receive bonus points. If your smell guess matches one of the answers provided by the app, you receive one point.

The player that scores the most points wins the game. If there is a tie, the tied players will compete in a smell off. Take one Mystery Whiff Card. Each player has 15 seconds to smell the card. The first player to guess the smell correctly while the other player(s) get it wrong, wins the game.

Whiff of Shame

The loser of the game is forced to take three big whiffs from one of the Whiff of Shame cards.

When storing cards between games you should make sure the flaps are sealed to keep in the smells. Store the Whiff of Shame cards in the included scent bags.

What’s That Smell?

Year: 2018 | Publisher: WowWee

Genres: Family, Party

Ages: 14+ | Number of Players: 2-6 | Length of Game: 15-30 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: Moderate

Components: 48 Mystery Whiff cards, Whiff strips (my copy had 30), 6 cardholders, 4 Stank cards, scorepad, instructions

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