“Could it be what I think it is…!?”

As the only witness to the mythic creature, you are determined to protect Nessie’s romance and mystery, while also providing hints to the enthusiasts to promote the creature’s popularity. Enthusiasts, get on the search boat to discover Nessie’s True Identity! Will the truth be uncovered? Or will the mystery deepen?

To play the game, place the Nessie figure on one end of the table and the ship on the other end, with the five characters W H A T ? lying down between them. If you are the lead player, think of any noun to serve as Nessie’s true identity. (Proper nouns are discouraged.) The other players — the Nessie fanatics — now try to guess this identity.

At the start of a round, you give a one-word hint to the hidden identity. Each fanatic then makes one guess about this identity in whatever order they want. If none of the guesses are close to Nessie’s identity, move the ship farther away from Nessie and stand up one of the letters; if any guesses are close but not correct, move the ship closer to Nessie, then stand up one of the letters.

If one of the guesses matches the identity, don’t reveal this when the player guesses. Instead, at the end of the round after all players have guessed, move the ship adjacent to Nessie. On the count of 3, each fanatic must point to the person who they think gave the correct answer, which might be themselves. If more than half the fanatics identify the correct guess, they win; if not, then you win. If five rounds pass and no one has guessed the correct answer, then you’ll all be staring at WHAT? and realizing that the clue giver didn’t do a good job.

Nessie’s True Identity includes a scoring system in case you want to have everyone be the clue giver once and keep track of points earned over multiple games.

The second edition of Nessie’s True Identity features larger components and reorganized rules, along with a new sighting information card, coverage board, and pen.