Playing Ulterior Design

Ulterior Design is easy to set up and learn. There are 16 Event cards with a red door on their back. Shuffle these and make a facedown pile accessible to all players. Then shuffle the 69 Decor cards and deal four to each player. Next, display one Decor card faceup in the centre of the table: this is what is trending. Every player picks one of their cards to be a starting card, attempting to match the trend as closely as possible. The player to the dealer's left takes the first turn. When it's your turn, pick one of your three cards in hand and add it to your own home, to the trend card(s) or to an opponent's home. Cards must be placed upright and to cover either the left or right half of a previously played card. Then top up your Decor cards to three and draw and reveal the top Event card. It may be blank, it may be the blue reshuffle and redraw card, or it could be one of the four judges.

Each judge is interested in a particular decor item. For example, the plant judge will give her award to the player whose home has the closest number of plants to what is trending. If there is a tie, the player whose turn it will be next wins.

The first player to win three awards is the winner.