Description

The word "chametz" is Hebrew and refers to the food items and derivatives that are prohibited during the week of the Jewish holiday Passover (usually bread and other items containing five prohibited grains: barley, wheat, oat, rye and spelt). Egregious examples of chametz include pizza, donuts, cookies, cupcakes, pretzels, and crackers. "Chametz: The Search is On!" is played similarly to "Clue" but instead of deducing a murder, the players must determine which character left which item of chametz in which room. It's especially appropriate because Jewish law requires families to search their home and clean it of all chametz before Passover begins.

The board is a blueprint of a house with six rooms (kitchen, bedroom, dining room, living room, office and garage). There are also six items of food and six characters.

Eighteen cards are included (one for each character, food and room). After separating the cards into the 3 categories and secretly hiding one character, one food and one room in the small envelope provided, the remaining cards are shuffled and then dealt out to the entire group, clockwise, until all cards are gone. Players may begin in any room as long as they choose it before seeing their cards. They take turns rolling a six-sided die to determine how far they can walk around the perimeter of the home (with entrances off the main spaces).

Upon entering a room, players may make a guess as to the hidden person, food and room. The player to their left may prove them wrong by showing a card in their hand that matches one of the items in the guess. If that player has no matches, the guess goes to the next person. If nobody has a match, the player can check the hidden cards to see if they're right.

Players do not have to write with pen or pencil (another prohibition for Jews on the Sabbath and Holidays) and instead place cardboard markers in a noteboard with 18 slots (one for each item).

The cardboard markers can be placed in the slot in such a way as to "point" left, right or up, and may be used to remind yourself who showed you that particular item.

There are 4 mandatory "Question Squares" on the board and 4 optional ones. When landing on these squares, the player is read a question from the stack of Question Cards based on another roll of the die (each Question Card has True/False, Multiple Choice and Fill-in-the-Blank versions of the question). A roll of 1 or 2 gets the easier True-False version, and 5 or 6 gets the hardest Fill-in-the-Blank version. The questions pertain to Passover and Jewish History.

After answering correctly, the player may immediately jump to any room on the board and make a guess. There are no secret passageways between rooms otherwise.

First player to guess the hidden character, food and room wins. To play with 2 players, one card is placed face down in each room before dealing the cards out. So when entering a room, the player may choose to make a guess or look at the face-down card (it's essentially a 3rd player who shows one of their cards when you enter each room).