The Field Guide
Five plates
Every answer in Flocklet brings a bird to the wire, and the rarer the answer, the rarer the bird. These are the birds you’ll meet, and the real birds behind them.
Each round, four grey birds sit on the wire holding four words that share a link. Name a fifth and a new bird flies in to join them. Which bird depends on how many people would have thought of your answer: a Common answer brings a house sparrow (20 points), an Uncommon one a blue jay (60), a Rarity a scarlet macaw (120), and a Vagrant a peacock (200).
House sparrowPlate I · Common · 20
Blue jayPlate II · Uncommon · 60
Scarlet macawPlate III · Rarity · 120
PeacockPlate IV · Vagrant · 200
Birds on a wirePlate V · The flock
The birding words
The four tiers borrow the words birders use for how likely a bird is to turn up. A common bird is one you can count on finding. An uncommon one is around, but you might go a day without it. A rarity is seldom recorded at all where you are, and gets people reaching for their binoculars. A vagrant is a bird far outside its normal range, blown or lost hundreds or thousands of miles from home.
In the game, the same words describe answers. How many people, asked for one member of a category, would name yours? If most would, it’s common. If almost nobody would, it’s a vagrant. How rarity is scored explains the estimate in more detail, and How to play covers the rest of the rules.