Skittles (Northwest Rules)

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"Skittles" is a road-trip game my friends and I played in high school.

PLAYING THE GAME

- To play, the players simply call out the appropriate word when an
  appropriate vehicle is sighted. Being the first to call it out gets
  a player one point.

CALLS

- "Skittles": yellow vehicles (except school bus-type buses).
- "M&Ms": school bus-type buses.
    Different types of buses require different varieties of M&Ms to be
    called out.
    - "Peanut M&Ms": non-yellow school buses. This overrides other
      calls; the call for a purple school bus would be "Peanut M&Ms"
      instead of "Spree".
    - "M&Ms Mini": short school buses.
    - "M&Ms Flat": rear-engine school buses.
- "Orange Crush": orange vehicles.
- "Jolly Rancher": bright green vehicles.
- "Cotton Candy": light blue vehicles.
- "Spree": purple vehicles.
    - This is called out in a high-pitched voice.^
- "Warheads": pink vehicles.
    - This is shouted.^

^ These aspects of the rules can be banned if they cause the driver to
be distracted or otherwise create dangerous or unpleasant driving
conditions.

EXCEPTIONS

- Taxis DO NOT COUNT when in a big city. Taxis are fine in suburban or
  rural areas.
- Fleet vehicles bearing a company color palette DO NOT COUNT (except
  school bus-type buses). The emphasis is on personal vehicles owned
  by individual people.
- Buses not of the school bus type DO NOT COUNT.
- Construction equipment DOES NOT COUNT.
- Off-road vehicles DO NOT COUNT.
- Non-motorized vehicles (particularly bicycles) DO NOT COUNT.
- Non-road transportation (trains, planes, boats, etc) DOES NOT COUNT.
- Vehicles that only have a color accent or highlight DO NOT COUNT.
  The color must be the only or dominant color of the vehicle.

OTHER RULES

- Ties:
    - When two people call out at the same time, whoever says "banana
      split" first wins the point.
- Double-counting:
    - Known vehicles (i.e. known license plates, known bus regis-
      tration numbers) cannot be double-counted.
    - This requires the player who previously called the vehicle to
      provide some kind of proof, such as reciting the known number or
      describing the location or commute pattern of the vehicle in
      detail.
- Complex coloring:
    - In very rare cases, a vehicle will be colored using Ben Day dot
      printing or some other complex coloring schemes. When this hap-
      pens the apparent overall color is called out, not the actual
      color of the dots.

END OF THE GAME

- The game has no set end and can be as long or as short as the play-
  ers like. It could last only from one stop to another, be played
  over a calendar day, or continue indefinitely with players keeping a
  running score.
- If/when an end time is reached, the player with the most points is
  the winner.

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[Last updated: 2021-10-28]