Welcome to the Mariánská auction! We have two teams of six players. Each round is about one situation from the life of a young scientist, a PhD student or a postdoc.
Here is how it works. I will secretly show the situation to one player from each team. Every situation has a starting time, for example one minute. Then the auction begins. The teams take turns, and each offer must be shorter than the one before. For example, Team A says "fifty seconds", Team B says "forty-five seconds", Team A says "forty-two seconds". When one team does not want to go lower, the auction stops. So we end up with two numbers: the lowest offer, and the last offer of the other team.
The team with the lowest offer goes first. Their player acts out the situation and the rest of the team guesses. No talking, no sounds, no letters in the air, and no pointing at things in the room. If they guess it within their time, they get the point. If they fail, it is the other team's turn: their player acts out the same situation, and they get the time they offered last, which is a bit longer. If they guess it, the point goes to them. If both teams fail, nobody gets the point.
Before we start for real, let us try three practice rounds together, from the easiest to the hardest.
Be brave in the auction, but not too brave! The team with the most points at the end wins. Good luck, and have fun!
Three examples for explaining the rules. They are not part of the 100 situations and they score no points.