Power Hour: Official Rules

Drink a shot of beer every minute for an hour, and be there for the last song.

Make or find a playlist of sixty one-minute song clips, so the song changes every minute. Each player has a shot glass or small cup, and enough beer to refill it sixty times.

Rule 1. The hour

Rule 1.1. When the first song starts, every player drinks a shot of beer.

Rule 1.2. Every time the song changes, every player drinks another, and refills.

Rule 1.3. The hour ends with the sixtieth song.

Rule 2. Completing the hour

Rule 2.1. A player who drinks on every change has completed the Power Hour.

Rule 2.2. A player may stop at any time, and may stay to hear the rest of the playlist. Many do.

Rule 3. The playlist

Rule 3.1. The playlist is the host's responsibility, and part of the game. A good playlist builds. A great playlist ends with a song everyone knows.

Rule 3.2. Skipping a song is not permitted. The playlist runs on its own clock.

• Century Club. One hundred minutes, one hundred shots of beer. Commissioner's Discretion. See the Commissioner's Caution, twice.
• Liquor shots. Prohibited. Sixty shots of liquor in an hour is not a game. It is a trip to the hospital.
• Half Power Hour. Thirty minutes. Approved.
• Drink on a sound cue (an airhorn, a whistle) instead of the song change. Approved.
• Themed playlists (one decade, one artist, one argument). Approved.

A player misses a change because they were in the bathroom. Must they catch up? No. A missed change is missed. Catching up is not a rule, and the Commission does not recommend it.

The playlist has a song that runs short. Does that minute count? Yes. The change is the signal, not the clock.

• The change. Signal: the Official taps their wrist, then raises their glass.

Power Hour is the most precisely timed game in this book, and the only one with a soundtrack. The Commission's archive holds no rulings on it; every dispute that has reached the Commission was about the playlist, and the Commission does not rule on music.

Play with water, soda or any non-alcoholic drink. A Power Hour with a good playlist is still a good hour.

Sixty drinks in sixty minutes adds up, even in small glasses. Read the Commissioner's Caution at the start of Part 5. Use a true shot glass, not a cup, and stop whenever you want.