Image: The Game of Personality Profiles is a party/trivia game published by 3M in 1972 as part of the Bookshelf Games series. Players build “images” — personality profiles of famous people or fictional characters — by playing clue cards onto a track. Other players try to deduce the identity based on the accumulating clues. The game covers personalities ranging from historical figures to fictional characters, with possibilities from Adam and Eve to Chairman Mao, King Arthur to Mary Poppins.
Components
112 Cards in five types:
Place cards (geographic locations)
Time cards (historical periods)
Activity cards (sports, religion, music, etc.)
Status cards (dead, fictional, alive, etc.)
Letter cards (alphabet letters)
Playing field with image tracks
Score pad
Setup
Shuffle all 112 cards together.
Deal 5 cards to each player.
Place the remaining cards as a draw pile.
Place the playing field centrally.
Turn Structure
On your turn:
Start or extend an image — Play one card from your hand onto an image track on the playing field. The card must relate to the famous person you have in mind.
Draw a card — Draw one card from the draw pile to refill your hand.
Guess (optional) — Any player may attempt to guess the identity of an image being built on the board.
Actions
Starting an Image
Play a card from your hand to begin a new image track.
The card should relate to the person you are thinking of (e.g., a “Place” card showing their country of origin, an “Activity” card showing their profession).
You do not reveal who you are thinking of.
Extending an Image
On subsequent turns, add cards to an existing image track you started.
Each new card adds another clue to the personality profile.
Cards must logically relate to the same person.
Playing a Letter Card
To end an image, play a Letter card that matches the first letter of the last name of the person being profiled.
This signals that the image is complete and ready for final guessing.
Guessing
Any player may attempt to guess the identity at any time during their turn.
A correct guess scores points.
Points are based on how many image cards were played before the identity was correctly guessed — fewer cards means more points for the guesser.
Scoring / Victory Conditions
Points are scored based on the number of cards in the image when correctly guessed.
Fewer cards = harder to guess = more points for the person who guesses correctly.
The image builder also scores points for successfully building a valid image.
Play continues for a set number of rounds or until the card deck is exhausted.
The player with the most points wins.
Special Rules & Edge Cases
Card types must relate: Each card played must have a logical connection to the person being profiled. Other players can challenge if they believe a card does not relate.
Multiple images: Several images can be in progress simultaneously on different tracks.
Letter card timing: The letter card must match the first letter of the person’s last name and signals the end of an image.
Breadth of personalities: Any famous person or well-known fictional character is valid, as long as other players could reasonably identify them.
3M Bookshelf series: Designed for adults and families; stored vertically like a book on a shelf.