You always try to keep up with the latest home-decorating trends, and now that might pay off if your home catches the eye of a judge from Decor Rate magazine. You could win a prize and have your home featured in their publication.
Players start Ulterior Design by revealing one current trend card face up in a central area, then they place one card from their hand face up in their area. On each turn after that, a player plays one of their three hand cards to add to their own house (redecorate), to influence what is trending (by adding a card to the central area), or to sabotage a rival (by adding their card to an opponent's house). Cards are split down the middle with some combination of interior decorations (houseplants, paintings and lamps) on each half, and they must be played so that they overlap at least one half of an already played card.
To end their turn, they refill their hand, then reveal an event card, which may be a judge, a reshuffle, or crickets. Judges are looking for the right number of plants, portraits, or lamps. The player who most closely matches the total number of items in the current trend receives an award; in a tie, the award goes to whoever played least recently as they were trending before it was cool.
The first player to collect three awards wins.