New Forum Game : CODENAMES

RULES wrote:

Two teams with a team captain on each side.

A 5x5 grid of random words.

The team captains are given a single key card between them, only they can see, which tells them which words belong to which team. Each team has 9/8 words to locate depending on whether they 1st/2nd in turn order.

The team captains then take it turns giving single word clues to their team, followed by a number representing how many words of the 25 this single word is a clue for.

Example:

Blue team captain wants his team to find the words CITY, TALL and EMPIRE, so he says to his team "Skyscraper 3".

His team then picks words, one at a time, that they think might match the clue. They must pick at least one word, but after that they may pass if they're unsure. They may pick a maximum of +1 of the number the captain gave them, so in this example a maximum of 4 words.

They pick a word and wait for the captain to confirm it as correct or else incorrect.

If they pick a correct word they get the opportunity to pick another, as long as it would not exceed their maximum allowed picks, or else they can pass.

If they pick an incorrect word their turn end immediately. Incorrect words may be either words belonging to the opposing team, in which case that word is found by the opposition and you've helped them out significantly, or they may be neutral words belonging to neither team. Either way the turn ends.

One word of the 25 is 'the assassin'. Any team who picks the assassin immediately forfeits and loses the game.

Example:

Given the clue "Skyscraper 3", the blue team sees the word WINDOW and pick it, figuring that skyscrapers have windows. WINDOW in fact belongs to the red team though, and so it's announced as incorrect and is covered with a red counter, it's now found by the red team. Had WINDOW been the Assassin word the game would have ended immediately and red declared the winners — "Skyscraper" in this case would have been a very poor clue.

First team to find all their words wins.

Captain are allowed to give their clues, but other than that they remain silent other than to report correct or incorrect picks. A lot can be given away if they start responding to occurrences with things like "So close" or "you're thinking about it wrong" for example. They give their clues and nothing else.