Classic, Co-op, Family-friendly, Social / party / trivia

Codenames

Give your team clever one-word clues to help them spot their agents in the field.

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Codenames

Two rival spymasters know the secret identities of 25 agents. Their teammates know the agents only by their codenames single-word labels like “disease”, “Germany”, and “carrot”. Yes, carrot. It’s a legitimate codename. Each spymaster wants their team to identify their agents first…without uncovering the assassin by mistake.

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In Codenames, two teams compete to see who can make contact with all of their agents first. Lay out 25 cards, each bearing a single word. The spymasters look at a card showing the identity of each card, then take turns clueing their teammates. A clue consists of a single word and a number, with the number suggesting how many cards in play have some association to the given clue word. The teammates then identify one agent they think is on their team; if they’re correct, they can keep guessing up to one more than the stated number of times; if the agent belongs to the opposing team or is an innocent bystander, the team’s turn ends; and if they fingered the assassin, they lose the game.