Code Names

Code Names is a game of knowing word relations.

Category	BxD Suggestion	Game Suggestion
Players	4 - 6	2 - 8+
Age	10+	10+
Play Length	25 minutes	15 minutes
Overall Rating	3 / 5
Replay-ability	3 / 5

Experience:

Codenames is a good game if you want to play a word game that is fairly really quick on setup, explanation and game play. The longest part of the setup is the 5 by 5 word grid and there is little to no need to look in the rule book after the start of the game play.The quick pickup is the ideal game to play for board game nights where you don't want to put too much effort into understanding the game or you just don't have the mental capacity to explain or look up rules continuously.

The game is fairly re-playable since word configurations and the answer key changes for each play. Though, the overall game theme and play is predictable after the first play. Comparatively, Codenames is a calmer game, so it doesn't necessarily add the emotion riling aspects like other games such as Bang or Salem, which have more actions and mystery.

Tips:

Definitely try to use the hour glass, since players can take up lots of time thinking of clues to give and guessing words on the board. Hour glasses are usually a hit or miss since we don't play by the rules all the time. And, sometimes it's not in sync with when a player ends their turn and when the hourglass needs to be passed to the next player, such as the sand being half way down but the hourglass isn't reset yet. 

From my experience, the game is best played with 4-6 players, once it gets more than that, some people tend to drop off playing since others are making decisions.

Pros:

• If your friends love word games, this is a good one to play. 

• Quick setup and pick up

• Each game configuration is different from the last - allows for replays

Cons:

• A bit slow and not as emotion riling as other games

How the game works:

• There are 2 teams, the red team and the blue team. 

• The game board is made of a 5 by 5 card word grid of different words that are drawn from a deck of word cards. 

• There are 2 clue givers, one from the red team and one from the blue team. 

• The two clue givers sit on the same side of the table with an answer key. 

• The other players (guessers) from the red team and the blue team are on the other side. 

• The answer key is a card with an image of a 5 by 5 grid of colored squares. 

• Each square is either colored red, blue, tan or black. 

• Only the clue givers see the answer key, the team mates on the other side do not know the answers. 

• The clue giver must give a clue to their own team mates on the other side, such that the team mates guess the correct words that correspond to the answer key. 

• To win the game, the guesser must guess all the words on the word grid that correspond to the answer key for their team (Guess all the red words for the red team).

• For example, if on the answer key, the square on the 1st column and 1st row is red, then the red team's clue giver should give a clue that would prompt the guesser on the red team to guess the word on the corresponding 5 by 5 card word grid. 

• If the guesser, who is one the red team, guesses wrong (the word is not a red square), then it is either a blue, tan or black square: 

• Blue Square: Since a red player guesses a blue card, the blue team gets this card. 

• Black square: (End of game - Death Square) The team that guesses the word that corresponds to the black square on the word grid loses the game. 

• Tan Square: Nothing happens, this is a neutral square. 

• Example of a clue: The red team's clue giver says, "animal 2". This clue means, there are "2" cards on the word grid that are related to the word "animal".

• The red team's guesser will either pass if they don't know which words on the word grid are related to the clue or they will guess. If the first guess is wrong, they are not allowed to guess anymore. If the first guess is right, we put a "red" card on the word grid, meaning the red team got that word correctly. And the guesser will be able to continue to guess the second word that relates to the clue. If the second guess is also right, the guesser may also guess an additional word on the board from a previous clue they may have missed.