The single word must be related by meaning, so it cannot be purely phonetically related. The number represents how many cards fit that clue. For example, for the cards ‘beach’, ‘whale’, and ‘water’, one could give the clue ‘ocean’, as these things are all related to the ocean. The verbal clue should represent correctly colored cards in some way. The ‘lights’ on the key card represent which team will go first and have an extra agent that must be placed.Įach turn, the spymaster gives a verbal clue containing only a single word and a number. They must help their field operatives guess the words representing their agents while avoiding opposing agents, innocent bystanders, and the assassin. The spymasters receive a randomly dealt card with colored squares representing the words. Some represent red agents (red squares), some represent blue agents (blue squares), one represents the assassin (black square), and the rest are innocent bystanders (beige squares). The end goal is to place all of the team’s agent tiles.ĭuring setup, 25 cards containing words are randomly laid out in a 5x5 grid.

One player from each team becomes a spymaster, and the others are field operatives. RulesĬodenames is a game played by 4 or more players in which players are split into two teams, red and blue, and guess words based on clues from their teammates. Codenames received positive reviews and won the 2016 Spiel des Jahres award for the best board game of the year. The other players on the team attempt to guess their team's words while avoiding the words of the other team. Two teams compete by each having a 'spymaster' give one-word clues that can point to multiple words on the board. The game has ended because the assassin (the black card on the left edge) has been found.Ĭodenames is a 2015 party card game designed by Vlaada Chvátil and published by Czech Games Edition.

Qwirkle rules errata