In a standard game, you’ll be playing across two teams. Head to head. One spymaster and any number of operatives in each team. Being an operative, you need to think outside the box and look at every image in great detail. Read between the lines. The spymaster needs to see links between pictures that they know their co-spies will also see. Balancing that between your team is a delicate act, as the images are random and comprise many elements! My kids and I found that setting up and playing this game is much easier than it sounds, and there are online videos that some may find more useful than written instructions. New follow-up/spin-off Codenames: Pictures may not outdo its predecessor – almost solely a result of hitting tabletops second – but its use of pictures in the place of the original’s words is so well implemented that it easily equals it for sheer enjoyment.

Work together and find all your agents to be victorious and successfully complete your mission! This game will have you on the edge of your seat. Be careful, because when you think you’ve found the word, you may just start second-guessing yourself! The game can end early if a field operative touches the location with the assassin. That operative's team loses. The Clue must be one word - no multiple words, abbreviations, or compound words. Your group may choose to relax this rule, but they must agree this before playing. Codenames: Disney Family Edition was released in September 2017, featuring characters and locations from Disney and Pixar films and including an easier 4x4 grid gameplay (with no 'Game Over' square) for younger players. Codenames: Marvel Edition was released around the same time, featuring characters from the Marvel Universe, such as Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Iron Man and Captain America. [3] Both of these editions come with their own clue cards, which can be flipped over to display the picture or the word. You can also say “Zero” as the number, which means none of your team’s words are linked to the clue and you can guess as many as you like. This can be good if there are 6 words left, for example, and you cannot link your remaining three, but the one word you definitely don’t want them to guess (the assassin) is easier to separate. Let’s say in this scenario, your team has three words left and they don’t link together at all. Your opponent has one, that is “Arm,” and the assassin is “Shoe.” You could say “Foot Zero.” This then gives the field operatives the chance to eliminate “Shoe” and potentially “Arm” as well, knowing one is the opponent’s card and the other the assassin, and then have a chance to guess the remaining three on their side. Quantum of Solace

On the guessing side, you are the ‘field operatives.’ You will see 25 cards laid out in a five-by-five grid. Each card has a single word on it. The words are shown both the right way up and upside-down, so the cards can be easily read on both sides of the table. These are the codenames of secret agents. On the other side, as the ‘Spymaster’ you will see this grid too, but you also have a key card. The key card shows you the location of the nine secret agents for the starting team, the eight secret agents for the second team, one assassin, and seven neutral parties. Codenames is a game where you win or lose, there are no points to be scored, the first team to find all their agents wins, or a team instantly loses if they find the assassin. People with similar interests or ways of thinking tend to do better as team. Replayability: 5/10 They make a wrong guess (i.e. an opposing Agent, an Innocent Bystander or the Assassin is revealed). The lights on the side of the Key Card determine which team starts (red or blue light). The team that goes first will have to guess an extra Agent. Each game has one key that shows who can be found in each location. The spymasters should choose the key card randomly and place it on the stand between them, oriented the same as the 5 × 4 grid of pictures.

Codenames: Pictures is derived from the original Codenames game. Instead of pictures coding for secret meeting locations, the original game uses words - the agents' secret codenames. There are some slight differences, but basically, the rules are the same: Two spymasters take turns giving clues consisting of one word and one number. Their teammates try to touch the correct codename cards. Words and pictures use slightly different modes of thinking. If you want to try it, think up clues for the example below. You can use any key card from this game. To make the game more challenging, you may add some restrictions. For example, you may agree to not talk about the shapes of the pictures (circle: 3 or rectangular: 2).You can allow your operatives to guess as many pictures as they want by saying unlimited instead of a number. For example, feathers: unlimited. This is especially helpful if you have given clues for multiple pictures that your team has not guessed yet.