Codenames
Spymasters know the secret identities of 25
agents. Their teammates know the agents only by their codenames. Spymasters take turns giving one-word clues. A
clue may relate to multiple words on the table. The field operatives try to
guess which words their spymaster meant. When a field operative touches a word,
the spymaster reveals its secret identity. If the field operatives guess
correctly, they may continue guessing, until they run out of ideas for the
given clue or until they hit a wrong person. Then it is the other team's turn
to give a clue and guess. The first team to contact all their agents wins the
game.
Game play
Teams take turns.
The starting team is indicated by the 4 lights on the edges of the key card.
Giving a clue
If you are the
spymaster, you are trying to think of a one-word clue that relates to some of
the words your team is trying to guess. When you think you have a good clue,
you say it. You also say one number, which tells your teammates how many
codenames are related to your clue. Example: Two of your words are NUT and
BARK. Both of these grow on trees, so you say tree: 2. You are allowed to give
a clue for only one word (cashew: 1) but it's fun to try for two or more.
Getting four words with one clue is a big accomplishment. One Word Your clue
must be only one word. You are not allowed to give extra hints. For example,
don't say, "This may be a bit of a stretch…" You are playing
Codenames. It's always a bit of a stretch. Your clue cannot be any of the
codenames visible on the table. On later turns, some codenames will be covered
up, so a clue that is not legal now might be legal later.
Making contact
When the spymaster
gives a clue, his or her field operatives try to figure out what it means. They
can debate it amongst themselves, but the spymaster must keep a straight face.
The operatives indicate their official guess when one of them touches one of the
codenames on the table.
• If the field
operative touches a card belonging to his or her team, the spymaster covers the
word with an agent card in that color. The operatives get another guess (but
not another clue).
• If the field
operative touches an innocent bystander, the spymaster covers it with an
innocent bystander card. This ends the turn.
• If the field
operative touches a card belonging to the other team, the word is covered by
one of the other team's agent cards. This ends the turn. (And it helps the
other team.)
• If the field
operative touches the assassin, the word is covered by the assassin card. This
ends the game! The team that contacted the assassin loses.
Tip: Before saying
your clue out loud, make sure it doesn't relate to the assassin.
Number of Guesses
The field operatives must always make at least one guess. Any wrong guess ends the turn immediately, but if the field operatives
guess a word of their team's color, they can keep guessing.
You can stop guessing at any time, but usually you want to guess as many words as the spymaster said.
Sometimes you might even want to guess one more:
Example: Red Team's
first clue was tree: 2. The red operative wanted to guess ORANGE and NUT. She
guessed ORANGE first. That was an innocent bystander, so she did not get a
chance to guess NUT. Blue Team took a turn and correctly guessed two words. Now
it is Red Team's turn again. The red spymaster says river: 3. The red operative
is pretty sure the AMAZON is a river, so she touches that card. The spymaster covers
it with a red agent card, so she gets to go again. A river has a BED, so she
touches that codename. It's also red, so she can go again.
