Guess the Word rules

Teams

A table seats 4 to 10 players. Before the game the server splits everyone into two teams, red and blue, at random and picks which goes first. The table host starts the game.

On each turn one player of the team explains and the others guess. The explainer changes in turn inside the team after each of its turns, so everybody explains, not just the most talkative.

How a turn goes

Before a turn there are 12 seconds to get ready: the explainer can start earlier, otherwise the turn starts by itself. Explaining takes 60 seconds, and you can finish earlier.

Only the explainer sees the words. Six cards are on screen at once; when all of them are marked, the next six arrive straight away and the explaining goes on. Marked words become visible to the whole table.

The explainer marks the cards: Guessed if the team said the word, Skip if you decide not to waste time on it.

How to explain

Explain in your own words: synonyms, opposites, descriptions, stories, associations. You may not say the word itself or any form with the same root.

A good tactic is not to get stuck: skipping a hard word and losing a point is cheaper than spending half a minute on it.

Points and victory

Every guessed word gives the team a point, every skip takes one away. A team’s score never drops below zero.

The game is played to 20 points. The score is checked at the end of a round: if the starting team reaches 20, the opponents still take their turn, so both teams have the same number of turns. The team with the higher score wins; on a tie another round is played.

A sample turn

The explainer has six cards: lighthouse, honey, passport, storm, chess, scooter. “Stands on the shore and shines for ships” — the team says lighthouse, Guessed. “Bees make it, sweet and golden” — honey, another point. The team gets stuck on passport, and the explainer presses Skip: minus one point, but no time lost. When all six are marked, the next cards arrive.

An experienced team gets through ten words or more in a minute. The explainer marks the words, so if the team said a word with the same root, the fair thing is to skip the card.

Common mistakes

• Using words with the same root: you cannot explain snowman through snow.
• Explaining at length: two or three precise details work better than retelling a whole story.
• Staying on one card for more than ten seconds: a skip is almost always cheaper.
• Guessing in silence: the explainer needs to hear your ideas to steer you.

Words and difficulty

In the lobby the host chooses the word language — English or Russian — and the difficulty: easy, medium or hard words. With an English interface a new table starts with English words. Themed word sets (animals, cities, films, food and more) are available for Russian words.

How to play on Omerta

Sign in, press Create, choose Games and Guess the Word, then Create and sit down. Invite friends from the table menu: an invitation on the site, a message in Telegram or the table link. A table can be locked with a password.

Explaining is done out loud, so you need a microphone. The camera is off by default — turn it on if you want to help yourself with gestures. If a team has fewer than two people left, the other team wins.

• Guess the Word — the game page
• Hidden Code rules — a team word-association game
• Hint Taken rules — guess the word from one-word hints