Password

An idea for a tense party game.

  • You’re collectively trying to break into a bank (or something).
  • But there are multiple stages of security!
  • Each stage means one player has to guess a secret password, while another player gives them the clues for it.
    • The whole table (except the one who has to guess) knows the password.
    • But only that other player gives cards from their hand (with words, images, etcetera) as clues
  • Each stage also has a reduced timer. (Quickening the pace of the game as you near the final stage.)
    • If all stages are guessed correctly within the time limit, you win the game!
    • If any timer runs out / a stage isn’t guessed, you lose and try again.

Try again? Yes, there are secret roles!

  • Most players are honest criminals trying to guess/communicate that password.
  • But some are honest police who actually try to make sure the code is NOT guessed/communicated.

If you can suss out the secret police members, then you can still win the game as criminals (even if you did not guess the passwords).

With every retry,

  • The group decides the order.
  • One more player is “doubled up”: they receive clues from multiple players, which is a way to compensate for bad actors.

You have as many retries as there are police/criminals/players in the group?

I also want to draw inspiration from …

  • So Clover! (The fact that you need to find words that combine two words, on all 4 sides of the clover. And then people receive the answers + one random and need to reconstruct.)
  • That’s Not A Hat!