Communication Limits

Every word counts, so focus and think carefully about your choices.

In the brain-teasing co-operative game Sides, you have to weigh your options and wisely choose your words.

The objective of the game is simple: Each round, help two detectives find a mystery word. To do so, the other players (the witnesses) give detectives a one-word clue that starts with the letter at either end of the letter-card line.

The detectives then jointly offer an answer, and if they found the solution, two other players become the detectives and a new word is uncovered; if not, the witness players suggest a new clue with a new letter card. The fewer the clues used and the more words guessed, the higher the score. Will you beat the world record?

13 Words is a co-operative idea-association party game in which the team aims for the highest score possible.

To set up, lay out twelve double-sided word cards on the perimeter of the game board, then place a word card in the center of the board. This round's Captain wants to find the most obvious link between this central word and one of the outer words. The Captain indicates their choice on their answer wheel, and all other players try to guess the Captain's choice. Each player who guesses correctly wins a star, and the Captain collects a star as long as at least one player earned a star this round.

For the next round, the player to the Captain's left becomes the new Captain. They flip over the word card matching the previous Captain's choice, place it in the center of the game board, then everyone guesses how the new Captain will link this newly revealed word to one of the remaining words on the perimeter.

After eleven rounds, the game ends, and players tally their stars to determine the success level of the team. The best possible score is 11 times the number of players. How did you do?

In Silencio, all players form a team together, a team that cannot speak to one another.

You each start with a hand of cards from four suits, and your goal as a team is to discard as many cards as possible — but each card played must have a higher value than the previously played card of the same suit. If a newly played card is the direct successor of the card last played of that color, then you orient the card to show its dark side and suffer the penalty from that card, with the green penalty, for example, forcing the next card played to be green while the blue penalty requires you to give another player one of the face-up cards available from the Oracle.

If a newly played card is not the direct successor of the card last played of that color, then you place the card with the light side face up, taking the bonus depicted on that half of the card if you desire, such as ignoring the next penalty or placing a card from your hand face up in front of you so that anyone could play it.

Five shrines are play — one multicolor shrine and one of each color — and before or after your card play for the turn, you can choose to flip a shrine face down to use the bonus of that color.

If you can't play or have no cards in hand, you must pass, and if all players pass in turn, then the game ends. Your score is based on the number of cards in all players' hands, with 0 being the best score possible. If you find the game difficult, you can include the tavern card that a few times each game allows a player to give limited information about their hand; if the game is too easy, you can remove some or all of the shrines to eliminate those "extra" bonuses.

Legend has it that the old mansion on the outskirts of the city is home to a fabulous treasure! Hoping to find it, you decide to spend the night there. You are about to give up when the ghost of Captain Echo appears to help you find his treasure. He isn’t much of a talker, but he plays a mean tambourine, and he’s going to use it to tell you which rooms to search in!

Players cooperate to find Captain’s treasure before the moon has traveled across the sky and the night is over. Each round, one player becomes the Ghost of Captain Echo. The Ghost must use a tambourine to give clues that help the other players guess the correct Noise card. If they do, they get to reveal a piece of the Captain’s treasure.

—description from the publisher

Sound Box is a co-operative party game for 4 to 7 players in which you listen to your friends performing weird sounds as they try to make you guess all sorts of concepts!

At the beginning of each round you place Sound cards on the board and draw a numbered token from a bag to discover which one is assigned to you. Take your time to come up with the perfect sound to represent your card: you will have to imitate that sound to suggest your concept to the Guesser. If you are the Guesser, instead, your job will be to listen to the sounds performed by the Soundmakers.

At the start of the timer, all Soundmakers start to perform their sounds...simultaneously! Get ready for 13 seconds of hilarious acoustic extravaganza! Have you ever heard the sound of a giant monster attack fighting a guitar hero on a stormy night during a tennis match? Well, something like this may definitely happen to you!

When the timer runs out, the Guesser tries to find as many Sound cards as possible, one at a time! There are more cards on the board than sounds made by the Soundmakers, will you be able to find them all? Each correct guess gets you 1 point, but if you make a mistake, the round ends immediately.

A different player will be the Guesser each round. If over subsequent rounds you gain enough points to reach the end of the Soundtrack, all players win. But beware, each Sound card that is left unguessed at the end of each round will make you lose life depending on the numbered token it is associated to, and if your Heart marker reaches the bottom of its track, all players lose!