June 3: Codenames

We did not have enough people to play Jeo-Party on Thursday, so instead we played a few rounds of Quiplash and then delved into Codenames. We hadn't played Codenames in many months, and it was delightful. I had forgotten how much I like this game. I am so happy that someone programmed it to be played online (and yes, I have sent the developer money for coffee as suggested at the bottom of the screen, and if you play, you should too!)

To play, you visit https://horsepaste.com/ and create a "room" (and I share the screen via zoom.) We divide into two teams (red and blue), and one player from each team becomes the "spymaster" for the round. They go to our Codenames room on their device and click the Spymaster button, so they can see which words are red, blue, gray, and black (meanwhile, the rest of us cannot see the colors, we just see a grid of words). The red spymaster tries to get their team to guess the red words by giving a one word clue and the number of words associated with that clue. (for example, if the red words included "band" and "bar", I might say "gig for two" and my team would try to guess which words I might be hinting to). The spymasters take turns giving their teams hints until all red or all blue words are guessed (OR the game immediately ends if the black word is chosen). 

We try to play enough rounds to give everyone a chance to be the spymaster, but it's fun being either the guesser or the spymaster. It requires creativity and thinking outside the box, but also trying to get into another person's head to try to figure out what *they* were thinking, so it's a good way to bond and get to know each other. By the way, it is often SUPER hard to be the spymaster -- it's easy to get your team to guess one word, moderately hard to get them to guess two words, but nearly impossible to get them to guess 3 or more words for one clue, unless you luck out and get like three animals or three city names on your board. You also have to be very careful not to accidentally clue the black word, and I also try not to clue the other team's words or the grey words, which do not count for either team. With lots of information to manage, I find that the game activates many parts of my brain. 

So even though it was sad we couldn't play Jeo-Party, I was delighted to play Codenames!

With delight,

♥Jamie