I also know a word game called Contact, different from both of those (but very similar to Yoav’s) and not very suitable for road trips.
One player picks a word and tells everyone the first letter. (Call this player the defender and the others the attackers.)
Attackers make clues (a clue can be anything at all) for words (a word can be anything at all provided it begins with the same initial letters as are known for the target word). Many clues can be “active” at once.
If another attacker thinks they know what word a clue is pointing at, they can declare “contact” on it, but at this point they don’t yet say what they think the word is.
The defender can respond to a clue by saying “My word is not X” (which must actually be true); if their X is the same as the attackers’ intended one (players trust one another to be honest) then that clue is retired.
Or the defender can (and after a reasonable interval must; players trust one another to be reasonable) pass on a clue that has been contacted, at which point each “contacting” attacker says what word they had in mind. If any of them matches the clue-setter’s intended word (again, players trust one another to be honest) then the defender reveals a new letter. At this point, existing clues that no longer match all known letters are retired; attackers need not reveal what words they had in mind.
A successful contact on a word that turns out to be the defender’s is a win for the attacker who made the clue. In principle, the defender wins if the attackers get completely stuck, but that probably actually means that the defender chose a word too obscure to be fun for the particular set of defenders.
There’s too much state to keep track of easily on a road trip. It works better in online chat.
There’s some scope for varying how exactly words need to match when another attacker declares contact (and the defender passes), or when the defender says “my word is not X”; the main thing is to be consistent between these.
I’ve played a variant like this before, except that only one clue would be active at once—if the clue is neither defeated nor contacted within some amount of time, then we’d move on to another clue, but the first clue can be re-asked later. The amount of state seemed manageable for roadtrips/hikes/etc.
In the version I’ve played, any word that fits a clue is sufficient to rebut it (even if it’s not the attacker’s intended word). The attackers can then make a more specific clue for the intended word.
What counts as “fitting” the clue? (“My” version permits clues to be literally anything and in actual play they may be very obscure or indirect; in particular, they are very often not straightforward definitions.)
Fair enough. In “my” version, a contacting attacker, or a defending defender, has to figure out the specific word the clue-making attacker has in mind (or “essentially” the same word; e.g., if what’s known is that the defender’s word begins GA and a clue is “Eppur si muove”, clearly GALILEO and GALILEI and GALILEO GALILEI are all equally good answers).
Again, I think the game works about equally well with any convention for how close you have to be, so long as you apply the same convention to attackers and defender.
I also know a word game called Contact, different from both of those (but very similar to Yoav’s) and not very suitable for road trips.
One player picks a word and tells everyone the first letter. (Call this player the defender and the others the attackers.)
Attackers make clues (a clue can be anything at all) for words (a word can be anything at all provided it begins with the same initial letters as are known for the target word). Many clues can be “active” at once.
If another attacker thinks they know what word a clue is pointing at, they can declare “contact” on it, but at this point they don’t yet say what they think the word is.
The defender can respond to a clue by saying “My word is not X” (which must actually be true); if their X is the same as the attackers’ intended one (players trust one another to be honest) then that clue is retired.
Or the defender can (and after a reasonable interval must; players trust one another to be reasonable) pass on a clue that has been contacted, at which point each “contacting” attacker says what word they had in mind. If any of them matches the clue-setter’s intended word (again, players trust one another to be honest) then the defender reveals a new letter. At this point, existing clues that no longer match all known letters are retired; attackers need not reveal what words they had in mind.
A successful contact on a word that turns out to be the defender’s is a win for the attacker who made the clue. In principle, the defender wins if the attackers get completely stuck, but that probably actually means that the defender chose a word too obscure to be fun for the particular set of defenders.
There’s too much state to keep track of easily on a road trip. It works better in online chat.
There’s some scope for varying how exactly words need to match when another attacker declares contact (and the defender passes), or when the defender says “my word is not X”; the main thing is to be consistent between these.
I’ve played a variant like this before, except that only one clue would be active at once—if the clue is neither defeated nor contacted within some amount of time, then we’d move on to another clue, but the first clue can be re-asked later. The amount of state seemed manageable for roadtrips/hikes/etc.
In the version I’ve played, any word that fits a clue is sufficient to rebut it (even if it’s not the attacker’s intended word). The attackers can then make a more specific clue for the intended word.
What counts as “fitting” the clue? (“My” version permits clues to be literally anything and in actual play they may be very obscure or indirect; in particular, they are very often not straightforward definitions.)
In my version, clues are normal sentences/definitions. In edge cases it’s up to the group to decide whether a word fits the clue.
Fair enough. In “my” version, a contacting attacker, or a defending defender, has to figure out the specific word the clue-making attacker has in mind (or “essentially” the same word; e.g., if what’s known is that the defender’s word begins GA and a clue is “Eppur si muove”, clearly GALILEO and GALILEI and GALILEO GALILEI are all equally good answers).
Again, I think the game works about equally well with any convention for how close you have to be, so long as you apply the same convention to attackers and defender.