Codenames and Decrypto: Two teams compete on who can better transmit a message.
In Codenames, the two team leaders know which of 25 words belong to their team, which to the opposing team, which are neutral, and which one is the assassin. The goal is to give maximally efficient single-word hints to your team members, so they can identify as many of your side’s words as possible without picking words of the opposing team (which gives them a point instead) or uncovering the assassin (which triggers an instant loss).
Decrypto takes place over a couple of rounds. Each round, one team member must use short hints to transmit a three-digit code of the form 124 or 342 to their fellow team members. Each team knows secret words associated with the digits 1-4, e.g. 1 = Metal, 2 = Hospital, 3 = Boat, 4 = Ant. So to transmit the code 124, one could give the three hints “Bronze”, “Doctor”, and “Tiny”. The fellow team members then have to decode these hints, which in this case seems straightforward.
However, beginning in round 2, the opposing team gets a chance to intercept the coded message! They don’t know your team’s secret words (like “Metal”), but they know your past hints and what digits they were supposed to point at. So if your hints were too obvious (e.g. your past hints for 1 were “Bronze”, “Hammer”, and “Anvil”), they will over time get a good idea of what your secret words are, and thus become able to reliably intercept your messages. So your goal as a team member is to give hints that are sufficiently cryptic that your team members barely understand them, while leading the opposing team astray. That’s a fun tightrope to walk!
Codenames and Decrypto: Two teams compete on who can better transmit a message.
In Codenames, the two team leaders know which of 25 words belong to their team, which to the opposing team, which are neutral, and which one is the assassin. The goal is to give maximally efficient single-word hints to your team members, so they can identify as many of your side’s words as possible without picking words of the opposing team (which gives them a point instead) or uncovering the assassin (which triggers an instant loss).
Decrypto takes place over a couple of rounds. Each round, one team member must use short hints to transmit a three-digit code of the form 124 or 342 to their fellow team members. Each team knows secret words associated with the digits 1-4, e.g. 1 = Metal, 2 = Hospital, 3 = Boat, 4 = Ant. So to transmit the code 124, one could give the three hints “Bronze”, “Doctor”, and “Tiny”. The fellow team members then have to decode these hints, which in this case seems straightforward.
However, beginning in round 2, the opposing team gets a chance to intercept the coded message! They don’t know your team’s secret words (like “Metal”), but they know your past hints and what digits they were supposed to point at. So if your hints were too obvious (e.g. your past hints for 1 were “Bronze”, “Hammer”, and “Anvil”), they will over time get a good idea of what your secret words are, and thus become able to reliably intercept your messages. So your goal as a team member is to give hints that are sufficiently cryptic that your team members barely understand them, while leading the opposing team astray. That’s a fun tightrope to walk!