Codenames: Pictures

Why it's in our library

We keep Codenames: Pictures on our kids-and-families shelf for teams who like to work out a clue together.

How to play

Each team wants to find all of its own secret agents, which are hidden among a grid of picture cards. Each team chooses one clue-giver, called the spymaster. The two spymasters sit side by side and share a secret key card. It shows which pictures belong to red, which belong to blue, which are harmless bystanders, and which one is the assassin. The team that starts has one more agent to find than the other team.

On a team's turn, its spymaster says one word and a number. The word links to some of the team's pictures, and the number says how many. No pointing, gestures or other hints are allowed. Teammates talk it over, then touch one picture at a time.

• Their own agent: it gets covered, and they may guess again, up to one more guess than the number given. They can also stop whenever they like.
• A bystander: the turn ends.
• The other team's agent: it gets covered for that team, and the turn ends.
• The assassin: that team loses straight away.

Play goes back and forth until one team has covered all of its agents and wins, or until someone finds the assassin.

Good for