Setup
Players
- 4-12
Materials
- Codenames Board Game that includes: Key Grid Cards, Key Grid Card Holder, Codename Cards, Blue and Red Agent Cards, Double Agent Card, Innocent Bystander Cards and Assassin Card
Scoring
- The team that correctly guesses the most Codenames wins.
Additional Setup Notes
- Create two evenly sized and skilled teams
- Each team selects a spy master
- Both spymasters sit on the same side of the table opposite their team who are now their field operatives
- Randomly choose 25 codename cards and lay them out in a 5×5 grid in the middle of the table
- One of the Spymasters randomly chooses one of the key grid cards and slides it into the key grid card holder facing the spymasters so that the field operatives cannot see it. This Key Grid Card indicates which of the codenames in the 5×5 grid belongs to each team.
- Set the blue agent, red agent, and innocent bystander cards in front of the spymasters where they are easily reachable.
Objective
Spymasters give one word clues so that their field agents may choose the correct codenames to contact.
Gameplay
The four lights on the edges of the key grid card indicate which team goes first. The starting team has 9 codenames to find and the second team has 8.
Flip the Double Agent card to the team color going first, because they have 9 words to guess, add it to their colored agent cards.
The first team’s spymaster must only say 2 words: a clue and a number. The spymaster should give a clue that fits one or more of his team’s codenames and the number representing how many cards they are referring to. Example: Two of your codenames are NUT and BARK. Both of these grow on trees, so you say “Tree, two”.
When the spymaster gives their clue, their field operatives try to figure out what it means. They can debate amongst themselves, but the spymaster must stay silent and keep a straight face. Field operatives indicate their official guess when one of them touches a codename card. Field operatives may guess as many cards as the spymaster’s hint number. If they get all of them correct, they may guess one more.
If the field operative touches a card belonging to their team, the spymaster covers that codename with the colored agent card representing their team. Field operatives get to continue guessing, but the spymaster cannot give another clue.
If the field operative touches an innocent bystander, the spymaster covers that codename with an innocent bystander card and the turn ends.
If the field operative touches a card belonging to the other team, the codename is covered by one of the other team’s colored agent cards. This ends the turn and helps the other team.
If the field operative touches the assassin, the word is covered by the assassin card. This ends the game, and the team that contacted the assassin loses.
Field operatives must always make at least one guess on their turn. Any wrong guess ends the turn immediately. If they guess correctly, they can make another guess or stop guessing.
Spymasters take turns giving clues. After a spymaster gives a clue, their team starts guessing and the turn ends when they guess wrong, decide to stop, or contact the assassin or an innocent bystander.
Endgame
The game ends when one team has all their words covered by their colored agent cards, or if a field operative makes contact with the assassin.
Example / Demonstration
Blue team is first and the spymaster notices the words BARK and NUT and gives their team the clue “Tree, two”. The blue team field operatives first choose the word NUT and the spymaster puts a blue agent card over that codename. The blue field operatives then choose the word ORANGE which is an innocent bystander. The spymaster puts an innocent bystander card on top of the ORANGE codename card and the turn is over.
The red team spymaster gives the clue “River, 3”. The red team field operatives correctly choose the AMAZON and BED codenames, but cannot figure out the third word so they end their turn there.
It is now the blue team spymasters turn to come up with another clue for their field operatives. This continues until one team finds all of their codenames or a team contacts the assassin.
Variations and Alternate Rules
- Two Player Game: If there are only two of you, you can play on the same team or play the Duet edition of the game. This two-player variant also works for larger groups of people who don’t feel like competing against each other. You will try to get a high score against a simulated opponent. Set up the game as usual. One player will be the spymaster and the rest will be field operatives. The other team has no players, but you still need their stack of agent cards. Your team should go first, so be sure to pick a key card that makes you the starting team. Play your turns as usual. Try to avoid enemy agents and the assassin. The spymaster simulates the enemy team by covering up 1 of their words each time they get a turn. The spymaster gets to choose which word is covered, so there is a bit of strategy here. If your team contacts the assassin, or if all the enemy agents are contacted, you lose. There is no score. If your team wins, give yourselves a score based on how many agent cards are still left in the enemy’s stack.
- Three-Player Game: Three players who want to be on the same team can play as described above. If two players want to compete against each other, they can be spymasters and the third player can be their operative. Setup and gameplay are as usual, except that the single field operative is working for both sides. (Just like spies in real life!) The winning spymaster is determined in the usual way. The field operative tries to do a good job for both sides.
- Disney Edition: Even more fun for the kids! Codenames creators developed a Disney edition with character inspired artwork and gameplay friendly for all ages.
- Picture Edition: A special edition of codenames created into a picture game!
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Tips & Strategy
- You are allowed to use 0 as the number part of your clue. For example, feathers: 0 means, “None of our words relate to feathers.”
- Sometimes you may have multiple unguessed words related to clues from the previous rounds. If you want your team to guess more than one of them, you may say unlimited instead of a number. For example feathers: unlimited.
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