Codenames: Harry Potter

Codenames: Pictures with a twist. Codenames: Harry Potter is a variant of the hugely popular party game Codenames – this time with pictures from the Harry Potter universe. Like its predecessor, it is about associations and creative thinking.

Two teams compete against each other. One player on each team is the ‘spymaster’ and knows the identity of all the spies in the network. They now have to communicate these to the rest of their team. The team that first makes contact with all its agents wins the game.

At the start of the game, 5 x 5 tiles are laid out on the table. The tiles are printed with pictures that all show odd, imaginative things; for example a windmill with insect wings or a kangaroo with a lizard’s back.

The spymasters have a secret card that tells them which 8 tiles on the table conceal their team’s agents. They now take turns hinting to their team which tiles those are. The only problem is that they may say just one word and one number. The word has to make the team guess which tiles are meant. The number indicates how many cards/agents the word is associated with. It is then up to the teammates to find the right tiles, but they must be careful; behind one of the words hides an assassin, and if that word is chosen, the team has lost. The first team to identify all its agents has won the game.