Codenames: Pictures (English)

Codenames: Pictures is a variant of the hugely popular party game Codenames. Like its predecessor, it is about association and creative thinking.

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

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

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