Tabletop Tuesday - Pictionary

Welcome to another edition of Tabletop Tuesday - Your weekly exploration into games of dice, cards, luck and more of the Tabletop world.

This week's game...the game of quick sketches and picturesque messes that is Pictionary.

Players: 4+
Time: 45-90 minutes
Genre: Social / Party Game




Pictionary is a terrific group game that can be enjoyed by the artistic and not so artistic alike (which sometimes makes the game that much more amusing).  The premise is easy enough: Players divide into teams in which one player in each team will take turns being the artist.  They will roll to advance their team on the board and depending on what space is landed upon, a category is determined for which the artist will draw a card and attempt to draw that word / idea in under a minute.  If their team members can guess the word in the allotted time, that team can continue to advance around the board.  Otherwise, the other team begins their turn.  On occasion, the cards will say "All Play", which means both teams' artists compete at the same time.  First team to guess the picture gets to proceed play and continue advancing.  The key to success is not to get stuck on one idea, as there can often be many creative ways to illustrate / communicate the same idea.

Clearly dignity.

Even without the board game itself, the game of Pictionary can still be enjoyed as long as you still have the means to draw and a few slips of paper to create your own word bank (much like a DIY charades).  In this way, you can create a fun themed night of dandy doodles, be it sci-fiction themed to super heroes.  Or you can give a little more freedom as to the topic, such as "someone in this room", to which the resulting attempts can make for a delightful and long-lasting inside joke for all to remember.  I recommend this game for those enjoy creative thinking and have access to a large whiteboard / dry erase markers.

If you have any questions about Pictionary, let me know in the comments below.  Otherwise, stay tuned to future installments of Tabletop Tuesday.  And happy gaming!

Bonus: If you have some free time and want to play a Pictionary-like game against some artificial intelligence, try playing Google's Quick Draw.  It collects the world's attempted doodles to learn and identify what is being sketched.  A very fun and addicting game.