Before I started writing this, I had to double check to make sure I didn't already post about the game Monikers. I am actually shocked it has taken me so long to write about the best party game I have ever played. Actually, aside from Texas Hold'em Poker, this is my favorite game of any type and I have even played it just with our family of four.
Even though you can play with four people, the best part about Monikers is that you can play with basically an unlimited number of people. We just played with 26 people and it was still incredibly fun. I honestly can't think of another game that handle that many people.
There are many reasons that the game is so much fun. One is that it only takes about 3 minutes to explain. That is essential when you are dealing with a big group. When you are dealing with 26 people, it is nearly impossible to get everyone to focus for long elaborate rules (wait... this sounds like my classroom). But monikers is simple and awesome. There is a deck of cards. On each card, a word or wrods (person, idea, book, thing, meme, Instagram trend... basically anything) are written. Under the word or words is a brief description of what the word or words mean (this means old people don't even have to know what current trends or popular things are. They just need to read it aloud if they are a clueless old man like me). Under that is a number from one to four. These are the points your team earns if they guess your word. The numbers are based on difficulty level with four being the hardest. The deck is set by the players. In our game with 26 players, we handed a stack of 10 cards to each player and had them pick out four that they wanted included in the game. The "bad cards" were put back in the box. we then compiled all the cards to create a playing deck of 104 cards. Because there are so many cards, just picking the ones you want included is entertaining.
Once the deck and teams have been created, teams take turns trying to get their team to guess as many cards as possible in one minute. Play continues until all of the cards are guessed. There are three rounds. Each round uses the exact same set of cards (in this case the 104 we chose).
During the first round, one person on the team can say anything they want (except words or parts of words in the answer) to get their team to guess it. If a person does not know what the words mean, they can just read the description. If they do not think their team can get it, they can pass and put that card on the bottom of the deck. This round is usually the easiest as there are so few limitations. Even though there is a suggested guide on the card, if you know your team, you can say something very quick to get them to answer. For example, my son was on my team. When I was giving clues and I saw the word was "Hans Gruber from Die Hard", I just looked at him and said "The bad guy in the greatest Christmas movie ever". He immediately got it. If I had said 'The bad Guy from Die Hard" it would not have counted because I said the words 'Die Hard" and it was in the answer. This round is basically the old game show "$100,000 Pyramid". After one minute, the other team gets their turn and play goes back and forth until all cards have been answered. The teams tally their points for the round, shuffle the deck and prepare for round two.
The second round uses the exact same shuffled deck but you are only allowed to use one word to get your team to guess the word or words. This round is just like the old game show "Password". If you can't think of one word or your team can't guess it, you pass and try the next card. This one can be very fun as one word can be very funny in many cases. For the "Hans Gruber in Die Hard" example, all I needed to say was 'Christmas" and my son immediately got it. That is why the game is so much fun. You never know what one word is going to trigger the memory of the card. For a clue that was "Peeing next to someone at a urinal", the one word became "'sup" as that was described in round one as what guys do when they walk up. They say "'sup". This round continues until all cards are guessed. teams tally the points for the round, add them to the first round score, and then shuffle the cards for round three.
Round three again uses the exact same cards but this time players must act out the card and get their team to guess. Thai is the "charades" round. It is probably the funniest one as you get to act out some hilarious stuff. For this one, you might act out "Hans Gruber" falling at the end of the movie or maybe you act out a Christmas tree. For the "peeing next to someone at the urinal" I pantomimed walking in, unzipping my zipper and giving a head nod to an imaginary person next to me. After all the cards have been guessed, you tally that round and add it to the score of the previous two rounds. The highest score wins... but really everyone wins because there is always tons of laughter.
Here are a few cards. In the comments, write what you would do do in any of the three rounds in order to get your team to guess.
