Just One is a game that was added to our shelves yesterday as a Christmas gift. It is the winner of the 2019 Spiel de Jahres. We are already addicted to it; this is particularly true of David who keeps asking to play it. I think we've played it 7 times in the last two days (and that's despite other games, a jigsaw puzzle, Christmas dinner, and having two toddlers in the house!). It's definitely a good party game, but it does only include as many as 7 players. The picture below is of Caleb explaining the rules for our first go at it. This was after our Christmas dinner - rather a small party this year, but always good to be with family, whoever can make it! And with us, games are always involved!
This is a cooperative game, which is something I always appreciate. Each player takes a turn having the word card in front of him/her. The playing boards are shaped in a way that functions as an easel, and the player with the card sets it up so that he/she can't see it. That person then chooses a number at random, and it is the word associated with that number that the other players need to get that player to say. In order to do this, the other players may write JUST ONE word on their easel, and there are certain restrictions about what sorts of words you can and cannot use.
The example below was Caleb's card. He said "3," so the other players tried, independently, to come up with a single word that would get Caleb to say "Crepe." Once each player has written a word, the writers look at all written words. If any match, then those players with matches have to put their easels face-down, and that word is out of the game. The guesser then has fewer words to use in making his guess. It can be pretty tricky to decide on the word you want to write, as you don't want it to be so obvious that other players write the same word, nor do you want it to be so obscure that the guesser is confused by it. On the other hand, when everybody tries too hard to be unique by using clever words rather than obvious words you can end up getting repeats that way too!
The pens are kind of light in color, so it was a bit hard to capture on the camera. I think the words given for Crepe were French, Dessert, Thin, and Pancake. (I think the word Fancy was used too but is off the edge of the picture.)
Play consists of 13 rounds. A guesser can choose to pass if he thinks he won't get the word - in this way only one point is lost, whereas if a wrong guess is made, two points are lost. In one of the games we played today a guesser had only one card to go on. The word that needed to be guessed was Potato, and four of the six writers put Spud, so all of those four had to hide the word. One person put Idaho. The guesser decided to go for it and did get Potato, which I thought was very impressive! I'm sure we'll be playing a lot more of this in the future!
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