Continue if you are looking for games like Taboo and are curious about what similar games to play next. Players take turns describing a word or phrase on a drawn card to their partner without using five common additional words or phrases also on the card. The opposing partners watch a timer and use a buzzer to stop the game, buzz the player describing if one of the five off limits words or phrases is used, or the describing player makes any gestures.
To determine this list we broke down Taboo to what it is. Taboo is a party communication game with hurdles. You have any way to communicate that you want but you must avoid words that would typically be used to do so. It is challenging but still very fun. If you are looking for something similar, you have come to the right place. We took all this into consideration and came up with this list of the 5 board games like Taboo.
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#05 | Decrypto
Decrypto makes the list of games like Taboo because it is another interesting party communication game that involves clues making a painstaking effort to get to other players and mean something. This adds much more of a puzzle aspect to the communication game, but the little roadblocks in saying the right things are still the big showcase.
Players compete in two teams in Decrypto (white and black), with each trying to correctly interpret the coded messages of their opponent before they do the same. On each team’s personal board, there are four cards tucked into the different screens (#’d 1 – 4). The team can see these words, the opponents cannot. Each round one team member per team is the decoder and draws a card with a series of numbers (relating to the 1 – 4). They have to get their team to guess this order by giving clues, but then you are also giving clues to your opponent. For 3 – 8 players, games run 15 – 45 minutes.
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#04 | Concept
Concept makes the list of board games like Taboo because it is another tricky communication game with an interesting hook. There is much more to it than just giving words, but you are still trying to paint a picture in a non traditional way. This does have you working in a different team dynamic but the vibe is the same. If you are looking to kick Taboo up a notch, this is a good choice for you.
Your goal is to guess words through the association of icons. A team of two players – neighbors at the table – choose a word or phrase that the other players need to guess. Acting together, this team places pieces judiciously on the available icons on the game board. Being the first to get there gets you points and high score wins. For 4 – 12 players, games run approximately 40 minutes.
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#03 | Codenames
Codenames makes the list of games like Taboo because you are also giving word clues to a partner that are very limited. Instead of the linear back and forth of getting a point or not, this game, however, has a whole different dimension about diminishing cards inside of a grid. This makes for different gameplay but those fun and interesting communication mix ups are still there.
The group is split into two teams. You are spies and you need to get your fellow operatives out of the field before your opponent does the same. This is represented by a grid of many words that secretly each have a blue operative, red operative, bystander or evil assassin under them. Each round, one member from each team gets to look at a decoder card showing all the locations and they need to communicate this to their team by giving 1-word answers. The key is that you need to give clues that apply to multiple spots to win. For 2 – 8 players, games run about 15 minutes per round.
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#02 | Time’s Up
Time’s Up makes the list of games like Taboo because it is a great party communication game that only delivers imperfect information. You need to get your teammates to guess real & fictional people while clues become more limited. The game is much more pop culture driven than Taboo but those fun hurdles and mix-ups in communication are what makes both games great.
This is a charades-based party game for teams of two or more players. Before the game begins, each player looks at several cards featuring famous historical or fictional characters and chooses some of them. Each player’s cards are shuffled to form a deck, and this deck of famous names is used for each of the game’s three rounds. In each round, team members take turns trying to get their teammates to guess as many names as possible in 30 seconds.
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#01 | Just One
Just One takes the top spot on the list of board games like Taboo because it is also a very straight game about delivering clues but with one little twist that throws everything out of whack. Instead of not being able to say common words, here you can use common words, but if multiple people use the same they get eliminated and the clues never make it out.
Players take turns having to guess a word. Before they do, the card with the word is revealed to the other players and they need to write down a clue to help them get there. It can be anything, but the hook is that duplicate clues get removed. It is more difficult than you think. The goal is to get a score as close to 13 as possible. For 3 – 7 players, games run about 20 minutes each.
