Our step-by-step guide to the rules of how to play Just One board game. This party game takes a tired and true format and adds one interesting hook that completely turns the genre on its head. The fun word guessing is fitting for players young and old, casual and hardcore. The game is for 3 – 7 players at ages 8+. The rules for how to play Just One are very simple. You will be in the swing of things after a quick round to get you acclimated.
FOR MORE: Just One Page | Games Like Just One | Buy Just One on Amazon
HOW TO PLAY JUST ONE – WHAT IS IT?
Just One is a cooperative party game. You all play together to get the best score!
Together, make one of the players – the active player– guess a Mystery word by secretly writing a clue on your easel.
Choose your clue without coordinating with each other and be original so as not to write the same clue as another player, as all identical clues will be canceled before the active player gets to see them. At the end of the game, tally your score based on the number of Mystery words found
HOW TO PLAY JUST ONE – STEP BY STEP
Time Needed: Approximately 20 minutes.
This is a step by step guide for how to play Just One the popular word guessing party game. Additional notions and special rules can be found below the list. These will be referenced for your convenience.
1. SETUP | Create Face Down Deck
To kick off how to play Just One setup, you need the cards that will determine the rounds for the game. Shuffle the cards and randomly draw 13 to create a face-down deck in the middle of the table. Return the remaining cards to the box, they will not be used this game.
2. SETUP | Give Out Player Easels
Give each player one of the easels and dry erase board markers so they can record their clues each round.
3. SETUP | Choose Starting Player
Use your randomizer of choice to determine who will start things off.
4. GAMEPLAY | Active Player Chooses Mystery Word
The active player flips over the top card from the center deck and places it on their easel without looking at it. All other players can see it. This is a card with 5 different words on it. The active player chooses to signal the chosen word to the other players.
5. GAMEPLAY | Non Active Players Write A Clue
Based on the chosen word, all other players need to provide a clue to help the active player guess that word. Think of a single word to use and write it on the easel with the marker. Do this in secret without others seeing it.
6. GAMEPLAY | Eliminate Duplicate Clues
The hook of the game is that any one word that was used more than once is eliminated. This makes you be creative and not use the most obvious stuff. After everyone has written their clue, take away any duplicates.
7. GAMEPLAY | Active Player Tries To Guess Secret Word
After duplicates have been removed, the active player gets to see all the remaining clues. From those, the active player must guess what they think the word is. If you are successful you keep the card and if you are not, you throw it into the game box with the top, unrevealed, card from the deck. You may also skip, not making a guess, which would only make you lose the one card instead of two.
8. GAMEPLAY | Pass and Repeat
After a round has completed, the active player moves clockwise and you repeat the whole process. This continues until the central deck no longer has any cards in it.
9. WINNING | Get Through The Deck
Depending on how many cards you get right, there is a rating assigned to your game. As long as you are able to get at least 8 of the 13 cards at the end, you technically win, and then better scores give you a better ranking like “Incredible! Your friends must be impressed!”
HOW TO PLAY JUST ONE – KEY INFORMATION
FINAL POINTS RESULT
13 Perfect score! Can you do it again?
12 Incredible! Your friends must be impressed!
11 Awesome! That’s a score worth celebrating!
9-10 Wow, not bad at all!
7-8 You’re in the average. Can you do better?
4-6 That’s a good start. Try again!
0-3 Try again, and again, and again.
ILLEGAL CLUES
• The Mystery word but written differently.
Example: Shurt is not allowed when trying to make the player guess Shirt.
• The Mystery word written in a foreign language.
Example: Buisson is not allowed if the word to be guessed is Shrub.
• A word from the same family as the Mystery word.
Example: Princess is not allowed if the word to be guessed is Prince.
• An invented word.
Example: Swee’ting is not allowed to try to help someone guess Cake.
• A word phonetically identical to the Mystery word, but the meaning of which is different.
Example: Whether is not allowed to try to get someone to guess Weather
GAME CONTENTS
- 110x Cards
- 7x Easels
- 7x Erasable Felt Markers
- 1x Rulebook
HOW TO PLAY JUST ONE – IN CLOSING
We hope you can now say you know how to play Just One. This is a fun party clue guessing game that does cooperative in an interesting way that has never been done before. The hook that duplicates get eliminated seems like a simple thing but you would be amazed at how much complexity it adds to the experience. This is such a lively game that any group of players will enjoy. Learning how to play Just One is easy, it is being able to properly communicate with your group that takes some challenge.
