How to Play Pictionary

Ready? Set? Draw! This is a great word-guessing game with pictures you draw as the clues for your team partners. You don't need to be an artist to draw in this game, where the originality of the players creates a lot of fun. You will need at least three people to play the board game version.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Timer Or Stopwatches
• Card Tables
• Chairs
• Prizes
• Beverages
• Party Snacks
• Pencils
• Paper

1. Divide the players into teams.

2. Name a permanent "picturist" if you have only three players. He will draw all the clues for the other two players.

3. Have each team select a picturist to do the drawing for the first word if you have four or more players. This duty rotates to all players in turn. The remaining team members try to guess the word being drawn.

4. Have each team place a playing piece in the start square on the board. Roll the die to see who gets the highest roll to go first.

5. Let the beginning team's picturist select the first card. She has only 5 seconds to study the word she will sketch.

6. Start the timer, and give the picturist 60 seconds to sketch clues for her teammates.

7. Allow the picturist's teammates to try guessing the word for the full 60 seconds as long as the picturist draws no words, letters or numbers and uses no body gestures.

8. Have a successful team that has identified the word within the time limit roll the die. The team moves ahead on the board by the number of spaces indicated on the die.

9. Let the same team then select the next card and continue with a new picturist. Only when the time expires before a word is identified does play rotate to the left to another team.

10. Continue play until a team wins by landing on the finish square and identifying the word selected.

Tips & Warnings

• Each card lists different words in five categories. The correct word to be sketched is determined by the location on the board of the team's playing piece.

• If the playing piece is on a space marked "All Play" or if the word to be sketched is marked as an "All Play" word (with a triangle mark beside it on the card), then all teams sketch and guess at the same time to see who gets it first.

• The die is not rolled at the beginning of a turn. It is rolled at the end, only when a word is successfully guessed. A turn begins with the selection of a card.

• A playing piece must stay on the same square as long as its team does not identify the given word.

• The picturist duties rotate to a new player on your team every time the team must sketch.

• There are different versions of Pictionary, including Pictionary Junior for ages 7 to 11 and Pictionary on CD-ROM, which can be played solo or over the Internet. See Related Sites and Things You'll Need.

• In special "All Play" situations a picturist from each team gets to look at the word and sketch it for his teammates. All teams do this simultaneously, and the first team to identify it wins the word. Winning the "All Play" situations is very important since you are competing against everyone at the same time. And since the normal rotation of play may be changed, you might miss a turn if the team to your left wins the word.