Monikers
Monikers Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
GETTING STARTED
Monikers only takes about 5-10 minutes to learn. Start by dividing your group into 2 teams.
Deal 10 cards to each person. Everyone secretly chooses 5 that they like. Shuffle all the cards people chose into one deck, which will be used by both teams for the entire game. Put the other cards back in the box.
You want to aim for using around 40-50 cards in the deck, so deal fewer and choose fewer when playing with a big group, and deal more and choose more with a small group.
The team with the best story about meeting someone famous goes first. Or totally random.
HOW TO PLAY
Monikers is played in 3 rounds. In each round, a person from the starting team has 60 seconds to get their team to guess as many names as possible from the deck by giving clues about the person's identity. (If you're playing with 10+ people, go with 30-45 seconds to give everyone a chance to give clues.) There's no limit to the number of guesses.
Skipping is allowed and highly encouraged.
Teams keep the cards they guessed correctly to score after the round. Reshuffle skipped cards into the deck after each turn for the next team to use.
Teams take turns giving clues. Each player should take a turn giving clues before any teammates repeat. Go in clockwise order or feel free to use some other system.
A round ends when all cards from the deck have been guessed correctly. When that happens, teams add the point values from each card they correctly guessed. Write those numbers down somewhere, then shuffle all the cards back together into one deck for the next round. The team with the lowest score begins the next round.
RULES FOR EACH ROUND
Each of the 3 rounds has a restriction on how you can give clues:
ROUND 1
Use any words, sounds, or gestures. You can't use the name itself. If you use any part of the name, you have to skip that card and shuffle it back into the deck. Reading the clue text is allowed.
ROUND 2
Use only 1 word as a clue. It can be anything except the name itself. You can repeat that word as much as you like, but no sounds or gestures.
ROUND 3
Just charades. No words. Sound effects are OK (within reason).
ENDING THE GAME
The team with the highest total score after 3 rounds wins. But feel free not to keep score at all. It's fun to play competitively, but not necessary. If you have any unanswered questions, contact us or just go with whatever works best for your group. Having fun is more important than getting the rules perfect.
VARIANTS
Monikers is based on a public domain game, so there are lots of different ways to play:
PUBLIC
If you're out somewhere, you can just pull cards from the box and try to get your friends to guess using the rules for Round 1 or 2. Probably no need to use a timer or keep score.
EXTRA ROUNDS
You can add rounds with different rules. We've seen people play rounds with making a single sound, holding a facial expression, and playing the charades round under a sheet. Seriously.
MULTI TEAM
If your group is getting too big, you might want to divide into more than 2 teams. But if you do, still try to keep the total number of cards in the deck around 50.
CO-OP
If you're with a small group (4 or less), try playing cooperatively. Our friend Alan Gerding invented a fun variant where you set a timer-add 1 minute per card in the deck-and try to finish all 3 rounds in the allotted time (including reshuffling, etc).
FAQ
Q: Someone guessed part of the name or something really close to it. Does that count?
A: To keep things moving during a turn, the person giving clues should decide whether their team guessed correctly. After their turn, feel free to argue about it-that can be a lot of fun, actually-but try not to interrupt them while the timer is going. Our view is that as long as a person got the gist of the name, it should count.
Q: My friends aren't internet weirdos like you. What should I do if they don't know who a lot of these people are?
A: Dealing out more cards at the beginning of the game helps, since that will give them more to choose from.
Q: This guy did a robot voice for the Stephen Hawking clue. Is that allowed?
A: Sure-different intonations and sound effects are fine. It's ultimately up to you guys about how strict to be, but you should let anything funny or clever slide.
Q: Can you say the shortened version of a name as a clue, like Mike for Michael?
A: No. Also no spelling out the name or using initials.
Q: One of the players is using the game as an excuse to say racist/misogynistic stuff. What should I do?
A: Tell them it's not cool and/or find new friends.
Q: The word "The" and "A" are in the name. Can I still use them while giving clues?
A: Yes, of course.