GUESS WHO

OBJECT OF GUESS WHO: The object of Guess Who is to be the first player to guess their opponent’s character.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2 players

MATERIALS OF GUESS WHO: A rule book, a deck of faces, 48 face inserts (24 red and blue), 2 scorekeepers, and 2 player trays.

TYPE OF GAME: Board Game

AUDIENCE: 6+

OVERVIEW OF GUESS WHO

If you enjoy solving riddles and playing guessing games then this is the perfect game for you. Guess Who was released in 1979 and is still in production. It’s a game night classic that lets you play with people of all ages. 

SETUP FOR GUESS WHO

guess who

Guess Who is a relatively simple game. To get everything set up you only need an opponent, a flat surface, the game box, and your brain.

WHATS IN THE BOX?

The Guess Who game box includes the following:

  • Two game boards, one blue, one red 
  • 48 face tabs that correspond to each board
  • 24 mystery face cards
  • Yellow score pins

If this is your first time playing the game, you’ll need to separate the face tabs into red and blue and then insert them into their matching player board. 

PRE-GAME

Each player will then choose a board to use, either red or blue. Now tilt the board away from yourself, but have all the face tabs facing you. Now, you can shuffle the deck of mystery face cards, and you and your opponent can choose one card. Keep this card secret and place it in the slot on your game board facing yourself. This is the character your opponent must guess.

HOW TO PLAY GUESS WHO

Guess who questions

Choose one player to go first using any mechanism you want. After that, you are ready to begin playing.

QUESTIONS

On your turn, you can ask a single yes or no question to try to narrow down your character choices. So an example would be, “Is your character a woman?” If the answer is yes, you know you can flip down or rule out any men on the game board. Then, after you have asked and had your question answered, your turn is over.

A few examples of questions you could ask are:

  • Is your character a man?
  • Does your character wear glasses?
  • Does your character have gray hair?

GUESS YOUR CHARACTER

If, at some point, you believe you know who your opponent’s character is, you can take your turn to ask. Be careful, though, because if you are wrong, you will lose the game.

END OF GAME

If you use your guess to guess the correct character, you win.

VARIATIONS

While the regular game is extremely fun on its own, there are some variations you can add to make the game more fun or challenging.

TWO CHARACTER GAME

If you want a more challenging play, have each player draw two characters instead of one. Now, when you ask questions, you must ask if either or both characters have a trait. For example, “Do either of your characters have glasses?” If the answer is no, you can eliminate any glasses wearers. But if the answer is yes, you can rule out anyone.  This means you must be careful who you eliminate and remember all your previous questions. When guessing characters, you must guess both at the same time. You only win if you get both correct.

CHAMPION GAME

guess who champion

For champion play, use the score markers to keep track of who wins the games. Every time you win, you get a mark. So after you play a certain number of games, the player with the most marks is the winner.

If you love this game, try out Candyland for another fun kids game.

Alan Lemus
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