How to Teach Codenames in Five Minutes

Codenames has a reputation as an easy party game, and once you know the four roles and the one rule everyone forgets, it genuinely is. Here is the whole game, explained the way the publisher itself describes it.

The setup and the two teams

According to Czech Games Edition, the publisher, a game of Codenames lays out "25 cards, each featuring a single word." Two players take on a special role called the spymaster, one per team, and they "share a key card that shows which words correspond to agents from each team, innocent bystanders, and the assassin." Everyone else on each team is a regular teammate, sometimes called a field agent, and they only see the 25 words on the table, never the key card.

This asymmetry is the entire game: the spymasters know the secret identity behind every word, and the teammates are trying to figure it out from clues alone.

The goal

Czech Games Edition states the objective plainly: "each spymaster wants their team to identify all of their agents first, without accidentally revealing the assassin." There are two ways to lose sight of while playing: being slower than the other team to find your own agents, and accidentally pointing your own team toward the wrong card.

How a turn works

On a spymaster's turn, according to the publisher's description, they give "one-word clues followed by a number," where the clue should relate to multiple cards on the table that their team should try to guess, and the number tells their team how many cards are connected to that particular clue.

Once a clue is given, teammates guess cards one at a time. The publisher's rules describe what happens based on what they flip:

• A correct guess (one of their own team's agent cards): the team "can keep going," meaning they may guess again toward the same clue.
• An incorrect guess that reveals an opposing team's card or an innocent bystander: "their turn ends" immediately.
• The assassin: according to the publisher, "if they choose the assassin? Game over," ending the entire game instantly for the team that picked it, regardless of how far ahead they otherwise were.

The one detail new players always forget

The clue's number is a target, not a hard limit in one direction. A team is allowed to guess fewer cards than the number given (if they are unsure about the remaining ones) or stop early and bank what they have correctly identified so far, but they are also allowed one extra guess beyond the stated number as a way of using an earlier clue's leftover word. New players consistently forget this and either stop too early out of caution or assume they are locked into guessing exactly the stated number, so it is worth calling out explicitly before the first turn.

Why the assassin changes how people actually play

The assassin is the single card that, once chosen, Czech Games Edition confirms ends the game outright: "Game over." This completely changes the incentive structure of giving clues. A spymaster is not just trying to connect their team's agents with a clever single word; they are also trying to avoid any clue that could plausibly point toward the assassin card, even if that clue would otherwise perfectly describe three of their own team's cards. New spymasters tend to focus entirely on cleverness and forget to double-check the assassin's position before giving a clue, which is the most common way games are lost in the first few rounds.

A five-minute teaching script

If you are introducing new players, this is roughly the shortest path through the rules above:

1. "There are 25 words on the table. Two of us are spymasters, we each see a hidden key showing which words belong to your team, the other team, innocent bystanders, and one assassin."
2. "Your spymaster gives a one-word clue and a number. The number tells you how many words on the table connect to that clue."
3. "Guess the words you think match. Get your own team's word right, keep guessing. Hit the other team's word or a bystander, your turn ends."
4. "Hit the assassin, and the game ends immediately, no matter how far ahead you were."
5. "First team to find all of their own agent words wins."

Key takeaways

• Two spymasters each see a hidden key identifying every word's true owner; everyone else only sees the 25 plain words on the table.
• A clue is one word plus a number, telling teammates how many table words that clue is meant to connect to.
• Guessing your own team's card correctly lets you keep guessing; guessing wrong (an opposing card or bystander) ends your turn immediately.
• Guessing the assassin card ends the entire game instantly for the team that picked it, which is why clue-giving is as much about avoiding that card as it is about being clever.
• New players most often misunderstand the clue number as a strict limit rather than a target, and forget that spymasters must weigh assassin-avoidance against cleverness when choosing a word.