Codenames Rules & Information Sticky
Thanks to ArcticKnight for his work compiling this:
POG Codenames Rules
This post has been prepared to consolidate all rule changes/amendments that are specific to POG Codenames games. There have been several changes in the last two years, but they have not been consolidated into one thread, post or sticky, thus not all players are aware of them.
The original POG Codenames rules (set by rtspurs) are in the link below:
The face-to-face Codenames Boardgame rules are in the link below:
New players should read both links, as what is contained below are only POG amendments, thus they do not repeat the vast majority of the game rules.
1.All clues must be one word only. While proper nouns are allowed, clues like George Washington or Brad Pitt are not allowed. You can use Washington or Pitt if you like.
2.Hyphenated words are NOT allowed. You can’t use Mother-in-law or twenty-three.
3. Acronyms (e.g. POG, FBI, NATO, etc) are allowed - the one exception to this rule is if a word that makes up the acronym is in the board, then it is not allowed.
4.Numbers are allowed in written form if they are non hyphenated and not more than one word (e.g. eight, thirteen, forty, thousand, million, etc). However, you can use any number you want in numerical form (e.g. 8, 2001, 3.14159, 911 etc.).
5.A word (other than a proper noun) is a legal word if the spymaster can find it in the merriam-webster online dictionary. So, even though a word like Sexpionage has a wiki page, it is not yet considered a word by merriam-webster, so it is not a legal POG Codenames word.
6.If a spymaster is in doubt about whether a potential clue is legal, check with the tourney organizer (if it is a tourney game) and/or the other spymaster. But, don’t ask either to bend the rules above.
7.Using an illegal clue. The penalty for using an illegal clue is (1) immediate loss of turn and (2) the opposing team’s spymaster gets to reveal a word of his/her choice.
8.Accidental infractions. From time to time strange stuff will happen. A spymaster might accidentally make a mistake in a board update, a wrong word may be revealed, etc. In these cases the tourney coordinator should resolve the matter. If it is not a tourney game the two spymasters can come to a fair resolution. It may sometimes be the case that the only fair resolution is to restart the game with a new board. However, that is a last resort.
Codenames Long-List rules.
These are additional rules for long list games.
17 reds, 16 blues, 15 neutrals and 2 assassin words.
Longlist Rule 1: There are two assassin words: If an assassin word is chosen, the opposing spymaster gets to flip an unrevealed word of his/her choice. If the same team hits both assassin words, they lose the game.
Longlist Rule 2. For long-list games each team is permitted to pick up to 2 extra words each turn (instead of the normal 1 extra word). For example, if you get a clue of Monkey 2 you can pick up to 4 words. Monkey Unlimited, of course, would still allow you to pick until you are wrong (or you want to stop).
Link to GabeTheBabe's Codenames word randomizer.
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