If you are good with words and enjoy a fun word game, then ‘Contact’ is what you are looking for. It is a timeless, and intelligent group game that you can play with your friends anywhere and anytime.
Brief Summary
One player thinks of a word, gives the first letter and then the two players guess what the word is.
This game is like one player versus a whole group of players where the players can both individually or as a team guess the word giver’s word.
This is a really fun twist on the hangman game that takes one’s intelligence, wit, and also how well people playing the game know each other.
What makes this game unique is the guessers use their intelligence and friendship to try and guess the same word together by shouting ‘Contact’.
How to Play
Requirement and Set up the game
The game Contact is a witty group game that needs no props or a special setting nor does it have any time constraints. Players can sit wherever they want, whether it be in a living room or around a campfire.
You need a minimum of three players to play Contact. Moreover, players can join in anytime. This game has no winners or losers and no player is eliminated at any point.
Then, one of the players lays out the ground rule for everyone and starts off the game by thinking of a word and telling the whole group the first letter of that word.
Play the game
When the player gives the first letter of the word, the players can start brainstorming and guessing the word. If they do not get it right, the other player makes a guess.
The guesses can be random and there are no turns or number of turns.
The rule of Contact is when there is a player who thinks he/she knows what the word might be, he/she mentions a synonym of the word in the word giver’s mind.
So when he/she gives a hint and another player catches the hint, he/she shouts ‘Contact’ and then both those players together have to say the word that they guessed at the same time. It is usually done with a 3, 2, 1 and then the word.
If the players both say the same word and it is not the right guess, then the player who has given the word gives them a second letter of the word and the whole process is repeated. If it is a short word, the players usually get the word after three or four hints.
More than one player can make contact and guess at the hinted word but before they countdown and say the word, the word giver is given a chance to guess the word the players are hinting at. If he gets the word right, then the players go back to guessing and the word giver does not give a second or third letter.
If the word giver cannot guess the word after they have yelled contact, then he/she has to give another letter of the word. The players keep repeating this until they guess the word.
There is no time constraint and no limit of guesses. The players can make as many guesses as they need. When one word is guessed, another player from the group goes and thinks of a word and then the rest of the players have to guess it.
Example
This game can be best understood with an example.
Suppose one player – the word giver – has chosen the word ‘insomnia’. He gives the first letter ‘I’ to the players and they start guessing. At this point, everyone is individually giving guesses like incredible, ill, etc.
If one of the players says that he/she wants to give a synonym to the word, he/she might say ‘boring’. If another player thinks he/she knows it, he/she says Contact and then the players before saying the word let the word giver guess it first.
Now the word they are thinking is ‘Idle’ but the word giver guesses it right. So they go back to guessing. But if he/she does not say idle, they say 3,2,1, idle.
Then, the word giver has to give them another letter which at this point is ‘n’. The players play again and one gives a hint ‘unimportant’ and then two players shout Contact and then say the word ‘insignificant’.
At this point, the word giver has to give them the letter ‘s’. If the rest of the players guess it right and say ‘insomnia’, it is time for a new round of Contact.
Here is a YouTube video that will make it more clear how to play Contact.
How to Make the Game Funnier and More Difficult
There are many ways to make the game more difficult.
1, Restricting the number of guesses
When the number of guesses is reduced, everyone has only a few options to get it right otherwise they do not get to guess the word.
This makes the game very interesting because players have to guess very carefully and do not have the luxury of throwing out any word that comes to mind.
2. Teaming with best friends
This is a fun trick as best friends know their partners quite well to guess the word before any hint. Instead of having the word giver versus an entire group of players, dividing into teams will make Contact competitive and exciting.
3. Making a specific category
When the players give each other specific categories to choose words from, the game becomes much more fun. Everyone has to guess in that category and it also means the players need to have a strong vocabulary.
4. Sticking to words with a specific number of letters
This rule will also make it more fun and tricky for one to pick and others to guess the word. For example, players can choose to work with 5-letter or 7-letter words only.
Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed the tutorial for this game and will have even more fun playing Contact with your friends and family. This game is not only fun but also educational, as you might get to learn new words.
Similar other games are hangman, ghost, and the green glass door. Make sure to check out our other tutorials for more games and remember to leave your feedback or queries in the comments section. Have fun!
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