Section 5: Rules of Play
Starting the Game
- Agree on categories, allowed clue methods, turn length, scoring, and the winning condition.
- Create balanced teams and determine which team acts first by mutual agreement or a random method.
- The first actor privately draws or receives one prompt without showing it to any guesser.
- The timekeeper begins the clock after the actor has read the prompt and indicated readiness.
Permitted Acting
The actor may use body movement, pantomime, facial expressions, pointing to parts of their own body, and conventional Charades signals. The actor may indicate whether the prompt is a book, film, song, quotation, person, television program, or another agreed category. They may also show the number of words and identify which word or syllable they are acting.
Common signals include holding up fingers for the number of words, showing a finger again to select a particular word, pinching fingers close together for a short word, spreading hands apart for a long word, tugging an ear for “sounds like,” and placing hands together then opening them for “book.” Such signals are customs rather than mandatory vocabulary; groups may establish alternatives before play.
Prohibited Clues
- No speaking, whispering, humming, singing, lip-syncing, or intentionally making a sound that identifies the answer.
- No silently forming the answer with the lips.
- No spelling letters or words in the air, using sign language to spell the answer, or displaying written text.
- No pointing to visible words, letters, logos, or objects in the room as a direct answer clue.
- No revealing how the word is spelled, what letter it begins with, or how many letters it contains unless the group expressly allows such clues.
- No advance signals, coded systems, or private references understood only by selected teammates.
Completing a Turn
The turn ends immediately when the full prompt is guessed and accepted, when time expires, or when the actor concedes. A partial answer does not count unless it contains every essential part of the prompt. Articles such as “a,” “an,” and “the” may be ignored if the group agreed to do so, but meaningful words, names, numbers, and distinguishing terms must be correct.
Passing
Passing is optional and must be settled before play. Under a common rule, the actor may pass once per turn and draw a replacement, but the abandoned prompt cannot score during that turn. Another common format allows unlimited passes with a small point deduction for each pass.
Common Variations
- Free-for-all: One actor performs while every other player guesses; the first correct guesser becomes the next actor or earns a point.
- Speed Charades: A team solves as many prompts as possible during one longer turn, usually two or three minutes.
- Reverse Charades: The whole team acts simultaneously while one teammate guesses.
- Telephone Charades: Players privately pass an acted interpretation down a line, and the final player guesses the original prompt.
- Themed play: All prompts come from a chosen subject such as films, animals, sports, occupations, or historical figures.
- Steal play: If time expires, the opposing team receives one brief chance to identify the prompt.