Tired of the same old drawing game routine? You know the drill: draw a card, scramble to sketch, and hope your teammates decipher your masterpiece. I’ve been craving a party game that feels fresh and pushes the boundaries of the classic “draw and guess” type of board game. Enter Scribble Me This! A debut game published by Pipnetic and co-designed by Zack Guido and none other than Steve Fin (The mastermind behind many of Pencil First Games: Herbaceous, What Not Cabinet, Floriferous, Sunset over Water, and my favorite–Delicious).
Scribble me this is a drawing game that uses creative thinking and can be enjoyed with as little as two and up to fifteen players. If you are craving a new party game that can be enjoyed with your partner during date night, a group of friends, family, or a large gathering, this may be the game you’ve been waiting for!
I’m writing this review during the Kickstarter campaign. Please note that the game is still in development, so the final product may differ from the prototype that was lent to me.
COMPONENTS
The prototype box came with an insert that allows you to store the game horizontally or vertically without causing a disaster. All the components are dry-erase!
An easy to follow rulebook
Game cards that are stored in a box with a blue and orange side. The blue side of each card is called draw (or answer side). The orange side of each card contains a riddle. The final game is expected to have 500 unique combinations
5 notepads that include the rules and your guesses for each round
10 canvases numbered A-J
One Card Pocket to place your drawings and ensure others don’t have the chance to peak at the solution before time
Scorecard
GAMEPLAY
Let the fun begin!
Setting Up
If playing with more than five players, divide the group into equal teams. Then hand out canvases, dry erase markers, erasers, and notepads. For a 3 player or team set up, provide 2 canvases to each team, for 4 or 5 player or team set up, provide two canvases. Then set up the Card Pocket with the DRAW side up in an accessible area.
How to Play
Phase One: Like a detective, grab as many cards as canvases from the blue side of the box. Make sure no one but you or your team sees the word. Then draw a representation of the word. No artistic abilities needed! Like any other drawing game, do not use words or letters. After everyone is finished drawing, admire everyone’s masterpieces.
Phase Two: Shuffle the Card Pocket with the orange side up. Make sure that no one can see the words on the blue side. Read all the riddles aloud. Secretly guess each riddle to a drawing.
Scoring
Read each riddle aloud and flip the card to reveal the answer. Identify the canvas showing that drawing. For each riddle, reveal your guess and score.
Winning the Game
The team with the most points at the end of how many rounds you’d like to play. When we played with nine players, we talked about only doing one round and we played three! You score 3 points for each correct guess on other people’s drawings.
On your drawing, you score 1 point for each player that correctly guessed your canvas, and 2 more points if you correctly guessed your own canvas. If you only guessed your canvas, you would only score 1 point!
KEY FEATURES
Playing count: It can play with 2 up to 15 players!
Simple rules: easy to learn and teach. There is a co-op version for 2 players and the game scales well with teams
Simultaneous drawing and guessing: I love games like this. There’s no downtime and the game is interactive, relatively short, and fast paced
Encourages creativity: think outside the box and unleash your inner Picasso (stick figures that resemble hieroglyphics also encouraged)
PROS
Fast-paced
Easy to explain and play
Fun for your whole group
No artistic talent required: some drawings may elicit laughter
At higher count, it fosters teamwork: Teams rely on each other's communication and deduction skills to score points
Highly replayable: with a large deck of riddles, every game brings a fresh set of challenges and drawing opportunities
CONS
Can get loud and chaotic: with large groups, deciphering bad drawings can lead to some noisy guesswork which can lead other teams to get extra information
Only available in United States
Not language independent: Like many drawing games, this is hard to play with people that do not enjoy reading or in my case with family that do not speak English
May not be suitable for players that do not enjoy fast-paced simultaneous play
Prototype opportunities:
The Card Pocket struggles when fitting more than six cards, a larger pocket may be better suited
The box that contains the cards has a low cut that makes it easy to see the next word coming out
Some of the riddles are very long
SIDE NOTE
One of my gaming groups is extremely competitive, so we also tried the game with our own twist. Instead of dividing into groups, we played a few rounds individually. We followed the instructions in the sense that each of us received one drawing, but instead of scoring in groups, we scored individually.
Since there were eight of us, we didn't have enough scorecards, so we distributed tokens to everyone. We then placed the tokens face down on each riddle card. Finally, we scored on a dry erase board. I really enjoyed playing the game as teams, but playing it individually was more up my alley. It prevented quarterbacking and disputes among solution picking.
CONCLUSION
If you're tired of the same old drawing game routine, check out Scribble Me This! The game offers a refreshing take on the classic "draw and guess" genre. The gameplay is innovative, it has creative challenges, and it is suitability for both small gatherings and large parties. Grab your markers, unleash your inner artist, and get ready for a gaming experience that's as fun as it is unpredictable.
Comments