Taboo

01Discover the game

Taboo asks for a word to be guessed without saying the most obvious words to describe it. Your team listens and offers answers, while an opponent monitors the forbidden. You must quickly find another way to explain an idea, then move on to the next one before the end of the hourglass.

The overall difficulty is Medium. Mastery depends on the vocabulary, the accuracy of the descriptions and the listening under pressure. This chapter follows Classic Taboo Hasbro F5254, notice ©2023, without variations or tray. The English notice identified is used for the rules; the French examples on this page are original and do not reproduce the cards. The French-speaking personal box may contain another package: its quantity and duration of hourglass remain to be checked if its reference differs.

02Equipment

The F5254 edition includes 212 maps with a total of 848 words to guess, a flexible warning device, a score block and a hourglass. A pencil is required to record the results. The online tools offered by Hasbro are optional: physical equipment is enough.

A map has a word or expression to find and five words are forbidden. The color faces or zones allow to vary the series of words between the parts. The color chosen must be the same for both teams. We use the hourglass provided without assigning it an unconfirmed duration for all editions: return it entirely at the beginning of each turn.

03The goal

A word found brings a point to the team who guesses. A word passed voluntarily or a reported mistake brings a point to the other team. So you have to find a balance: looking too long is a waste of time, but spending too often gives points to the opponent.

04Preparing the game

Form two teams of equal size, with at least two people each. Choose the color of the words to use, orient all cards the same way and then make batteries face hidden for that color. Install players so that an opposing member can read over the donor's shoulder of clues without showing the card to those who guess.

Decide which team starts and set the duration of the game in number of turns: in this edition, each must pass the same number of times as donor of indices. For the first part, one passage per person suffices. An odd number requires a table adaptation; it does not correspond to the two equal teams of the chosen rule.

Keep three separate slots: successful cards, bad cards or past cards, and still playing packages. This storage avoids counting bad words at the end of the hourglass.

05Give authorised indices

The turn of a team

Choose your donor of clues and give him a package. An opponent takes warning and monitors the card. Return the hourglass. The donor reveals a card for himself and immediately begins to describe the main word without using the prohibited ones.

Its partners can offer as many answers as they wish during the time available. When they find, the card joins the Success pile and the donor immediately takes a new card. If a word seems too difficult, it can pass: the card joins the pile intended for the opponent. You must not discreetly put the card under the package without counting it.

Prohibited words and their transformations

The licensor may not pronounce any part of the words printed on the card, including the word to be found. Plurals, similar forms and abbreviations are not used to circumvent the ban. If "TV" is forbidden, saying "TV" is not a solution.

The prohibition concerns the donor's clues, not the spontaneous responses of the partners. A partner can therefore pronounce a forbidden word by seeking the answer; this does not automatically create a fault of the donor. However, the donor must continue to monitor his own formulations instead of taking the word forbidden in his next sentence.

No gestures or clues on the letters

The gestures, noises and sound effects are prohibited. One does not show an object in the room to replace the word. It is also forbidden to say "it rhymes with", "it looks like the sound of" or "it starts with the letter...". The game is about a description of the meaning, not a spelling guess.

Particularity of the notice F5254: it allows singing, while maintaining the prohibitions on words. Therefore, one cannot sing words containing the word to be found or a forbidden word. Do not automatically import the total ban on singing from another version.

A mistake and the end of the hourglass

If the donor breaks a rule, the opponent uses the warning device. The card is placed in the Faults pile and the donor immediately moves to a new card, without restarting the hourglass. At the end of the time, the descriptions are stopped and the two batteries are counted. The opposing team then plays with a new donor of clues at home.

The booklet does not specify the fate of a map that is just going on at the signal. Our teaching agreement is not to attribute it to any team if it was not found, passed, or at fault before the end. Advertise this choice to avoid a discussion at the last word.

06A turn and his score

For an original example, suppose the word "umbrella", with the prohibitions "rain", "wet", "open", "handle" and "protection". The donor could describe "an object that is carried over the days of shower and held above the head", without saying the prohibited words of this exercise. He cannot mimic the gesture of deploying one.

During a lap, Alice's team finds five words. Alice passes two and makes a mistake on a third. At the end, her team scores 5 points and the other 3. We don't just draw three points in total from Alice: the two teams receive their respective points, which results in the same difference on this round but keeps reading the scores correct.

If Bob, a partner who guesses, says himself "rain" during the example of the umbrella, this is not the fault of the donor. If Alice then repeats "yes, when there is rain", she pronounced the forbidden and the card becomes faulty. This example shows why it is necessary to distinguish the two roles well.

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07End of game and equality

Continue by alternating teams and changing donors of clues in each round. When all participants have given the same number of clues, compare the scores. Team to the largest total wins.

In the event of a tie, each team will have an extra lap. If equality persists, repeat a complete pair of laps rather than stop after the first team's success. All must have the same opportunity to score. There is no universal point threshold imposed in this version.

08Frequent errors

• Forget to give past cards to the other team.
• Use part of the word, an abbreviation or its plural.
• Point an object, mimic or make a noise.
• Putting a partner who guesses for saying a forbidden word.
• Turn the hourglass after each card instead of just one hourglass per turn.
• Finish the game while the teams did not have the same number of passages.

09Tips for starting

First read all the prohibitions: the first idea that comes is often precisely the one that needs to be avoided. Then leave a situation, a usage or a wider comparison. Your partners can offer a lot of answers; too complicated a description may slow down the whole group.

The overseer must remain alert without trying to create imaginary mistakes. After the hourglass, calmly explain the rule in question and regain the rhythm. With children, the vocabulary of the box can be difficult even if the rules are clear: choose a suitable edition rather than inventing answers or changing the prohibited card by card.