How to Play Pictionary
While most people know how to play this well-known game, sometimes a little refreshing of the mind is needed! Below is how you can play this incredible game which will keep everyone involved entertained and sociable!
Pictionary is a guessing game whose object is to successfully communicate a word or a phrase to the rest of your team by drawing pictures on a drawing board. If there is no drawing board available, that’s no worries! Drawing on a piece of paper (the bigger the better) can suffice. Just be sure to keep the paper or drawing board in such a position that the people guessing can see what’s being drawn, while being drawn! But remember, drawing words or letters, along with speaking and mouthing words, is not allowed.
Players divide into teams and one person from the team must draw things relating to a word or phrase so that the rest of their team can guess. They have a limited amount of time to do so, and if successfully guessed within the required timeframe, the team is rewarded a point. If time runs out, no points are given.
The opposing team members tend to know the word or phrase that’s being drawn. This helps to keep things fair. However, there are different ways of playing the game, in which the person drawing is the only one who knows it. This enables all players to have a go and cuts down on the wait. If you are playing with kids, we recommend the latter version - sometimes it can be impossible to explain to young children that it is not yet their turn!
Unlike charades, there are no clues at the start for miming what category the phrase relates to (such as a movie or TV show, etc.) or how many words there are present in the phrase. Nevertheless, this doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t draw a TV set to signal TV show, for example. But remember, you are not allowed to write letters or numbers, so trying to explain how many words there are may prove difficult! Additionally, if drawing against the clock, time can be an issue, so sometimes just jumping right in to try and get people to guess the word or phrase is the best method!
The words or phrases are usually chosen from categories familiar to all people playing. Categories such as movies, celebrities, songs, actions, and books are all allowed. However, if you’re playing with kids, for example, it might be best to come up with phrases they will understand under each of these categories, as it would be easier for them to guess! In the past, the players would have to think of ideas, write them down on a piece of paper and then pull them out of a hat. Now, you don’t have to worry about that. Simply open our online phrase generator, and you will gain access to a bunch of Pictionary ideas for everyone to use!