Monikers: Family Edition

The same game, minus the cards you have to skip when your nan is playing.

Monikers works in three rounds using the same deck each time. Round one you can say anything except the name on the card. Round two you get one word. Round three is charades. By the third round the table has built up a set of private references — the one word someone used for Cleopatra, the terrible mime for a jellyfish — and that accumulation is the whole joke. The Family Edition is a standalone box of 440 cards written so a six-year-old is in on it rather than watching.

It is not a watered-down version so much as a re-aimed one: same structure, same escalating format, references chosen so that nobody at the table is left out. Runs about half an hour and scales properly — more people makes it better, not slower, which is rare. If you already own the original this is a second deck for the occasions when the original would not survive contact with the grandparents.

Perfect for: Christmas, where the alternative is watching three generations fail to agree on a film.

2–12+ players | About 30 minutes | Age 6+ | 440 cards

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