Articulate

Articulate is a brilliant team board game that requires you to describe words to your team so that they can guess the word. It has been a big favourite for a long time, and we recommend it highly.

Object of the game
The object of Articulate is to work your way around the Articulate game board from the start to the finish line with your team's game piece against opposing teams.

Instead of a dice, the number of moves you make is determined by how many words your team guesses correctly before a sand timer runs out. For example, if your team correctly guess five words, then you move your piece forward five steps.

It's therefore to your advantage if you are a fast talker and a good explainer!

The words you have to describe are printed on cards, and fall under one of these categories:
- Object
- Action
- Person
- Geography
- Nature
- Random

There are rules which govern what you can and cannot do while you are trying to explain the words -eg. you can't say "it starts with an 'M'", and can't say "sounds like house".

If your piece lands on a 'control segment' (a segment on the board with a spade on it), then it is an All Play round. All teams have to try and guess a word that is described by one person. In this case the egg timer is not used - you play until the word is correctly guessed by one of the teams. All Play rounds give other teams the opportunity to take your turn away from you.

Some categories are easier than others - eg. Object is really easy. Things like Person and Geography require players to have a broader understanding of the world and history and culture - fairly similar to the level of Trivial Pursuit. We like that has this certain 'intellectual' quality about it.

There is also a spinner in the middle of the board (too much detail to explain here), but it basically gives you the chance to jump forward spaces, or push back other teams!
　

Why Articulate is fun!

• Trying to explain words as quickly as possible before the time runs out!
• It tests your general knowledge
• It gets you to exercise your ability to be clear and concise
• It can get quite competitive
  　

What's in the Articulate box?

- 504 cards with 3024 entries
- Quarter fold circular board
- Spinner arrow
- Sand timer
- 4 playing pieces
- Rules


Handy Articulate Hints

a) If you get to move forwards or move your opponents backwards using the spinner, try and choose options that get your team on an easy category eg. Object. Alternatively you can force your opponents to do a hard category eg. Person.

b) If you are the describer, be prepared with a large chunk of cards to rattle off. Try not to waste too much time fumbling with cards, have an easy and fast method of flicking to the next card.

c) Depending on the ability of the teams playing, you may want to consider allowing teams to pass more than once if they simply can't get a word. We once played and gave teams three chances to pass on a word. Once the team runs out of the given number of times to pass, they have to go back to the very first word they passed on.

d) Decide from the start if you let describers look at the first word on their cards before the round commences. We prefer that teams only look once the timer is starts, however, more often than not we are weak and let describers prepare beforehand.

e) The rules say that two describers should be designated for the whole game. We've never played it this way. We always get the whole team to take turns on describing as it allows everyone to have a go at describing. However, two describers may work for you if your teams have very shy people playing.

Ratings

Ease of understanding the instructions: 9/10
Belly laughs: 9/10
Fun for everyone: 9/10

Download Articulate instructions (PDF)

People who like Articulate also like:

Trivial Pursuit

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