Scattergories is the perfect game for any group, young or old! An easy and simple game to follow, but one that keeps the wheels of your imagination spinning.
During the game, each player fills out a category list with answers that start with the same letters, and providing no other player chooses the same as your answer, you are awarded points for that round. The successful winner is announced after 3 rounds, and a new game is started.
An alphabet dice or a generator is used to decide the letter for each round and a timer is needed. If you play with a full twelve categories, the timer should be set for three minutes but if only five categories, then one minute is enough.
When a player answers the same as another, they must cross out the answer, and neither player receives points for that response. The champion is the one with the highest points after all rounds.
When you’ve scattered all the categories you can, try these other 5 games like Scattergories to mix things up!
Games Like Scattergories
- Codenames
- Letter Jam
- The Game of Things
- Just One
- Decrypto
Table of Contents
Codenames
Players: 2-8
Playing time: 15 mins
If you’re a fan of wordplay, then Codenames has many similarities to Scattergories. It is a fun and easy party game about solving puzzles, with 25 cards that show different words. Every card has a corresponding position, representing different colors and players are split into red and blue teams and each has a team leader.
When the game begins, only the leaders will be able to see the color of the cards and they are responsible for prompting their team using appropriate vocabulary to lead their squad to discover the cards of their corresponding colors.
The objective is ultimately to make connections between various words while being conscious to avoid including other words in the association. Participants are led to victory by their commanders’ imaginative use of terms.
If you love Codenames, be sure to check out Codenames: Duet and 5 Games Like Codenames too!
Letter Jam
Players: 2-6
Playing time: 45 mins
Letter Jam, much like Scattergories, is about composing meaningful words. The difference is that this game is cooperative and players must assist each other in the construction of the words using letters from around the table.
The twist is that players should hold the letter cards so that they’re only visible to other players and not themselves. Opposing players take turns to find a word using the letters, only revealing the length of their words.
Offering the longest word earns that player the role of the clue giver. The clue giver then spells out their clue by putting numbered tokens in front of the other players and number one goes to the player whose letter is first in the clue, and two to the second letter, etc.
If you have a number in front of you, you can guess the letter, and so on until you reach the end and rearrange the cards to try to form an existing word.
The Game of Things
Players: 4-15
Playing time: 45 mins
The Game of Things is a party game where all participants write a response to a particular prompt, and players must guess who is responsible for each prompt.
A reader reads aloud a Topic Card and all responses are folded up on slips of paper and given back to the reader, who announces them to the group. It is the player to the left of the reader who bears the responsibility of guessing who wrote each answer.
Points are awarded to the player who avoided detection and once everyone has a go at being the reader, the player with the highest score wins.
It’s similar to Scattergories because it uses imaginative force and focuses on wordplay, however, it is probably best played with opponents you know well, or as a difficult icebreaker with new folks.
Just One
Players: 3-7
Playing time: 20 mins
Not so dissimilar to Scattergories, Just One is a cooperative party game where players work together to find an array of mystery words. Just as in its rival, doubling up on answers of other teammates sees the response being void.
It is a 13-card game with the objective being to reach the closest score to 13. Wrong answers see participants lose their current card and that of the top of the deck.
With easy simple rules, Just One is perfect as a family game or to play with college friends.
Decrypto
Players: 3-8
Playing time: 15-45 mins
Decrypto is a game of two teams with both trying to correctly determine the coded messages presented to them by their animated teammates.
As with Scattergories, the focus rests on wordplay, but during Decrypto both teams have their own screen, and in these screens, they tuck four cards in pockets numbered 1-4. The goal of the game is to crack specific coded messages using clues from their teammates that relate to the words they have in front of them.
A great game if you’re looking for something which is slightly more complex than Scattergories, as it has the number element to bear in mind too. Get cracking!
Wrap-Up
We hope you enjoyed our list of the best 5 games like Scattergories! If you’re looking for a new word game challenge, these are great party games to try!
Drop a comment below and let us know what you think! We’d love to hear from you.
Growing up in a rainy old English city allowed plenty of time for board games with the family. Whether it was an afternoon Dominion marathon or a rivalry-fueled round of Catan with my brothers, there was always time to get to know the latest board games. Today, I have a continuous thirst to attempt the newest and most challenging games available.