Components
- Game board
- 400 cards with 3200 words
- sand timer
- 2 game pieces
- instructions.
Object of the Game
The players form two teams.
The men form one team, and the women the other! Both teams will try to be the first to reach the finish space by explaining and guessing words correctly.
However, there's a catch! The men will have to explain women's words from women's world to each other, and women will have to explain men's words. Alias is full of excitement and fun! Can you find the right words?
Game Play
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Separate the female cards from the male cards. Shuffle the piles separately and place them next to the game board. Both teams choose a game piece and place it in the starting space.
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The first team in turn decides which one of them will explain while the rest of the team will guess. The explaining player picks up a stack of their team's word cards.
Men use the male cards and women use the female cards. The words on the cards are numbered 1-8, so check the number on the space your game piece is stood on and explain the words of the same number on the cards.
Turn the sand timer and start explaining (see Explaining). Whenever the team gets a word right, the explaining player places the card on the table and begins to explain a new word of the same number from the next card.
The words have to be guessed completely right. If the word is "run", "running" is not accepted. If the word is "suspenders", "suspender" is not enough.
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The other teams can monitor the timer. If the explaining player is still explaining a word when the time runs out, the other teams can also try to guess it. The fastest team wins the card and can move their game piece one step forward on the game board.
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When the last word has been guessed, count together all the words the team guessed correctly. Count the mistakes and the skipped words as well - the team will have to move a step backwards for each mistake or skipped card (see Minus Points).
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Now it's the next team's turn. The player who was the last to explain places the used cards in the bottom of the pack.
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The role of the explaining player changes to the next player inside the teams on every turn.
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The team that makes it to the finish space first wins the game - but the other teams still get to play their turn.
Explaining
There are all kinds of words on the cards - nouns, verbs, adjectives etc. The kind of words the team ends up explaining is random, and there are easier and more difficult words by each number.
You are not allowed to use any part of the word when you're explaining, nor a word that's partly the same.
For example the word "shoe string" cannot be explained by saying "the stringy thing you have on your footwear".
You are allowed to say "the things you tie when you put on your footwear".
You can't explain the word "banker" by saying "someone who works in a bank", because the words "bank" and "banker" have the same stem.
With compounds the guesser usually gets half of the word right quickly. E.g. if the word you're explaining is "dogcatcher", the guesser might say "animal catcher".
Once the guesser gets half of the compound right (in this case the word "catcher"), the explaining player may use it to explain the rest of the word. If the guesser says any part of the compound, it can be used by the explainer.
These rules also apply to phrases consisting of two or more words. You can use opposites. The easiest way to explain the word "big" would be to say "the opposite of small".
Remember that you can't use a foreign language, unless all the players agree to it.
Minus Points
Remember to stay alert! If the explaining player accidentally says any part of the word, that team will have to take a step backwards on the game board.
If you come across a very difficult word, you can skip it, but each skipped word will result in a backwards step on the game board. Sometimes skipping a word might pay off, though, as you can easily get stuck on a tricky one.
While you're explaining, set the skipped cards in a separate pile. That will make scoring easier at the end of your turn. If a team guessed seven words correctly, but they made one mistake and skipped two cards, they can move their game piece 4 steps forward on the game board (7-1-2=4).
They're stealing our words
If a game piece passes a special space, that team will have to play a "They're stealing our words" turn on their following turn. This means that...
- The explainer will now pick up 5 cards of the opposite color they have been using.
- No sand timer is used!
- The opposite team will try to guess the words first.
- When either team guess the word correctly, the explainer moves on to explain the next word.
- After the fifth word has been guessed correctly the teams will move their pawns forward on the board.
This turn takes place regardless of whether or not the pawn ended up on the stealing space. It's the other teams' job to make sure they utilize the stealing opportunity.
At the end of every regular turn the other teams can also steal the last word if it's not guessed when the time runs out.
End of the Game
The first team to arrive in the finish space wins the game!
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