Matthew BaileyGame 31# of the “Now & Then Summer Marathon 2024” is “Roll to the Top Journeys” played with Jack(9) and Katie.
“Caution Signs” is a game that I’ve had on my to-do list since the UK Games Expo, but since it requires three players and involves drawing, I had to wait for a time when I could get someone other than Jack to join in, as Toby is still a bit too young to have good enough drawing skills for a drawing-based game.
We don’t play a lot of party games, but the lovely folks at Wacky Wizard Games (the family arm of Wise Wizard Games) did a very good job of convincing me to give it a go, and I’m really glad they did.
The concept of the game is quite simple. There are two types of cards: caution cards and signs cards. The caution cards are adjectives, and the signs cards are nouns. Each player gets randomly chosen cards and then has to draw, in a minute or whatever time you decide, the thing that matches the adjective and noun on their board.
Before we go any further into how the scoring works or what I think of the game, can we just stop for a second and admire my drawing of a magical hummingbird? I was unbelievably chuffed that I managed to draw it within a minute.
Anyway, once everyone has drawn, you throw a selection of random cards into the pile, and the guesser, who didn’t draw that round, has to try and work out what you have drawn from the selection of adjectives and nouns they have in front of them.
Once you have chosen, the players hold up two, one, or no fingers. If you get both right, the drawer gets three points and the guesser gets two. If you get one right, the drawer gets one point and the guesser none.
If playing with a large group, you can have everyone be the guesser at once. Because there were only three of us, we had everyone be the guesser two times in the couple of games we played. Jack and I also played “Caution Signs” at the UK Games Expo with a much larger group and really enjoyed it.
It takes the basic idea of something like “Pictionary” but steps sideways into making it a pretty enjoyable party game. The fact that you’re not totally guessing blind and have some context really helps, especially for children. We found that Jack didn’t have too many problems even though his drawings were not amazing.
There are some good suggestions in the book for how to play with younger children, such as ensuring that the child understands both words on the card and not adding additional cards into the deck to make the guessing part easier.
I’m not usually a big lover of party games, but I really like “Caution Signs” and have played it a few times with some students at the school where I work. It’s always been a really good time. The only reason I left it so long to play was simply because I wanted to play with at least one of the children, and it took a while to pin Katie down for 10 minutes to join in. It’s a wonderfully simple yet fun party game that I can see being a hit at family gatherings.
Disclaimer: “Caution Signs” was provided by Wise Wizard Gamers for the purpose of review. Our thoughts and opinions are our own.
