Party games can often be a point of contention in our house. Games that are often only wheeled out at Christmas or when we have a non-gaming visitor round whose arm we want to twist into our hobby. Safe to say that I was pleasantly surprised with Just One. A co-operative card game that anyone can pick up quickly? Challenge accepted!
Just One presents the group of players with a card stand on which the first player places a card from the pile without looking at it. The rest of the group can see the card, upon which are five words. The first player gives the group a number between one and five and the group must secretly write down just one word to describe the word on the card. Once this is done the group compare their words, any duplicates must be discarded and the first player is then shown the remaining words and must guess the word on the card. If they are successful, the group scores a point and play passes to the next person. This is repeated until the group has done thirteen cards then play stops and the group is awarded a rating.
At first glance I thought this game might be a bit basic for us but it has quickly become a firm favourite and not just at parties, we often get this out for a quick family game before bedtime. I love the fact that you need to be abstract with your thinking but everyone is working together. A great little game that fully deserves its Spiel des Jahres award from 2019.
