Games of the National Puzzlers’ League

1–2‑3 is a two-person, cooperative cluing game likely drawn from an improv theater exercise. Its introduction to the NPL came from members in the Bay Area Equinox group. Each player thinks of a word. When both are ready, they synchronize by saying “1–2‑3 …” and then simultaneously say their words. If both say the same word, the game ends. If not, the players each think of a new word that “connects” the words from the previous round and then simultaneously say the new words using the same “1–2‑3 …” method. The game continues until both say the same word.
Since the 1–2‑3 requires no supplies or movement, it’s an ideal impromptu game for group hikes, car trips, etc. In the 1–2‑Many variant (named by Codex), the game begins normally but spectating players may replace the current players in subsequent rounds.

11 Seek arose from classic parlor games that involve dictionaries. A presenter chooses an entry in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and selects words that can be found in the entry’s definition(s). The presenter gives these words as clues and the players try to guess the entry. The presenter reveals clues at a moderate pace so players have time to make guesses. Clues are typically ordered from least helpful to most helpful. A player wins by guessing the entry first or, in a game with multiple rounds, guessing a series of entries with the fewest total clues.

In the variant Wiki-Siki, the moderator chooses articles in Wikipedia and gives hyperlinked words and phrases in the article as clues.

12 Seek is a creative-challenge variant introduced by Ucaoimhu. The presenter gives a word and each player comes up with an entry whose definition might contain the word in a future edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. The presenter’s word and the players’ entries do not need to be existing words. Invented words that speculate on cultural or technological innovations of the future are encouraged. For example, the presenter might give the invented word “u‑mail” and players could respond with “bounce”, “self-cc”, “e‑gomaniac”, etc. The players reveal their entries and the presenter determines the “correct” ones, i.e., the ones the presenter likes best.

11 Seek and its variants were occasional exhibition games in the text-based chat era of online gaming. The game was named when the 11th edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary was the current one.

12 Seek is a creative-challenge variant of 11 Seek introduced by Ucaoimhu. The presenter gives a word and each player comes up with an entry whose definition might contain the word in a future edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. The presenter’s word and the players’ entries do not need to be existing words. Invented words that speculate on cultural or technological innovations of the future are encouraged. For example, the presenter might give the invented word “u‑mail” and players could respond with “bounce”, “self-cc”, “e‑gomaniac”, etc. The players reveal their entries and the presenter determines the “correct” ones, i.e., the ones the presenter likes best.

Anagrams is an exhibition game from the text-based chat era of online gaming. The group chooses a category and players take turns presenting anagrams of category members for others in the group to solve. If the category were “Colleges and Universities”, a player could present the clue BIG HUMAN ORGY leading to BRIGHAM YOUNG. The anagrams do not need to be apposite or have dictionary nature.

Anti-match is a groupthink game presented as a trivia quiz. The format was popular on message boards of the Usenet era. NPL members adopted the format and dubbed it “Anti-Match”. 

The presenter typically prepares the Anti-Match quiz in advance. The quiz comprises a series of categories where each category has clearly defined members. The number of valid members per category varies but is usually 10–50% of the number of players. For each category, a player privately chooses a category member as an answer. The players’ answers are revealed or collected by the presenter and evaluated for score. The goal is to earn the lowest score by choosing correct answers that are chosen by few other players. A player choosing a correct answer scores 1 point, plus 1 additional point for every other person in the group who chose the same answer. A player choosing an incorrect answer or no answer receives a penalty score of the highest correct answer score for the given category plus 1. The player who completes the quiz with the lowest total score wins.

Anti-Match game categories can be traditional trivia sets (e.g., noble gases) or contrived sets that delimit the possible answers (e.g., the capital cities of Azerbaijan, Brazil, Chad, Denmark, Ethiopia, and Fiji). A quiz may focus on one subject or feature a variety of subjects. Some presenters choose a theme that loosely inspires a quiz’s categories but is not the literal focus of the subject matter. For example, a Zodiac-themed quiz might have an “Aries” category that involves seven-letter words ending in RAM, a “Taurus” category involving the Chicago Bulls, etc. Anti-Match quizzes may be presented as a short-form activity at a gaming event or announced online as a long-form competition in which players may have days or weeks to submit answers. A group of resourceful players may even concoct an impromptu Anti-Match game in which the players spend a few minutes of preparation and then take turns with each player presenting one category in the quiz.

Blank Slate is a commercial party game. NPL members have adapted the basic concept as a pickup game that is easily played with no special materials. In each round of the game, one player proposes a fill-in-the-blank prompt made of one word preceded or followed by a blank, e.g., “blue ___” or “___ house”. Each player, including the one who made the proposal, privately chooses an answer word that could go in the blank to form a compound word or phrase. The players then review their answers aloud and score points. An answer that doesn’t match any other player scores 0. An answer that matches exactly one other player scores 3 points. An answer that matches two or more players scores 1 point. The game ends after each player has proposed a fill-in-the-blank prompt, and the player with the highest score wins.

In Breakfast Combo is a variant of French Toast. The clueing player gives a French Toast response when a guess is the closest guess so far, and a Spanish Omelet response for all other guesses.

Celebrity is a classic team cluing game known by many names: Pass the Chicken, The Hat Game, Fish Bowl, etc. The game has inspired many commercial versions as well as apps and websites that accommodate online play. The basic rules are findable online.

The NPL variation Secret Themes is similar to the commercial version of the game Monikers in that answers may include words and phrases along with names of celebrities. Each player submits a set of answers to the stockpile where all answers in the set are connected by a theme. Themes can be straightforward (e.g., types of birds) or oblique (e.g., words that start with three-letter abbreviations of months). Players who identify a theme during the game do not disclose it but gain a slight advantage in anticipating answers. At the game’s end, players guess and reveal the themes as a fun (non-scoring) postgame activity.

Chain Reaction is a cooperative cluing game based on a 1980s television game show, specifically the show’s Instant Reaction bonus round. The basic rules of the game show and bonus round are findable online.

NPL Chain Reaction is often played as an exhibition game. NPL members have developed a couple of variants. In Two-Person Chain Reaction, each round has two players instead of three. Both players are clue-givers but only one knows the answer and the other is also the guesser. The guesser starts the clue question and the two players alternate adding words. The guesser tries to add helpful set-up words for their partner so the partner can lead the guesser toward the answer. 

Saboteur Chain Reaction is played similar to the standard three-person version but one of the two clue-givers is a saboteur trying to prevent the answer from being guessed. The saboteur adds unhelpful words to the clue question while the other clue-giver tries to keep the clue on track.  

The basic rules of this classic guessing game are findable online. NPL members generally play charades as an exhibition game and often submit difficult and obscure answers as a challenge for others to perform. 

The League also enjoys some charades variations. In Foreign Market, the answers are items to be purchased in a store where the proprietor and customer do not share the same language, thus performances may not include hints such as number of words or syllables, “sounds like,” etc.
Mirror Charades, introduced by Rubrick, is played with a team of two performers. One performer, visible to their teammate but not the guessing players, reads and performs the answer. The other performer, who does not know the answer, watches the first and mimics the performance to the best of their ability. The guessing players may only watch the mimicker’s performance.

Chocolate Milk is a cluing game introduced by Murdoch. In each round of the game, a bigram is chosen. Each player thinks of a two-word answer with the bigram letters as initials. For example, answers for the chosen bigram CM include “chocolate milk”, “Claude Monet”, and “Cape May”. Each player also thinks of a one-word clue for their answer. The players announce their clues. After all the clues have been announced, the players have a set amount of time to guess answers for the clues. When time is up, the answers and the number of correct guesses for each clue are revealed. If all guesses are correct or if no guesses are correct, all players except the clue-giver score 1 point. If some but not all guesses are correct, the players who guessed correctly and the clue-giver each score points equal to the number of players who did not guess correctly. Once the scores for all clues have been determined, the player with the highest score wins.

Murdoch adapted Chocolate Milk, with some rule adjustments, to the commercial game Ping-Pong Pizza Party.

Cluesome is a strategic cluing game introduced by Bluff and Sheila. Each player in the game must devise a clue that will successfully lead at least one but fewer than half of the other players to an intended answer. Gameplay elements and scoring have evolved over the years and vary based on whether a game is played in person or online.

The game is suitable for 8–15 players. The group forms a circle that is used for the order of play. Each player produces four answers or “items to be clued” (ITBCs), which could be words, phrases, names, or titles. The player signs their name to the four ITBCs and distributes them to the next four players in the order. Thus, each player receives four ITBCs from four different players. A player is randomly determined to be the first clue-giver. When that player’s turn ends, the next player in the order becomes the clue-giver. Play continues until all players have completed one turn as a clue-giver. The player with the highest score wins.

On each turn the following actions take place:

1. The clue-giver chooses one of the ITBCs they received and announces its “author” to the group. The author scores 1 point for having their ITBC chosen.
2. The clue-giver presents a clue for the chosen ITBC and traditionally says “stop” to indicate the clue is complete. The first clue is free, but any additional clue given during the turn costs the clue-giver 1 point.
3. The author may announce a side bet making one of the following predictions: 1) the clue will succeed, 2) the clue is too hard, or 3) the clue is too easy. The author’s bet is optional. 
4. All players other than the clue-giver and author have 30 seconds (or some other agreed-upon time) to privately make a guess. A player who is extremely confident has the option of adding a side bet to their guess. Guesses and betting status cannot be changed later on.
5. After the time elapses, the players state their guesses and whether they made side bets one at a time. A player with no guess says “pass”. 
6. The clue-giver mentally counts the number of correct guesses and announces if the clue was successful, too hard, or too easy.
7. If the clue was successful (at least one but fewer than half of the guessers are correct), the clue-giver announces the correct answer. Each player who made a correct guess scores 1 point. Any player who made a side bet scores 1 additional point if successful and loses 1 point if unsuccessful. The clue-giver’s turn ends. Scoring variation: a successful clue correctly guessed by exactly one player is a “cluesome” and the clue-giver and the correct guesser each score 1 bonus point. 
8. If the clue was too hard (no correct guesses), any player who made a side bet scores an additional 1 point if successful and loses 1 point if unsuccessful. The clue-giver must give an additional clue for the same ITBC [return to action 2].
9. If the clue was too easy (half or more of the players guessed correctly), the clue-giver announces the correct answer. Each player who made a correct guess scores 1 point. Any player who made a side bet scores an additional 1 point if successful and loses 1 point if unsuccessful. The clue-giver must choose a different ITBC to clue [return to action 1]. If the clue-giver has exhausted all ITBCs, their turn ends.

Some gameplay differences between in-person and online games follow.

• Distribution of ITBCs — In-person games are usually impromptu, so players write ITBCs along with their names on slips of paper. The slips are folded and passed around the circle, with players choosing slips blindly. Online games may use a distribution method similar to an in-person game. Alternatively, since online games often need to be scheduled in advance, the players may agree to distribute ITBCs days or even weeks before the game. This allows an ITBC to be targeted to a particular player and gives players a generous amount of time to devise clues.
• Acceptable Clues — Clues that “play the percentages” (e.g., “The answer is one of the solar system planets”) or involve private information (e.g., “It’s the movie I was discussing with another player at lunch last week”) are considered poor form. Beyond that, almost any type of clue is acceptable. The clues for in-person games are almost always oral. For games played online in video chats, visual clues presented in text chat windows or through screen sharing have become popular.

Unsuccessful Clues — An online game scheduled in advance may opt to relax the traditional rules for unsuccessful clues and allow a clue-giver to end their turn without giving a successful clue or exhausting ITBCs. Such a relaxation may be useful for a game session with a limited time window and/or plans to play multiple games during the session.

Conformity is a groupthink game introduced by Dozen. In each round a player suggests a category. All players have 30 seconds (or some other agreed-upon time) to create a list of items that belong to the category. Players then share their lists aloud one at a time. A player scores points equal to the number of items on the list, but only if every item is also on at least one other player’s list. If a player’s list contains any item not on someone else’s list, the player scores zero for the round. Note that items do not need to be valid members of the category so long as they appear on another player’s list. After a set number of rounds, the player with the highest score wins. Conformity is an offshoot of the game Sheep.

Cool Game is a groupthink game introduced by Aesop. In each round of the game, a bigram is chosen. Each player has 90 seconds to compile a list of two-word phrases with the chosen bigram letters as initials.  For example, answers for the chosen bigram CG include “coast guard”, “Che Guevara”, and “coffee grinder”. When time is up, players read their lists aloud and check for matches with other players. A phrase matching at least one other player scores 1 point while an unmatched phrase scores 0. After a set amount of rounds, the player with the highest score wins.

Dada Trivia is a groupthink game introduced by Bartok. The game was originally presented as a team competition with predesigned content, but it can be played either competitively or cooperatively with minimal set-up.

The cooperative version of the game is best suited for four to ten players. The group creates two stockpiles. One stockpile is for “subjects” and category labels in singular form such as “City”,  “Beverage”, or “Television Show”. The other stockpile is for “predicates” and contains adjectival words and phrases such as  “Tall”, “Found in a kitchen”, or “Made of wood”. Each stockpile should have roughly three times the number of items as the number of players and should be shuffled before play begins. In each round, one player takes the role of “representative” and draws three subjects and three predicates from the stockpiles. The representative then chooses one from each set of three and announces the question, “What ___ is ___?” with the chosen subject in the first blank and the chosen predicate in the second. All players then privately write an answer to the question. The representative announces their answer and the group scores 1 point for every other player who wrote a matching answer. The game is played for a number of rounds that allows every player to be representative once.

In the competitive version, the group is divided into two teams. Both teams have a representative in each round. One representative chooses from the three subjects and predicates and the other must choose from the ones that remain. The right to choose first alternates throughout the game. The team that chooses first scores 1 point for every match and the team that chooses second scores 2 points for every match.

Dictionary Race is a word optimization game. Presenters occasionally prepare game sets in advance for convention programs, but improvised games are not difficult to organize. The game begins with a letter of the alphabet chosen as a starting letter. Each round features a “rule”. When the first rule is revealed, each player privately chooses a word that adheres to the rule and follows the starting letter alphabetically. In subsequent rounds the chosen word must follow the player’s most recent chosen word alphabetically. A player may duplicate their most recent chosen word if it satisfied the newly revealed rule. After a set number of rounds, the player who has a valid word list and has progressed the shortest distance from the starting letter wins.

Rules may relate to word meaning, e.g. “The word must be a type of tree”, or structure, e.g., “The word must contain a four-letter sequence of consonants”. Players may also agree on general rules for words, such as “All words must be uncapitalized” or “Dictionary entries that are phrases are acceptable as ‘words’”. The rules are determined before play begins. One player may act as presenter and come up with all the rules or each player may create one rule, with the rules revealed in turn or in random order.

Exquisite Fruit

Exquisite Fruit is a noncompetitive trivia game introduced by T McAy. In the game, players create collaborative trivia questions in the style of Exquisite Corpse. The low-stress gameplay and amusingly chaotic nature of the questions make the game a popular choice as a “nightcap” for in-person gatherings. Spreadsheets and bots, notably the one designed by Hale, have facilitated online Exquisite Fruit sessions.

The game is suitable for ten or more players who form a circle. Exquisite Fruit questions typically contain exactly 14 words. For in-person games, each player divides a slip of paper as follows:

The player then comes up with a trivia answer (a word, phrase, name, or title) and writes this answer in the space at the bottom of the paper along with their name. All players then pass papers one position clockwise. Each player notes the answer on the paper they have received and writes the first three words of a question leading to that answer in spaces 1, 2, and 3. The player then folds the top edge of the paper backwards so spaces 1 and 2 are no longer visible. All players pass papers clockwise. Each player now has a paper with a new trivia answer and adds two words to the question is spaces 4 and 5. The player folds the paper back so that spaces 3 and 4 are no longer visible. All players pass papers clockwise, and the process of writing words, folding and passing continues until all numbered boxes are filled—after the final pass, each player will write one question-ending word in space 14. At that point, all players unfold their papers and, in turn, ask the trivia question to the player next to them clockwise (who should not have been involved in the question’s creation). The questioned player tries to guess the correct answer, with help from other players if necessary.

Fill in the Blanks is an exhibition game from the text-based chat era of online gaming. The group chooses a keyword, usually five letters, and players take turns presenting crossword-style clues for others in the group to solve. Each clue leads to a long word or phrase that contains the letters of the keyword in order. The keyword letters are shown but the remaining letters appear as blanks and spaces and punctuation are omitted. If the keyword were KREWE, a player could present the clue “Literary critic: _ _ _ K R E _ _ _ W E _” leading to the answer BOOK REVIEWER.

French Toast is a guessing game that originated outside the NPL and was discovered by Squonk. The name French Toast was proposed by Renfield after playing a game with members of the Bay Area Equinox group. The game can be played by two or more people and needs no supplies or movement, making it suitable for any occasion. One player thinks of an object and the other players take turns naming objects as guesses. After each guess, the initial player reveals which of all guesses made up to that point is “closest” to the correct object. Guessing continues until the object is discovered. A game might go as follows:

“Is it a house?” “No.”

“Is it a table?” “No, but it’s more like a table than a house.”

“Is it a car?” “No, it’s more like a table.”

“Is it a human being?” “No, but it’s more like a human being than a table.”

“Is it a cat?” “No but it’s more like a cat than a human being.”

“Is it a dog?” “Yes.”

In Spanish Omelet, a variation introduced by Murdoch, the first player describes what each wrong guess has in common with the correct object. 

“Is it a house?” “No, but like a house it is something a person might buy.”

“Is it a table?” “No, but like a table it has legs.”

“Is it a cat?” “No, but like a cat it is a popular household pet.”

“Is it a dog?” “Yes.”

In Breakfast Combo, the initial player gives a French Toast response when a guess is the closest guess so far, and a Spanish Omelet response for all other guesses.

Haste Worte is a German commercial word game. No English language version is currently produced, but players can easily devise game prompts to replicate the basic concept.

Each round of the game features a category and a rule. Categories are classes of objects based on meaning such as “Birds” or “Things in a classroom”. Rules are structural constraints such as “Starts with the letter A” or “Exactly one syllable”. When the category and rule are revealed, the players have 60 seconds (or some other agreed-upon time) to make lists of items that fit both the category and the rule. After the time expires, each player must privately commit to a bid representing the number of items on their list they hope to declare. When all players have made bids, they share the bids aloud and determine the playing order. The player with the lowest bid goes first, followed by the player with the next-lowest bid, and so on. If two or more players make the same bid, the one with the lowest overall score goes first, and if scores are tied the playing order for the players in the tie is randomly determined. Each player on their turn reads just enough items from their list to make their bid, and thus “declares” those items. A player may not declare an item previously declared by another player, and items that don’t fit the category and/or rule are not counted. A player who successfully makes their bid score points equal to the bid. A player who does not make their bid scores 0. A player who realizes they won’t be able to make their bid may still declare items on their list and prevent those items from being declared by other players. The player with the highest score after a set number of rounds wins.

In impromptu games, each player traditionally devises one category and one rule. In each round, one player reveals their category and a different player reveals their rule. The game is played for a number of rounds that is the same as the number of players.

Initials is a groupthink game involving famous names. The group determines a list of bigrams that each player writes on a sheet of paper. Players have five minutes (or some other agreed-upon time) to write the names of famous people or familiar fictional characters whose initials match the bigrams in the list. After the time expires, players compare lists and score points. A valid name that matches one or more other players scores 1 point. A valid name with no matches scores 2 points. A valid name with initials that no other player was able to find any name for scores 3 points. 

A popular way to determine a list of bigrams is to write the letters A through Z in the left column (first name initials) and the first 26 letters of some quotation or saying in the right column (last name initials). Initials is a close relative to Cool Game and Chocolate Milk.

It’s Only a Lobby is a guessing game introduced by Iolanthe and Plaid. It employs the “feghoot” style of improvisational storytelling, similar to the final round of the BBC radio quiz My Word! The players form a group stockpile by writing familiar phrases and quotations on slips of paper. Each player takes a turn as the storyteller and draws a slip from the pile. The storyteller mentally alters the phrase in a punny way—such as changing “close, but no cigar” to “close, but no sitar”—and then improvises an anecdote that will lead to the punny version of the phrase as a conclusion. The story should contain clues to the phrase but not any of the exact words in the phrase other than articles, prepositions, and other benign words. The other players try to guess the punny phrase before the storyteller reaches the conclusion.

The game’s name is a punny version of the phrase “It’s only a hobby”; the “lobby” phrase was an answer in the initial run of the game played at an NPL convention hotel with a spectacular lobby.

Jeopardy!, the classic television game of “answers and questions”, is a popular quiz format among NPL members and has inspired countless homemade versions. The basic rules of the game are findable online.

Homemade versions modeled after the traditional game require advance preparation. The game organizer(s) writes the clues and then presents the game at an NPL event. For in-person events, the presenter often provides a commercially-produced signaling device such as an Eggspert, which allows up to six players per game instead of three. Clues are generally presented verbally without visual text, and players are allowed to buzz in before the clue is fully read. Presenters may or may not require responses to be in the form of a question. Some presenters allow players who finish the Double Jeopardy! round with a negative score to participate in Final Jeopardy! with a nominal betting sum.

NPL Members have developed many variations on the Jeopardy! format.

Doubles Jeopardy!, later renamed It Takes Two, was introduced by Maso. The game is played by six teams of two. Each clue requires participation by both members of a team. A clue may be a trivia question with two answers, or the clue may prompt one teammate to provide a subsidiary clue leading their partner to the answer. Maso’s game sets included performative elements, props, and other gimmicks that departed from traditional trivia knowledge of the television show. The elaborate setups often required that a selected category be fully played before a team could jump to another category.

Makeshift Jeopardy! was introduced by Arcs. The game is presented with the conceit that it is a normal Jeopardy! game constructed at the last minute. The presenter apologizes for the game’s quirks and errors, but these discrepancies are eventually revealed as clues leading to an answer word. Once a player discovers the answer word, the presenter ends the Jeopardy! segment and launches a new game containing clues to another answer word. The answer words eventually combine to produce a final “meta”  answer ending the overall activity. Individual player performance in the Jeopardy! segment, and the other game segments, is largely irrelevant. The game uses the Jeopardy! format as the framework for a semicooperative puzzle hunt.

Make Your Own Jeopardy! is a way to play the game with only a small amount of advance preparation. A group of six players spends a few minutes writing content. Each player is responsible for creating one category with five clues. The categories are revealed and play begins. A player may choose a clue in any category other than their own, and the player who wrote the clue presents it for the other five players to try to answer. The category and clues a player presents tend to reflect their personal expertise or interest, thus requiring little research. Content is expected to be unpolished and often silly.

Just One is a commercial game that involves cooperative cluing. The basic rules are findable online, but NPL members have devised some gameplay variations that can be used with the boxed version or websites that accommodate online play.

Just One Flat is a variation introduced by Sparrowhawk and Sue++. At the start of the game, each player chooses (or is assigned) a type of wordplay transformation such as anagram or letter change. All players’ wordplay types are all public knowledge. When in the role of clue-giver, a player may either give a standard clue or mentally transform the answer word using their wordplay type and then clue the result. For example, a player with the anagram transformation could transform the answer PEACH to CHEAP and give the clue “inexpensive”. A clue-giver does not reveal whether their clue is standard or wordplay-based.

In the variation One Weird, the players agree beforehand on an added constraint for writing clues. The constraints add to the difficulty, thus the variation is favored by those who want to add a challenge to the standard game. Examples of constraints are:

• Each clue word must have the same starting letter as the answer word.
• Each clue word must have the same length as the answer word.
• Each clue word must have a prescribed length. This length may vary throughout the game, e.g., three-letter clues in the first round, four-letter clues in the second, etc.
• Clues must have no letters in common with the answer word.

In another variation also called One Weird, clue-givers write freeform clues that represent the answer in a cryptic or punny way. The clue “autopuppyorkitten” could lead to CARPET, while “carnivalish” might clue FAIRY.

Letterhead is a cooperative game played by a team of seven players. A moderator gives a card printed with a letter to each member of the team. Players hold the cards to their foreheads so that each player cannot see their own letter but can see those of their teammates. The team’s goal is for each player to figure out their own letter. Players arrange their teammates to form words with their letters, which provides each player within a word information about their own letter. Players may also confirm if a group of teammates can or cannot form a word, but information about individual letters is not allowed. When all players believe they know their letters, they announce their guesses one at a time. If all players are correct, the team wins.

Letterhead can be played competitively by multiple teams, with the fastest team to correctly identify all their letters winning, but it is more commonly played as an exhibition. The game has similarities to the commercial game Letter Jam.

The social deduction game Mafia was invented by Dimitry Davidoff in the 1980s and became a popular activity at NPL gatherings shortly thereafter. The rules and countless gameplay variations are findable online. NPL members generally played a relatively simple version with the players divided into two groups, townspeople and mafiosi, and one townsperson secretly assigned a commandant (investigator) role. Popularity of traditional Mafia games at NPL events has diminished with NPL members being drawn to more sophisticated, commercially-produced social deduction games.

Missing Link is a guessing game introduced by Bluff. The players form a circle. Each player thinks of a word and writes it on a slip of paper. The chosen words should be nouns, adjectives, or verbs that can be part of familiar compound words or two-word phrases, so words like “although” and “millisecond” are poor choices. The slips are passed one position clockwise around the circle. Each player reviews the word on the slip they received and thinks of a new word that can either precede or follow it to form a familiar compound word or two-word phrase. They write the new word beneath the word on the slip. The slips are passed clockwise again. The player then thinks of a word that forms a compound word or phrase when it precedes or follows the second word on the slip; the player may not simply repeat the first word. In forming compound words/phrases with the second word, the first and third words may both precede, both follow, or one precede and one follow. When all players have written their words, the players take turns announcing the first and third words on their slip. The other players independently try to guess the second word; the player who wrote the second word doesn’t participate. The guesses are revealed and each guesser scores 1 point if correct. The clue-giver scores points equal to the number of correct guesses.

Missing Link has similarities to Blank Slate.

Nigoichi (“I don’t know how to say”) is a commercial word game published in Japan. No English version is currently being produced, but the game can be played in person with a relatively simple setup and online with a little ingenuity. The name Odd Word Out was proposed by Qaqaq.

The game is suitable for 3–8 players. Each round of the game features a list of words that all players can see. The number of words in the list is equal to the number of players plus one. The words on the list are privately assigned to the players, with each player assigned two words and one word unassigned. Each player must devise a one-word clue that connects their two assigned words. The players all share their clues aloud. Each player then guesses which two words are associated with each clue and, consequently, which word was not assigned to any player—the odd word out. When all players have recorded their guesses, the assigned words and the odd word out are revealed and the players score. A player scores 1 point for each word pair correctly matched to its clue and 3 points for correctly identifying the odd word out. A player loses 2 points for each instance of one of their assigned words being guessed by another player as the odd word out. The player with the highest score after a set number of rounds wins.

The game can be played in-person with word cards from a game such as Codenames, or the players can generate their own words. The words are added to a numbered list, and then assigned by shuffling and dealing out index cards marked with numbers to the players. Each player has scrap paper for recording clues and guesses. For online games, the players must devise a method for discreetly assigning words. One option is a shared Google Sheet with numbers in a column made invisible by setting them to the background color. The column is randomized for each round and players select certain cells and check the formula bar to retrieve their numbers.

One, Two, Three is a cooperative word game introduced by Rubrick. Two players each think of a word and say them out loud simultaneously, using “one, two, three” to synchronize. If both say the same word, the game ends. If not, the players think of new words that “connect” the words from the previous round and say the new words using the same “one, two, three” method. Players continue until both say the same word.

In the One, Two, Many variant (named by Codex), the game begins normally, but spectating players may replace the current players in subsequent rounds.

Oobat! is a game introduced by T McAy. It is not a variation of Taboo!, per se, but uses cards from the commercial game. In each round of the game one player takes the role of presenter; alternatively, one nonplayer may act as presenter for the entire game. The presenter draws a Taboo! card from the deck and announces the answer and the initial letters of the five taboo words. Each player privately writes a guess to a single taboo word. When all players are done, the guesses are shared aloud and the presenter announces the scores. A correct guess chosen by exactly one player scores 3 points. A correct guess chosen by multiple players scores 1 point. The presenter then announces the second letters of any unguessed taboo words, and the players, including ones who have already scored, have another opportunity to guess. Additional letter reveals and guesses occur if necessary and the round ends when all taboo words have been correctly guessed. The player with the highest score after a set number of rounds wins.

Opposites Attract is a creative word game introduced by Hudu. Players take turns being a “judge”. In each round, the judge chooses a word that doesn’t have an obvious opposite and presents it to the group. Each of the other players privately chooses a word they believe to be the opposite of the judge’s word. The players then reveal their opposites and the judge awards a point to the player whose opposite is the best. 

Opposites Attract has been used as a large group activity at NPL conventions and is a game played by readers of the website The Well. It was an occasional activity in NPL online chats of the text era.

Original Musiquarium is a music trivia game introduced by Lunch. One player chooses a familiar song and retrieves the song’s lyrics, either on the Internet or from memory. The other players try to guess the song by asking for words in the lyrics that fall in specified categories. For example, a guesser may ask, “Does the song contain a word representing an emotion?” The player who chose the song may either say, “Yes, the song contains ‘merrily’”, or “No” if the song lyrics contain no word fitting the category. One guesser may volunteer to keep a record of revealed words. The player who chooses the song may use lateral interpretation when revealing a word for a particular category, e.g., responding to a query about sports terms with “love”, even if “love” is not used in that sense in the lyrics. Words in the song’s title are generally not revealed unless the guessers are really struggling. A guesser who identifies the song may announce it aloud or confirm it privately with the song chooser. The game continues until a set number of guessers correctly identify the song.

Process of Elimination is a word game introduced by Gabby and played at online gatherings of the text-chat era. The group chooses a keyword five to eight letters in length. Players take turns presenting clues in the form of letter strings. Each letter string is a familiar word or phrase with one instance of each letter in the keyword removed, along with any spaces or punctuation. Other players try to identify the original word/phrase. The removed letters may appear in the original word/phrase in any order, but the remaining letters are presented in proper order. For example, if the keyword is LEAGUE, the clue EDCOON would lead to the answer EAU DE COLOGNE. Process of Elimination is similar to Fill in the Blanks.

Pyramid is a cluing game based on the “Winner’s Circle” bonus round of the television game show Pyramid in its various incarnations. The rules of the game are findable online.

NPL Pyramid games are generally played as exhibitions. Participants submit slips of paper to a stockpile where each slip contains a single category. Players take turns as clue-givers and guessers, and on each turn one category is drawn from the stockpile and clued. In some games, all players other than the clue-giver and author of the category are allowed to guess at will. NPL members often submit difficult and silly categories; “Parts of an elephant whose heart has been replaced by a broom”, submitted by NPL member Lunch, is a memorable example.

Tri, Tri Again is a variant introduced by Pfire that was played online in text-based chats. One player begins by presenting three members of a category. Other players “raise their hands” (type “[h]and” or “[g]ot it”) when they figure out the category. The presenter calls on the first player who raised their hand to reveal the answer and present a set of three for a new category. For example, a sequence of rounds might go: Orange, Lemon, Tangerine / (Citrus fruits) Lime, Bayou, Anthem /  (Words that end with pronouns) Zimbabwe, Mali, Egypt / (African nations) … etc. A presenter may add more members to the list if all players are stuck.

RH2 is a game from the text-chat era. One player chooses an entry in an unabridged dictionary and announces it to the other players. The other players try to guess the entry that appears next alphabetically. Random House Unabridged, 2nd Edition (RH2) is a popular dictionary for the game because proper names are intermixed with uncapitalized entries in the main body.

Rock, Paper Anything is an exhibition game introduced by Lunch. The game is suitable for a large group, and the players begin by forming a circle. Two players are chosen as the initial competitors and they stand before another player in the circle who will act as judge. The competitors count out three while pounding their fists, as if playing Rock, Paper, Scissors. Each competitor thinks of an object and on the count of three the competitors pose as their objects. The competitors announce the objects their poses represent and the judge decides which is more powerful, i.e., the winner, usually with an explanation. The loser takes the judge’s place in the circle. The judge and the winner become competitors in the next round and stand before the next player in the circle who acts as judge.

Rulebreakers is a game of inductive reasoning similar to classic concealed-rule games such as Eleusis, Psychiatrist, and Scissors. The game is suitable for any number of players and was popular in text-based chat sessions. Two players start a “club” and privately choose a “rule” that dictates how members of the club answer questions. Rules are typically wordplay related such as “Each answer must contain an animal” or “Each answer must contain an anagram of a word in the corresponding question”. The other players ask club members questions trying to deduce the rule. A player who figures out the rule confirms it with a club member by private message and, if correct, joins the club. The game continues until all players join the club.

The game can be played in person or video chat, though text chats have the advantage of allowing players to scroll through the chat log to review previous comments.

Say Goodnight, Gracie is an exhibition game that doesn’t require any equipment or movement. The game often starts as an impromptu reaction to a word or name that comes up in a normal conversation. A player replies to this word or name with a definition or description of a similarly sounding word or name. A third player replies with a definition or description of a word or name that sounds like the second word, and the game continues in that fashion, as in:

“I can’t remember what her name was … I’m thinking Mandy.”

“Oh, no, that’s not what you’re thinking. You’re thinking of an animal from Florida that people want to save.” (thinking “manatee”)

“No, no, don’t be absurd. What you’re actually thinking of is the end of the famous exclamation, ‘Oh, the …’” (thinking “humanity”)

The words in the chain are never actually said. The game ends when a perfect ending word/phrase has been reached, by general consensus, or when the players lose interest.:

Sheep is a groupthink parlor game for four or more players. In each round a player suggests a topic. All players create a list of five things (words or phrases) associated with that topic. Players then share their answers and calculate scores. An answer written by multiple players scores points equal to the number of players who wrote the answer. An answer written by only one player scores zero. After a set number of rounds, the player with the highest score wins.

The origins of Sheep are unknown, though its concept is the basis for a number of groupthink games such as Blank Slate and Conformity.

In Spanish Omelet is a variation of French Toast introduced by Murdoch, the first player describes what each wrong guess has in common with the correct object. 

“Is it a house?” “No, but like a house it is something a person might buy.”

“Is it a table?” “No, but like a table it has legs.”

“Is it a cat?” “No, but like a cat it is a popular household pet.”

“Is it a dog?” “Yes.”

The commercial party game Taboo! is a classic cluing game. NPL members occasionally play Make Your Own Taboo! as either an exhibition game or competitive team game. Players write answers and taboo words on index cards. The answers are often difficult, obscure, or whimsical.

Oobat! is a game introduced by T McAy. It is not a variation of Taboo!, per se, but uses cards from the commercial game. In each round of the game one player takes the role of presenter; alternatively, one nonplayer may act as presenter for the entire game. The presenter draws a Taboo! card from the deck and announces the answer and the initial letters of the five taboo words. Each player privately writes a guess to a single taboo word. When all players are done, the guesses are shared aloud and the presenter announces the scores. A correct guess chosen by exactly one player scores 3 points. A correct guess chosen by multiple players scores 1 point. The presenter then announces the second letters of any unguessed taboo words, and the players, including ones who have already scored, have another opportunity to guess. Additional letter reveals and guesses occur if necessary and the round ends when all taboo words have been correctly guessed. The player with the highest score after a set number of rounds wins.

Team poetry was an occasional creative activity in online text chats. The group chooses a theme for a poem. Participants take turns contributing lines of the poem. Limericks were the most popular poetic form due to the short length and familiar rhythm and rhyme scheme.

Telephone Pictionary is a noncompetitive pen-and-paper game that combines Telephone and Pictionary. The Telephone Pictionary concept has been featured in the online game Broken Picture Telephone and commercial games such as Telestrations, but the game was played in the NPL before both of those ventures.

The game is played by a group of eight or more players seated in a circle. The players are supplied with pens and plain paper. Each player writes their name at the bottom of a sheet and writes a phrase, title, or quotation at the top. Papers are passed clockwise. Each player then creates an illustration that represents the initial phrase. Illustrations may use the entire width of the sheet but only about an inch of vertical space. Players then fold the sheets back to conceal the initial phrases and leave only the illustrations visible. Papers are passed clockwise and players guess the initial phrase based on the illustration. Players write guesses beneath the illustrations and fold the sheets back to conceal the illustrations. Passing continues with players alternately illustrating phrases and writing phrases for illustrations. After a set number of passes, or when sheets are filled, players unfold the sheets and take turns describing the progressions of drawings and phrases on their papers. The game is played for entertainment and sheets with errant progressions are generally enjoyed more than ones that remain faithful to the original phrases.

Too Loose Trebek was introduced by Murdoch, Rubrick, and non-NPLer Vynce. It is a guessing game enhanced by improv performance. The group creates a stockpile of answer words and phrases. In each round, two players work together as clue-givers and the remaining players are guessers. One clue-giver, the “prompter”, draws an answer from the stockpile. The other clue-giver, the “leader”, does not see the answer but must give verbal clues to the guessers based on cues from the prompter. The prompter is not allowed to speak and may only give gestures suggesting “yes/on the right track” and “no/on the wrong track”. The leader must try to clue the unknown answer confidently and fluently, correcting missteps in stride, e.g., “This is a person… wait, did I say person? I meant place. Or rather, object, apologies. It’s a common object… where by common I of course mean quite rare!” The round ends when one of the guessers correctly identifies the object.

The game’s use of tandem clue-givers is similar to the Charades variant Mirror Charades.

Tri, Tri Again is a Pyramid variant introduced by Pfire that was played online in text-based chats. One player begins by presenting three members of a category. Other players “raise their hands” (type “[h]and” or “[g]ot it”) when they figure out the category. The presenter calls on the first player who raised their hand to reveal the answer and present a set of three for a new category. For example, a sequence of rounds might go: Orange, Lemon, Tangerine / (Citrus fruits) Lime, Bayou, Anthem /  (Words that end with pronouns) Zimbabwe, Mali, Egypt / (African nations) … etc. A presenter may add more members to the list if all players are stuck.

Wiki-Siki is a variant of 11 Seek, in which the moderator chooses articles in Wikipedia and gives hyperlinked words and phrases in the article as clues.