A couple of days ago we enjoyed playing the Just One game as a group of three.  My eldest was out with a friend for tea but luckily Just One can accommodate 3 – 7 players.  So, it didn’t matter we were a player shorter than usual.  With three players the game just changes slightly, and you have two of the little easel boards each to work with instead.

How To Play Just One Game

First off you deal a deck of 13 cards which you will use to see how many are guessed correctly.  You take turns playing the active player.  Then the other players must write one word on each easel (or on the only easel if more than 3 players) as a clue for the active player.

When you write your clue or clues you cannot communicate with the other player doing the same.  Here is when it can get a bit tricky.  For example, the word might be “Circus”, but if you both write clown as a clue then that clue is cancelled.  Which narrows down the help you get guessing.

My youngest son and I both went with Christmas and Helper to try and get my husband to guess Elf.  But as we used all the same clues that means we triggered the end of turn phase prematurely.  So, you really want to avoid that if at all possible.  I think the key is not to go for the most obvious clue!  Even though it’s tempting as the active player would be able to guess more easily.  Your just more likely to end up cancelling the clue.

Another time we played we went on to get 7-8 cards right, so we were only average players!  I think we have our work cut out to get better haha!  Hopefully with more practice we can aim to increase our successfully guessed cards.  I guess it wasn’t all bad though as we didn’t get between 0-3 and told to “Try again, and again, and again”.  In a way its good we have room for improvement, so we have something to aim for.

When you write your one-word clues there are certain rules to follow.  You can’t write the mystery word but spelt differently, write it in a foreign language, use a word from the same family (like prince for princess), an invented word or a word that is phonetically identical to the mystery word.  Most of it makes common sense as it would be TOO easy otherwise.  I am glad they make it quite clear in the rules though it means all the players know what they can and cannot do.

Win Just One Game

I have a copy of Just One to giveaway thanks to my friends at Asmodee if you would like to enter please fill out the form below by the 28^th of October.

Please also check out my other giveaways.