It’s that time of year again when so many of us want to have a great game to play at gatherings of family and friends for the holidays.

We’d all love a game that’s quick to explain, simple to play, can accommodate many players, and can be played over and over. It’s also nice to have a game that doesn’t take so much concentration that you can’t enjoy having conversations while playing the game.

Oh, and of course it’s got to be fun!

Well, we’ve got just the game for you and it’s called, Just One!

We bought a copy last year and have had a lot of fun playing it ever since.

 

How to play Just One

Just One is a cooperative party game where players work together to get the best score.

The object in each round is to get the active player to guess the Mystery word. The final score for everyone is the number of mystery words guessed over the course of the game.

To begin, players shuffle the cards and randomly draw 13 to create a face down deck. Every player takes a dry erase marker and an easel. Then they randomly select a first player and begin.

The active player draws a card and places it in their easel without looking at it. They place it with the words facing outward so all the other players can see the card. Then the active player says a number between 1 and 5 and that word then becomes the Mystery word.

Without talking to each other, all the other players write a single word on their easel that will be a clue for the active player to guess their Mystery word.

Once all players have secretly written their one word clue, the active player closes their eyes. The other players turn their easels around so they can each see all the clues. If any clues are identical, they are cancelled and those easels are tipped face down.

Then the active player opens their eyes and uses the remaining clues to guess their Mystery word. The active player is only allowed a single guess.

If they correctly guess the word, they place the card face up next to the deck. If they’re incorrect, they return that card plus top card from the deck to the game box (essentially losing out on 2 points). If the active player chooses not to guess, they skip their turn and that card is returned to the game box.

Then the player to the left becomes the next active player. They draw a card, choose a  number, and the clue-giving begins again.

Once the deck is depleted, the game ends and players score the number of words they guessed correctly out of 13.

 

Can the whole family enjoy Just One?

Just One is a great game for families to enjoy playing together.

And better still is that it’s a cooperative party game so everyone is trying to win together. It makes for great teamwork when trying to come up with clues.

You want to give good enough clues for the active player to guess the word correctly, but you don’t want to use such an obvious clue that it matches what someone else writes because then your clues get cancelled out. And that’s what makes the game fun – the tricky balance on what clues to give.

Of course, we also find it really fun when everyone is second-guessing what clues their going to write so much that every clue becomes too obscure. It leaves the active player with some head-scratching moments trying to piece together what on Earth all the clues have to do with each other.

The words in the game are fairly common words as well – making it an approachable game for a wide range of ages.

The published recommended age is 8+ and we feel that’s a pretty good fit. The game requires being able to read the words and write clues. So as long as your kids have those skills, they can join in the fun. Of course, since it’s also a cooperative game, if younger kids want to join in, the could team up with an older sibling or adult to whisper words and clues to each other.

We also really love that the components in the game are fantastic. The cards are nice and durable and the colorful dry erase markers work well. (Though we have had some instances of the bottom ends of the markers coming off when we put the cap of the marker on the ends while we write. When we take the cap back, the bottom end has popped off with it.)

But the best components are the easels. They’re the perfect size, are good to write on with dry erase markers, and one side has a lip to easily set a card in for display. Plus, they’re also easy to plop face down when you inevitably get matching clues that cancel each other out.

 

How does Just One score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

Just One scores very high on our “let’s play again” meter for a number of reasons. The main reasons are because it’s a simple game, it’s fun to play, and we can play it with up to 7 players.

We also like how compact it is which makes it easy to take with us on trips. When we have some downtime, it’s a great game to pull out for a bit of fun times together.

And because it doesn’t take long to rattle through 13 cards, we almost always play multiple games in a row. We’ve also lent the game out a number of times because the friends we’ve played it with also want to play it at their own family gatherings.

If you haven’t guess yet, we highly recommend buying a copy of Just One for your family game nights!