Metaboo

Metaboo

Designer: Kevan Davis
Type: Miscellaneous
Status: Free
BGG entry: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/0000
Available at: http://kevan.org/games/metaboo.html

Metaboo is a variant of the word-describing game 'Taboo', where players attempt to communicate a word or phrase to their team-mates without using certain words. Where Taboo requires cards that specifically list the banned words, though, Metaboo only requires a book or a random-word-generator, and allows players to say anything they like.

But it also allows opposing players to interrupt. Instead of avoiding words on a pre-printed list, the describing player has to avoid any words that might help the opposing players. Rather than being an exercise in careful phrasing and thesaurus-speak, Metaboo is about tailoring a description towards a specific person's knowledge (or simply following their apparent train of thought), and trying to avoid other people's.

Metaboo is probably best suited to groups of people who all know one another equally well (or are equally unknown), although it should begin to level out after a few rounds, regardless.