The word is the common word that associates a number of location pictures containing his Agents. On their turn, the Spymaster gives a single word Clue, followed by a number. Play continues in this way until one team has located all their Agents (or the game ends early if one team touches the Assassin's space and loses). The Operatives must guess where the Agents are on the map. The Spymasters place the stack of 4 Innocent Bystanders and the 1 Assassin between themselves.īeginning with the starting team's Spymaster, Spymasters take it in turns to give a one word Clue about the locations of their Agents, to their Field Operatives. The Spymaster of the team going first takes the Double Agent Tile, which indicates the extra Agent they must guess, flips it to the side in their colour, and adds it to their Agent Stack.

The Red and Blue Spymaster each place a pile of 7 Agents in their colour next to themselves. The team that goes first will have to guess an extra Agent. The lights on the side of the Key Card determine which team starts (red or blue light). The Key Card represents the positions of Agents (red or blue, for each team), the Assassin (black) and Innocent Bystanders (cream) on the map. One of the Spymasters shuffles the Key Deck, and draws one card, which both Spymasters can examine, and place on a stand, (facing only them). The little arrows should point to the top left corners from the Field Operatives perspective if the pictures are correctly orientated. Each picture represents a location where an Agent might be met. Shuffle the Picture Cards, and place 20 Picture Cards in a 5x4 grid, facing the Field Operatives - this is known as the Map.

The other members of each team sit across from their respective Spymaster. The Spymaster from each team sits next to each other at the head of the table. At least 4 players are needed for a game of Codenames: Pictures (also Variant Rules for 2P and 3P).Įach team nominates a Spymaster. One team is designated Red, and the other Blue.

Split the group of players up into two teams of equal size. The Field Operatives must decode the message correctly and find the Agents, or they may be ambushed by an opposition Agent or the Assassin! Setup To do this, each Spymaster sends a coded message to their Field Operatives. Each Spymaster needs to communicate the locations of their own team's Agents to the Field Operatives in their respective teams, so that clandestine meetings can be held! In Codenames Pictures, two rival spymasters know the location of all agents, innocent bystanders and an assassin on a map. Codenames Pictures Beginners Guide | Tutorial

Codenames duet rules