Reply To: Codenames (2-player cooperative mode) – 1 (possibly 2) player(s) wanted

Would you have enjoyed the game more in this case if instead of
posting more of the rules as the game went along, I would simply
have marked guesses correct or incorrect and informed you that
certain words were no longer in play?

Here’s a game overview (not copied from any website).
It doesn’t have the details of what clues are legal, but you
don’t need those until you’re actually about to play.
Codenames – A party game for 2 teams in which each team’s captain
attempts to have their teammates correctly guess which of the
words in a 5×5 grid of word cards their team has been assigned.
(200 double-sided cards are included.)
The captains sit on a different side of the table than the
rest of the players, with a grid card in front of them that
shows them which words belong to which team.
8 words will be assigned to one team and 9 to the other,
7 words will remain neutral, and one word will cause an
instant loss for the team that guesses it. Demonstration:
1 – 1 – 2 – 2 – N
2 – N – X – 1 – 2
1 – 2 – N – N – 1
N – 1 – 2 – 2 – 1
N – 1 – 2 – 1 – N

The captains also have 25 corresponding markers.
(The team with 9 words goes first.) On a team’s turn, their
captain gives them a 1-word clue (following certain rules)
and also gives them a number, which tells them how many
of their words the clue refers to. (The captains may not communicate
in any other way with their teammates over the course of the game.)
The rest of the team must then attempt to guess words that belong
to their team – they must make at least 1 guess, but can make up to
one more than the number they were given (allowing them to also
guess words from previous clues – the captain might give an inflated
number for that reason – or to make random guesses when desperate).

Teams can and should discuss their thoughts. To guess a word,
a team member puts their finger on the word card. When a word
is guessed, the team’s captain marks it with the correct marker;
that is, whether the word was theirs or not, its identity is revealed.
If the word did belong to the guessing team, their turn continues,
but if they guessed a neutral word or one of the other team’s words,
their turn is over. If the guessed word was the Assassin, the team
immediately loses the game. Otherwise, play continues until all of
one team’s words have been identified – that team wins.
(The game includes a timer in case of slow players.)

[2-player variant: The 2 players are the team with 9 words.
After each of their turns, mark 1 of the other team’s words.
The object is to win as quickly as possible (and not to lose).
3-player variant: One player acts as guesser for both teams.]

(Codenames Pictures has the same gameplay but instead uses a 4×5 grid
of black-and-white pictures, each with strangely combined elements.)