Taboo

A popular party game for almost any number of players is Milton Bradley's Taboo.  Despite the slightly racy sounding name, Taboo is perfectly fine for the whole family, although the concept may frustrate younger children.  A word game similar in play to charades, teams attempt to guess selected words while obeying restrictions.  Taboo plays on your ability both to think quickly and around corners.

The essential gameplay in Taboo is very simple.  Teams take turns drawing cards, and during each round, one player is designated the "giver."  A Taboo card contains a word the giver must induce his team to guess, but it also contains a list of words he cannot say in his efforts to do so.  For instance, the word to be guessed might be "football", and the taboo words might be "quarterback", "touchdown", "linebacker", "scrimmage", and "kicker" - Of course, the word "football" wouldn't be allowed either.  If the giver accidentally uses one of the forbidden words, a "censor" on the other team buzzes them out, and they have to discard the card.

The rapid-fire nature of the game forces the giver to think quickly, and under pressure it can be difficult to talk your way around a subject without using the most common descriptive words associated with it.  Taboo is fast paced and fun, and topics are generally basic enough to allow even children and teens to enjoy the game.  Taboo remains one of the most popular party games in print today.