The full rules of classic Alias and how they work online: how many players you need, what you may say while explaining, how scoring works and how to settle the arguments that always come up.
Alias is a party game for four people and up. Players split into teams of at least two: one explains, the rest guess. Online everyone plays from their own device, so the group can sit around one table or be spread across different cities.
Players take turns one by one: first one representative from each team, then the next lap. That way everyone gets to be the one explaining.
The word is shown only to the player explaining. The rest of the team sees the timer and the score, but never the word itself.
The explainer describes the meaning: synonyms, examples, situations, opposites. The team shouts out guesses, as many as they like.
As soon as the right answer is said, the explainer confirms it and immediately gets a new word. A hard word can be skipped, but it costs a point.
When the timer hits zero the turn passes to the next team automatically. Once every team has played, the round counts as finished.
Anything that describes the meaning without naming the word itself.
Breaking a rule means the word does not count — or the team loses a point, depending on what you agreed.
The game keeps score for you: the moment the explainer confirms an answer, the point is added automatically.
The team with the most points after the last round wins. On a tie, play one extra lap with a single word per team.
The three arguments that come up most often, and a simple way to settle each.
The team said "cyclist" instead of "bicycle". Usually it counts if the root is the same and the explainer confirms they got the idea. The important part is agreeing on this before the game, not during it.
The word is dropped and the explainer takes the next one. No point is awarded, even if the team had already guessed it.
It counts if the whole word was said before the sound. When in doubt it is easier not to count it — that causes fewer arguments.
30 seconds instead of a minute. The game gets more frantic, and the group fits more laps into an evening.
Instead of a fixed number of rounds, play until one team reaches, say, 30 points.
Your own list on a single topic: films, cooking, work jargon. Works beautifully at themed parties.
Easy words and gestures allowed for the youngest players. Adults stick to the standard rules.
The rules are the same, but the game takes over the bookkeeping.
Create a room, share the link and start your first round right now.
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