Pictionary is charades on paper...in fact you can’t make any gestures or sounds when you draw.
Pictionary was released in 1985 by waiter Robert Angel. It was self published from his apartment with the help of some friends. Eventually Pictionary ended up with Hasbro then Mattel.
Pictionary is played by teams. The teams race around the board drawing clues and hoping their teammates can guess the correct word. There are All Play squares where both teams compete head to head drawing and guessing. In addition to All Play there are Person/Place/Animal, Object, Difficult and Action squares. The first team to the end of the board’s path wins!
One of the real strengths to Pictionary is that even when it isn’t a team’s turn they have a blast observing the other team’s efforts to draw and guess. Also we found that people that who were artistic actually did worse at the game...simple, fast sketches worked the best. And changing your drawing quickly based upon the direction of the guesses.
The Good: Even if you lose you have fun.
The Bad: It’s hard not to make gestures but don’t!
The Dastardly: Stick figures rule!