Decrypto

Give each team its own four words

This guide uses the physical English base game and the publisher's September 2019 English rulebook. It covers the normal four-to-eight-player team game. Three players use the separate official variation below; Laserdrive and other expansion rules are not part of this game.

Split as evenly as possible into two teams, each with two to four players. Sit teammates together on opposite sides of the table. Each team takes one screen and the matching black or white deck of 24 code cards. Draw four keyword cards from the top of the keyword deck and insert them into that screen's numbered positions 1–4. Do not browse or shuffle the keyword cards before choosing them. All teammates must see their own four words; opponents must see none. Those words and positions stay fixed for the whole game.

Give each team a double-sided note sheet and a pencil or pen. On both sheets, use the white side for White's clues and the black side for Black's. Each sheet needs space for eight rounds of three clues, guessed codes, revealed codes and four numbered clue-history columns. Use the supplied sheets, publisher's printable sheet or a paper copy of that layout. Put the four interception tokens, four miscommunication tokens and sand timer within reach.

Choose a cluegiver, called the encryptor, for each team and a rotation order. Everyone takes that role in turn. Only that round's encryptor sees their drawn code; the other teammates will decode it. Both teams' words remain visible to their own players, including their encryptor.

Link meanings, not secret signals

Draw one card from your team's code deck and look at it privately. It contains three different digits from 1–4 in order. Write one clearly separated clue for each digit, in that order, on the current round's lines. For a code of 3–1–4, clue the word in position 3, then position 1, then position 4. Keep the card and code hidden until both teams have committed their answers.

Clues may be a word or a sentence. The official rules also allow humming, dancing or mime if the group agrees; the main guide uses spoken, written clues. Each clue must concern the keyword's meaning and publicly available information. Obscure facts are allowed, but personal memories, private nicknames and prearranged secret codes are not. A clue cannot signal the word's spelling, length, pronunciation or position on the screen.

Do not use any keyword from your screen, or its translation, as a clue, even for a different keyword. Do not read out the code. Do not repeat a clue already used in this game. Share every clue and any permitted spelling with both teams, and spell a clue if asked. Once read aloud, a clue cannot be edited, expanded or improved. Stay neutral while others guess: no hints through expressions, corrections or reactions.

Cluegiving is not a conversation with your teammates. Quietly check all three meanings and their order before reading. Your teammates' task is to identify the numbers, not to guess words they can already see.

Lock both guesses, then reveal

Finish the whole round and settle ties

After both teams have transmitted, a team with two interception tokens wins, or a team with two miscommunication tokens loses. If only one clear outcome applies, announce that result. Do not end halfway through the round: the other transmission can change the outcome.

Use the tiebreak procedure if one team has both two interceptions and two miscommunications, both teams reach their second interception in the same round, both reach their second miscommunication in the same round, or neither has won or lost after round eight. For each team, score one point per interception token minus one point per miscommunication token. The higher total wins.

If those totals tie, each team commits to four guesses for the opposing team's four keywords before the words are revealed. The team that correctly identifies more keywords wins; if the counts still tie, share the victory. Use the actual keywords rather than broad categories. Agree before play how to treat an equivalent grammatical form in this rare word-guessing tie, since the rulebook does not define that detail.

For another game, deal fresh keyword cards, clear both histories, return all tokens to the center and shuffle the two code decks separately. Choose starting encryptors again. Changing the keywords between games resets the information opponents learned.

Help the table follow the information

Teach one transmission with the spoken example, then point out the four clue-history columns. Explain that opponents normally guess numbers; guessing the hidden words is only a late tiebreak. Before starting, let each person see where to write a guess and where to record the true answer. New players may prefer an unscored demonstration round using a separate set of words; if you do that, discard those words, clear the notes and reset tokens before the scored game. This is a host suggestion, not an extra official round.

Give every non-encryptor a chance to suggest a mapping before choosing the team's answer. Someone may record the sheet for a teammate, provided that does not reveal keywords or feed the encryptor's answer into the discussion. Keep tables and screens positioned so nobody has to lean across to read or accidentally see an opposing screen. Reading, writing, hearing clues and shared vocabulary matter here; a seated game does not guarantee it suits every group's access or language needs.

Check clue disagreements against the meaning and public-information rules. A sentence is legal; a private story or a sound-only link is not. The cited rulebook gives no general illegal-clue penalty. A usable house agreement is to treat an illegal clue as a failed transmission: the offending team takes at most one miscommunication token for that transmission, while opponents may still attempt an interception and both teams record the revealed code normally. Agree to this before the first card is drawn; do not present it as an official penalty. If a keyword screen is exposed, a separate house remedy is to restart with new words and cleared scores rather than pretend the information can be forgotten.

Do not let either team revise a written guess after hearing the other's answer. Read all three clues before discussing; do not reveal the code until both guesses are locked. Maintain an accurate history even when the code repeats. At the end, let the encryptors explain their associations after the hidden words are revealed; during play those explanations would leak information.

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