Charades is one of the most popular party games for a reason–people love guessing games that force us to rely on deductive reasoning in order to win. The board game Concept takes the guessing game nature of charades and incorporates iconography for an even more high brow party game. 

You’ll be scratching your head as you sort through the different illustrated icons on the board, trying to piece together what on earth the moon, a rabbit, and a drop of water could possibly have to do with each other. Concept is the board game that will keep you guessing long after the game is over.

Choose Your Concept

Concept uses a large game board filled with 124 different icons that are used as clues throughout the game. Each round sees one pair of players draw a Concept card, which has on it nine different words or phrases. There are three difficulty levels on each card, ranging from easy to challenging. The pair who are giving the clues each round will choose one of the 9 words on the card to use for that round.

Players are welcome to decide at the beginning of the game which difficulty level they want to use or to give free rein to the clue givers as to which word they choose. If you’re an avid fan of deductive board games and you’re looking for something a little more challenging, it can pay to go for the more complicated guesses.

Laying the Clues

Once the pair has selected their word, they’ll start laying out the clues. Concept comes with little colored figurines that signify each clue. The primary clue piece that defines the overall category of the concept is in the shape of a green question mark, while the four subsequent clue pieces are in the shape of four differently colored exclamation points.

You can supplement each of your primary clues with more tokens, which come in the form of little cubes of corresponding colors. These can help you flesh out the clue and lead the other players to guess correctly. For example, if your concept word was “hammer”, then you’d place the green question mark on the icon for “tool”. You might then place additional green cubes on icons such as “metal” or “wood”. 

Guessing Game

The rest of the players will try to guess the word or concept on the active team’s card, earning tokens for correct guesses. If you are the first to guess correctly, you earn a double scoring token. The pair that gives the clues will also each get a single scoring token if someone else guesses their clues correctly.

Concept gives players free rein in that there is no time limit to each round. Players can take as long as they like to try and guess, and the clue givers can start over from scratch if they prefer to take another route. The round ends when either someone guesses correctly or everyone decides mutually to pass. The winner of the game is whichever player collects the most tokens once all of 12 double tokens have been given out.

Concept Kids: Animals

Concept is a fun and challenging board game that can confuse younger players under 10. To make the game accessible for younger players, they’ve released a sequel called Concept Kids: Animals that offers animals to be guessed instead of more complicated words or phrases. This version is suitable for ages 4 and up, allowing little kids to learn deductive reasoning and cooperation.

Get Your Thinking Cap On with Concept

Concept is playable by 4-12 players, making it an excellent game for parties or family gatherings. It’s suitable for ages 10 and up, as you can decide on different difficulty levels to accommodate the age of the group. Playing time lasts around 40 minutes, although you can always choose to shorten it by playing fewer rounds.

Concept is a board game that really requires you to get inside the head of your fellow players. You’ll need to understand how their brain works if you want to be able to connect the dots from A to B. Trade in charades for something even better and buy Concept today!