Just One Back Story
Recently, I went to an event for my son's school. Their Jazz band and GLVPAA students play at this event. It's a ticketed event, where you get food, dessert, and drinks, and listen to the music. There are raffles for prizes, and to make a long story short, we won a pack with a lovely blanket and some tabletop games.
On a side note, I was dying laughing at the band teachers. One was playing the piano to accompany the solo student, as the other was turning the pages for him. It was adorable and hilarious at the same time.
What is Just One?
With that out of the way, Just One is a 3 to 7-player game where you really have to think outside of the box, but not too outside the box. Its age range is for ages 8+. It has two designers, Ludovic Roudy and Bruno Sautter. Two artists, Éric Azagury and Florian Poullet. Just One also won the Spiel des Jahres award!
Everyone gets a stand and a marker, but also has to get ready to use their brain.
The chosen player draws a card without looking at it, puts it on their stand so the other players can see, and chooses a number 1-5. The other players write on their stands, these things are two-sided by the way. One side has a ledge, while the other side you can write on. So, without the chosen person seeing everyone write one word as a clue that pertains to the word that is on the card.
For instance, say the player picks the number 3, which is devil. Some good word choices could be horns, evil, red, hell, and fire.
Once everyone has something written on their placards, the chosen person has to close their eyes. Everyone else now shows each other what they wrote. ANY doubles have to be turned over. This is why I said you need to think outside the box, but not too outside. You don't want to pick something someone else did, but at the same time, you want enough common clues to where the person will be able to guess the word.
Once the clues are all ready, the chosen person can see the clues and then, if they guess correctly, it goes into a win pile; if they don't, it gets thrown in the box. Play until the deck is empty and your scores are based on a scale of how well you guys did.
3-players does have a variant that each person uses two stands instead of one, writing two clues instead of one each.
Thoughts
We (I) thought that the way to win was dumb, so instead we said whoever gets so many cards wins instead. Because this took a long time. There should have been a time limit on guesses, because we were taking forever on some turns. We decided that whoever got to 5 cards first won. We played 2 hours and only got through maybe 1/3rd of the deck. So, enforcing different end rules was easier.
Just One is one of the best party board games for families and friends. We all loved this game; it was fun, and it was hilarious/frustrating if someone picked the same word we did.
Over on BoardGameGeek, it has an average rating of a 7.6. If you have read my previous tabletop reviews, you'll know it's a hit or miss if people just rate or actually leave a comment. From reading the bad comments, it's pretty much too hard for people to guess what others mean. While the good comments pour in, it's fun and simple.
If this is something you are thinking about picking up, take the chance now to snag it here:
Just One on AmazonContent
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