Many board games in the party game genre like to test the players’ knowledge with trivia or social deduction. It’s all for fun, but there are objectively correct answers. That makes it Shades and signals a different experience, because this game revolves around the subjective task of describing a color.
What specific shade of yellow is a school bus? Is oat milk a specific color? What is the most royal shade: blue or purple? These are the types of questions you’ll face in Shades and signalswhich we played in the last episode of Overboard with special guests Mattie Lubchansky and Jaya Saxena.
In Shades and signalsThe cue giver selects a color from four choices on a card before giving their first cue. There are only a few rules the cue giver must follow: The cue must be one word and cannot contain a base color such as red or green, although fancy colors such as vermilion and chartreuse are allowed. They also cannot use a specific object in the room, a cue that has already been used, or a letter or number that could refer to the location on the board.
Once each player has made a color selection in a clockwise direction, the cue giver can give a second cue. This time it can be two words, but they should avoid using words that directly indicate position relative to the player’s guess, such as “darker” or “south.” After all players have made their second guess (this time in a clockwise direction), the cue giver places the score box around their hue.
Points are awarded based on how close players come to guessing the correct shade, while the cue giver gets points for each guess in the scoring box. After each player has been cue giver twice, the game ends and the player with the highest score wins. The game can be made easier for beginning players by allowing cue givers to choose their color from the entire board, or more difficult by limiting cues to specific categories like comic book characters or Pokémon. Either way, it’s an immensely fun party game that’s sure to provoke some strange discussions about what colors actually are.
If you enjoyed our “Let’s Play” of Shades and signalsmake sure you check it out the rest of the series to our Youtube Channel!