Almost everyone enjoys a party game, especially one that is fast and exciting! These Guesstures rules will teach you how much fun you can have with your family and friends as you race the timer to become the team with the highest score!
Similar to Catch Phrase and Charades, players will divide into two teams and take turns acting out words, but there is a twist! Each word acted out is placed on a timer; if your team does not guess the word in time, the timer will eat the card, making it no longer available to your team!
Guesstures has been around for over 30 years! It has gained so much popularity that there is even a giant version of the game played by celebrities on “The Ellen Degeneres Show”!
This Guesstures rules guide will cover the following:
- What is Guesstures
- What you’ll need to play Guesstures
- Guesstures rules
- How to win Guesstures
- FAQs
- Similar game guides
Find out how to play Guesstures by reading more below!
What is Guesstures?
Guesstures is a version of charades that introduces a new mechanic: a timer that steals the cards you are trying to get your team to guess! As soon as your team guesses the correct word on the card, grab your card out of the timer before it’s snatched away!
Number of players: 4+ (There is no official limit to how many people can play, but it’s suggested to play with no more than 12 people total)
Ages: 8+
Difficulty: Easy
Length of play: 10-30min
Category: card, party, word, family, acting, role-playing, team-based
Similar to: Catch phrase, Family Charades, Pictionary
Main Objective: The team who obtains the most points from guessing words wins the game!
Why We Love It: Guesstures adds extra excitement to your usual game of charades by adding a timer that snatches cards as you try to have your team guess them!
What You’ll Need to Play Guesstures
Everything you need to play Guesstures can be found in the box:
The following components can be found inside each game:
- 320 Cards (easy, medium, hard)
- Action timer
- Label sheet
- Instructions
Guesstures Rules
Game Setup
- Divide players into two separate teams. It’s okay if a team has 1 more player than the other if there is an odd amount of players.
- Place the action timer on a flat surface.
- Shuffle each set of cards into individual decks (easy/medium/hard).
- Choose a team to go first.
You are now ready to play a game of Guesstures!
How to Play Guesstures
- Once a team is selected to go first, that team then selects one player to be the “actor” for this turn. Each team member will get at least one chance to be the “actor” during a game.
- The first actor for the team draws 4 cards of any difficulty. They decide which one out of the two words on each card they would like to have their team guess this turn.
Once they decide on the cards/words they would like to use, they place the cards in the action timer with the words they chose sticking out and facing towards them. Be sure that the words are not visible to your teammates.
- The actor will now wind up the timer and press down the timer’s arm to start the countdown. They will now immediately have their team guess as many of the words as possible, starting with the leftmost word on the timer, as this card will be the first to be removed!
If a player guesses a word, the actor must pull out that card immediately before it is grabbed by the timer. If a player guesses the word, but the timer grabs the card before the actor does, that card is not scored by the team.
The actor cannot move on to another word until someone guesses the first word or it’s grabbed by the timer!
- Each card that was guessed correctly and grabbed before the timer, gets set aside in a pile for that team to be added when the game is over.
- A new actor is chosen for the next turn and so on, until all players have had their chance at acting. If one team has an extra player, choose a player on the other team to take a second turn at acting while the extra player takes their turn.
- After every player has had a turn, the game ends! Calculate each team’s score and whichever team has the most points wins the game!
Acting Rules
You must follow these acting rules while your team tries to guess your word:
- You cannot use any sounds or talking.
- If it’s nearby, you may use a prop or point to an item to help your team guess a word.
- You may silently mouth a word as long as it’s not the word your team is trying to guess.
- Example: If your word is “Surprised” , you can mouth the word “Wow”.
- You may use classic charade gestures such as pulling your ear for “sounds like” and tapping your arm with your fingers to show how many syllables the word has.
How to Win Guesstures
Once every team member has had the chance to “act”, all the correctly guessed cards for each team are tallied up to determine a winner:
Easy Cards: 1 point each
Medium Cards: 2 points each
Hard Cards: 3 points each
The team with the highest score wins the game!
Video Tutorial for Guesstures
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is the timer for Guesstures?
The timer lasts for a total of approximately 15 seconds! That only gives your team a few seconds to guess each word you picked.
How old is the game Guesstures?
Guesstures was originally released back in 1990 which makes the game over 30 years old!
What happens to the Guessture cards once the timer takes them away?
The cards simply fall to the bottom of the timer. Pick up the timer and those cards will fall out of the bottom!
Other Similar Games to Guesstures (Our Guides)
If you enjoyed reading about Guesstures, check out these similar party game guides (if we have covered them):
