5. Codenames

We discuss the board game Codenames by Vlaada Chvátil, a game that both of us played separately before meeting and have enjoyed playing together. Jeanne provides an in-depth discussion of the rules of the game and the ways that the formal, implied, and real-life variant rules affect strategy, as well as the impact of the game being named as the Game of the Year when it was released; Beth talks about the ways that the abstract nature of the game impact the players and the game's replayability. In this episode in particular, Jeanne and Beth go head to head on interpretation and playstyle but agree that Codenames is a game with rich play and lots of potential for any gamer.