Halfword

Everyone gets the same word. Almost.

Halfword is a pass-and-play party game for 4 to 20 people in one room. Most of the table shares a secret word. A few Undercovers get a nearby one without knowing it: tea, while everyone else has coffee. And Mr. White may get no word at all. Describe yours without saying it, then vote out whoever sounds off.

One phone is enough. No account, no internet. New to the game? How to play, one tap from the home screen, walks you through the roles, a round and who wins.

HOW A GAME GOES • Deal: the phone goes round. Each player holds to reveal their card, reads their word alone and hides it before passing on. A card can be shown again, but the whole table sees that it was. • Describe: one clue each, in turn, never the word itself. Too vague looks suspicious, too exact gives it away. • Discuss, then vote: whose clue didn’t fit? Everyone votes: in secret as the phone goes round, or by pointing while you tap in every hand or just who got the most. A tie gets one more clue from each tied player, then a new vote. • Out: the player with the most votes is out, and the phone shows what they were. • Caught Mr. White? One guess at the civilians’ word. If it’s right, Mr. White steals the win.

The Civilians win when every Undercover and Mr. White is out. The Undercovers and Mr. White win once as many of them are still in as Civilians. A table rule puts the Undercovers on the Civilians’ side while Mr. White plays, and you can play without Mr. White.

EIGHT SPECIAL ROLES Optional twists. Switch on any mix. Six of them go to players on top of their role; the Ghost and Mr. Meme change the rules for the whole table. • Goddess of Justice: breaks every tie, even after she’s out. • The Lovers: two linked players. If one goes, both go. • The Revenger: takes one player along when they go out. • The Duelists: the first of the two out loses 2 points, the other gains 2. • The Ghost: the eliminated keep talking and voting. • Mr. Meme: each round, someone describes with gestures only. • The Boomerang: once, the votes against them fly back at the voters. • The Joy Fool: scores 4 points for being the first one out, if on the Civilians’ side.

A WHOLE EVENING • Scores add up over every game at your table, on a leaderboard for the evening. • The table plays for a share and the other side for a stake: the more players the table loses, the higher the stake and the lower the share. • The app suggests how many Undercovers and Mr. Whites suit your group, and you can change it or play without Mr. White. • An optional turn timer: 15, 30 or 60 seconds. • Stop in the middle of a game and carry on later, right where you left off.

SIX LANGUAGES, WORDS WRITTEN FOR EACH • Play in English, German, Spanish, Russian, Belarusian or Ukrainian: the app and the words. • Every word pack is written in its own language, never translated. • Five difficulty levels. Pairs your table played lately are skipped. • The app’s language and the word language are set separately, so a mixed group can read the app in one language and play with words in another.

SHAPE FIRST, COLOUR SECOND Every role has its own shape: a circle for the Civilians, a tilted triangle for the Undercover, an empty square for Mr. White. Colour is never the only clue.

PRIVACY • No account, no ads, no tracking. • Halfword works offline and never goes online. • Names, games and scores stay on your phone.

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