A round
Nobody is told they are the odd one out
Everybody gets the same word — except one person, who gets something very close to it and is never told that it is different. You write one word back, and so does everybody else.
Nobody sees a single clue until all of them are in, and then they all come over together. The person holding the near miss has been playing the same game as you the whole time, and finds out with the rest of the table.
Who has finished is public; what they wrote is not
Which turns out to be most of the game. Five slips have weight, one does not, and everybody is watching the person still writing.
An empty clue is a real move and is drawn as an empty slip rather than a missing one — if you would rather say nothing, the table gets to see that you said nothing.
The bind
A clue too good hands your word to the person who does not have it. A clue too vague looks exactly like somebody covering for a word they do not have.
Six is the number: enough clues to argue about, few enough that everybody has to defend one.
On the sheet
Questions people ask
How much typing is there?
One word each, once a round. That is the whole of the input, which is why it works when half the table is on a phone.
Does the odd one out know they are the odd one out?
No, and that is the difference between this and most games of its kind. They are given a word that is very close to everybody else's and are never told it is not the same one, so they find out when the table does.
Does anybody have to install anything to play Oddword?
No. It runs in the browser everyone already has open. One person opens a room, reads out the six-character code or pastes the link into the channel, and everyone else is at the table in a couple of seconds.
Do we need accounts?
No. There is no sign-up, no password and no email address anywhere in the flow. You pick a name when you sit down, and that is the whole of it.
How many people can play Oddword?
4 to 8 — best with six. A room seats up to 12.
How long does a game of Oddword take?
About 15 minutes, which is the length of a coffee break rather than the length of a games night. Nobody is the host in the sense of holding the controls, so a round finishes whether or not everyone is still looking at it.
Does it work over a video call?
That is what it is for. The game is on the screen and the talking is on the call — nobody has to describe a board to anybody, and the parts that must stay private stay on the server rather than being read out.