The Chameleon Card Game – First Impressions

“I like being like a chameleon who transforms himself with each role.”

~ Oscar Isaac

A bluffing deduction game for everyone.

Very simple game… Each player is dealt a grid face down.

There are a number of cards with a bunch of different words around a related subject.

Then, 2 dice are rolled and then all of the players match the rolled dice to the position on their grid to the one with all the words pictured above… Well, almost everyone.

One player won’t have that Grid, their card says “You are the Chameleon”.

A 30-second timer is set, Everyone has time to think. Then, when the timer ends everyone, in turn order (and quickly) says one word.

The goal here is for the players that know the target word to show to the OTHER players that know it and they’re not the Chameleon. At the same time, they need to not give the Chameleon too much information that they know what the word is.

After discussion the players simultaneously vote, the player with the most votes reveals if they’re the Chameleon or not.

If not, the Chameleon wins.

If they are, they have a chance to pick the right word, if they do they win.

For more info on this kind of game check out my Social Deduction Games Hub Page.

The Chameleon Positives

Spyfall, the game of ‘multiple players mumbling slowly’ bores me. This takes that game, speeds it up 100 times and makes it much more interesting.

Also, It’s more interesting to have a variety of things to choose from each round instead of the same locations EVERY time.

The variety in the keyword cards changes each round and also changes each players knowledge on the subject. If it’s a subject you don’t know much about and you’re not the Chameleon, you need to get REALLY creative to prove you’re not.

The way the game works the Chameleon has an ‘out’ by just repeating a word someone said earlier in the round. It’s always more suspicious to repeat someone else but sometimes that was your word that you were going to say, you maybe you didn’t have time to change on the fly.

Simple and easy to teach.

The Chameleon Negatives

It’s a fun quick game, and fun quick games get overplayed. (Codenames, Anomia, Spyfall) Hopefully, this one won’t be.

I know people that will memorise those dice charts…

Summary

Excellent game, a tonne of fun.

Jesta ThaRogue