Laboo Game

Laboo is a word-guessing, trivia, and party game. The goal is for one player to get their teammates to guess the word on their card without using the word itself or five additional forbidden words listed on the card.

The game resembles popular word-guessing party games where a player provides verbal clues to help their team guess words.

Rules An even number of players sit in a circle, alternating turns. Players take turns acting as the “giver,” who tries to get their teammates to guess as many keywords as possible within the allotted time. However, each card also contains forbidden words that the giver cannot say. If the giver utters one of these forbidden words, a “censor” from the opposing team calls it out, and the giver must move on to the next word.

For example, the giver might need to get their team to guess the word “baseball” without using the words “sport,” “game,” “leisure,” “bat,” “pitcher,” or “baseball” itself as clues. The giver cannot use any part of a forbidden word; for instance, using “base” in “baseball” is prohibited. Similarly, word forms are not allowed. If the word is “wedding” and the forbidden words are “marriage,” “bride,” “groom,” “ceremony,” or “honeymoon,” then words like “marry” and “bridal” would also be disallowed. The giver can only provide spoken hints; gestures, sounds (e.g., barking), or drawings are not allowed. Singing is permitted, provided that words are sung and not just melodies hummed or whistled. The giver’s hints must not rhyme with a forbidden word or be an abbreviation of it.

While the giver is guiding their teammates, they can guess as often as they like without penalty for incorrect guesses. Once the team guesses the word exactly as written on the card, the giver moves on to the next word, aiming to complete as many as possible within the given time. When time runs out, the turn passes to the next player from the opposing team. The playing team earns one point for each correctly guessed word but loses a point for any forbidden word that was spoken.

Game materials:

• Laboo app
• Optional: Paper and pen for keeping score