At the end of the city's most chaotic street sits a door with no sign, no hours, and no mercy. A Bouncer guards it, motionless and impeccable. To get in, you need an Invitation bearing a single word, but the word alone is worthless. You have to whisper the right Password, something the Bouncer finds meaningful. And hidden among the hopeful crowd is an undercover Detective, listening to every attempt, determined to crack the secret before anyone else does.
Each round, one player becomes the Bouncer, secretly linking a Password to the word on their Invitation card. The other players split into Customers, who can see the word and take turns calling out guesses, and a single Detective, who can't see the word at all and must piece it together purely from how the Bouncer reacts to each guess. After every failed attempt, the Bouncer marks how close the guess landed on a five-step scale, close but not quite, or way off. Customers use that feedback to zero in on the Password, while the Detective quietly builds a theory about the hidden word itself, testing it at set checkpoints throughout the round.
Cocktail tokens are on the line for everyone. Nail the Password fast and Customers cash in generously, but the Bouncer only scores big if the word holds out for a while, so a good Bouncer walks a tightrope between too easy and too obscure. Guess correctly and you become the new Bouncer, ready to test the table with your own cryptic connection.
Over four rounds, roles rotate constantly, keeping every player alternating between crafting clues and cracking them.
The player with the most Cocktail tokens after four rounds wins, having proven themselves the sharpest wordsmith, the shrewdest guesser, or the most observant Detective at the door.
—description from the publisher
Party Game · Deduction
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