Bangarang
- Board's Eye View
- Aug 19
- 2 min read
Designed by Ellie Dix and published by Ginger Fox, Bangarang won Best Party Game at the UK Games Expo in 2024. The rules describe the game as 'cooperative chaos' and that's a pretty accurate summation.
In this lively party game for 4-8 players, one (two in an eight-player game) takes the role of guesser while the others take a card that shows how they can communicate a clue. The clue-giver with the 'Draw it' card has to communicate via a picture drawn on the supplied dry-wipe board; they're not allowed to use any words, letters or numbers. 'Mime it' of course means silently performing a mime. 'Say 1 word' means giving a one-word clue and you just keep repeating the same word. Likewise 'Make a sound'; fine for a clue card containing words like zombie and owl but good luck producing any helpful sounds to communicate dodo or dinghy. 'Body spell' means you use your hand or body to form the first letter of the word.
The game comes with 72 double-sided cards, each with five words or phrases, and a card is propped up on its stand so that all the players other than the guesser(s) can see it. The players then all give their clues simultaneously to the first word on the card. As soon as the guesser gets the word, the clue-givers shout 'Bangararang!' and move on to the next word. The team scores a point for every word guessed in 60 seconds, with a bonus point for getting all five words on the card. Don't think too much about that - if your plays are anything like ours at Board's Eye View it's never going to happen - you'll be doing well to get three or at best four words from the cacophony of clues in the time limit.
The rules suggest a reduced time limit if you play with seven players and so six clue-givers. This puzzled us because more clues actually adds to the chaos and can make things tougher rather than easier for the guesser, tho' if you play with two guessers then it's reasonable to expect to make faster progress.
The beauty of party games like this is that they are endlessly modifiable. If the players are struggling, you can easily extend the 60 second time limit for each card. And tho' Bangarang is expressly designed as a fully cooperative game, it's easily modified to turn it into a team game, like Reverse Charades (The Op), with which Bangarang has obvious similarities. And if ever you tire of the game, those 72 double-sided five-word cards are a great additional resource for Just One (Repos Production).
