So going into the draft I saw: Whale, Octopus, Goat, Noah, Port, Eden and was hoping I could somewhat sneakily grab those 6 to give an Ark clue. I probably should not have started with Whale as it has the most obvious blocker in Octopus, which Dels then took lol.

I still took Goat, thinking I might be able to pivot to a Mammoth clue. That could grab Whale (both indicate large things) and Goat without getting Octopus, and I could go for Ice Age as well. Also on my mind was that Whales and Goats have skeletons and octopi don't, so I could maybe go with a fossil clue and get Ice Age, Fuel, Microscope... but Dels having Rock could make that tough.

With that in mind, after he took Root I figured he was going something ground related and felt Microscope could be a decent blocker and fit my plans.

When he went Eden I didn't immediately put together that he was going Garden, had blinders on Rock + Root = ground and thought he must just still be concerned about me going for Ark. Took Noah as a biblical blocker + something with a skeleton.

Dels grabs Cotton but at this point I'm really keyed in on this skeleton/fossil idea and am looking at Back/Lip/Patient wanting as many of those 3 as possible. My list feels very versatile at this point, with the ability to pivot to Ice Age and Fuel.

Was a tad confused when he went Castle and reviewed his list. That's when I finally clued in on Garden. I realized that he would obviously save Octopus as a blocker for Whale and that he'd have to lead off with Garden. I felt Air had better Garden equity than Castle/Cotton so decided to stray a bit from my plan to grab it. Could also go "mouth" or "breathing" and grab Goat/Whale/Lip/Patient/Noah likely and still avoid Octopus.

When he goes Port I see he's planning for his second clue, not worried about blockers at this point and just want to grab Patient and Lip. Grab those two and off we go.

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Octopus getting guessed for Garden was extremely fortunate for us. As mentioned above I was planning on some kind of skeleton/breathing related clue, and I was starting to hate the fact that I drafted Microscope. Needed a more science-y clue to get it and realized that with Octopus off the board I could get everything with biology. Definitely some opportunity to hit something else but felt our remaining 7 were the clearest connection.

Great guessing PC and AK

Castle over Air was just a misplay on my part. I thought that Castle was a more specific fit, but I should have realized that the natural connection with Air would be what people would go for. My bad.

I think it's likely that Air would've been guessed with biology - 8, as long as Octopus was off the board. It's the damn Beatles that really did you in

Nice job Prip.... It all looks like fun except for the assassin being random at the end.. you are both picking your words and yet a random assassin could put way more grief on one team over an other..

Did you and Dels mind that, or wish the assassin was known as you were picking??

Yes, Air/Castle wasn't a huge deal as long as you couldn't loop in all your words in 1 turn. The Beatles is definitely what sealed the deal.

Honestly I was not thinking of the assassin at all, but that's a great point.

I didn't have any strong feelings about the assassin.

By the time we'd been done drafting, I'd taken every word related to gardens or my secondary technology hint, and I think Prip had taken everything biological. No neutral words were really at risk of being guessed, though you guys sort of considered Czech but not really. So it didn't have much of an impact, and in fact it felt a bit irrelevant.

The thing is, while drafting, you already know exactly which hints you want to give, and you'll already have taken anything that fits them. So the assassin probably won't be too dangerous.

What was the full board?

RED:
Rock
Octopus
Root
Eden
Cotton
Castle
Port
Shot
Driver

BLUE:
Whale
Goat
Microscope
Noah
Back
Air
Patient
Lip

NEUTRAL:
Blues
Czech
Diamond
Fuel
Ice Age
Tie
Whip

ASSASSIN:
Slipper

Do you feel that the assassin is essentially out of play?

To bring it back in, if necessary, after the draft, rand the assassin from the complete list, and if it was drafted, the drafter replaces it with an undrafted word. Obviously, this is a big hurt for one team. Maybe rand an assassin from each drafter's list, which then get replaced. There would be two assassins, maybe poison words would be a better descriptor, one for each team.

On the other hand, would this tend to undermine the whole point of this variant?

If we play this long enough I think we will find

games have fewer turns...

= red has a big advantage

This is just one game but I think we will see red winning in 3 turns lots and blue ready to win on their 3rd turn but never getting there.. I kind of think blue will need a 2 turn win in most games...

An extra turn is worth a ton in a "big clue" game.

lady slipper is a plant..

We could just do the initial suggestion, which was to let each spymaster pick an assassin for the other team.

But maybe instead of assassins being "for the other team", there can just be two assassins. After all, you're not going to pick a word as assassin that could get in the way of your words.

I was thinking along these same lines, that games will be short and red will have a pretty significant advantage. That being said, probably biased by how connected this board was and the drafting strategy I took.

If the blue drafters are more reactive and take strong blockers, perhaps they set themselves up to almost always get free words on red's clues.

I don't really have any interest in drafting words. From this trial it looks like the game was a pretty big fail in terms of enjoyability.

I thought it was pretty interesting... even if it played out very differently than a normal game. It's definitely a game that plays out primarily in the draft before the guessers even start their role, but I think it's worth continuing since some interesting things can happen. You can sub out if you'd prefer not to continue.

Dodging two assassins in a big clue game is going to be a crapshoot.

My thinking was the each spymaster invests lots of time in the draft, and that the assassin should play an even smaller role in wrecking the game than usual.

I would advocate minimizing it.

So, just a suggestion.. If red has first pick in the draft then before red picks blew says. I want to declare [word] as the assassin for the game... it will probably be an outlier word but then both spys can go to work knowing what it is..

seems a shame to be plotting a nice strategy and spending all them time picking and one spy end up with a blocker that is only a problem in "big clue" game, but this is a "big clue" game.... just a thought...

How did the fact that this was a draft affect your guessing? During the Czech discussion I was hoping that you'd realize the likelihood of drafting it was low given its lack of connections to most of the board.

I think it has massive potential, but that this board was super interconnected and there's no established draft strategy yet

And frankly I really enjoyed it

+1. In the end it is still just codenames for the guessers (with a few extra things to consider) Now mole/wolf is a game I may not want to play anymore, because it contaminates the guessing process, but this is just codenames with a twist..

It is still about clueing and guessing and teamwork once the game starts...

lmao i'll bet, pulling off the 1 turn victory =P

maybe i'm with chillrob after all, it wasn't so enjoyable on the other side hahaha

I think you saw what I had thought for 6 or 7

it was either parts as PK liked (back and lip)

or people: driver and czech..

Czech so seldom used as a "person" in codenames swung it for me to lip/back..

Blue picking the assassin at the start is possible. They could pick a word that is related to a lot of things if they want, preventing red from getting the 2-turn victory? (Or 3, even) Or pick something benign.

I know it didn't happen here, but if red had guesses cotton instead of octopus, then they'd be set for a potential turn 2 victory since blue wouldn't have been able to win in 1 (or maybe they would've with skeleton?) and if red got my second hint they could win. So you are right that each turn matters a lot more, probably.