Drawful gives everybody their own canvas. You get a prompt nobody else has seen, you draw it badly, and everyone else invents a title that could pass for whatever you produced — then the room votes, and you score for every player your lie catches.
Fake Artist puts the whole table on one canvas instead. Everyone is dealt the same word except one player, who gets only the category, and you each add a single unbroken line in your own colour, twice round. Draw it well and you have handed the faker the word.
Charades and Bowl of Nouns are mime. Charades brings a deck of over a thousand films, shows and famous people; Bowl of Nouns makes the table write its own, then plays that bowl three times over — describe it, one word, act it out.
Two to draw, two to act out
Questions about Drawing and acting games
Do I need to be able to draw?
The opposite. Drawful is won by the titles people invent for the mess, and in Fake Artist a clear drawing is a mistake — render the word too well and the one player who cannot see it works out what it is.
What is the difference between the two drawing games?
Drawful gives every player their own prompt and their own picture, and the vote is on titles. Fake Artist gives the whole table one word and one picture between them, and the vote is on people.
Where do the words come from?
Charades deals from five packs of 230 and remembers what your room has already acted. Bowl of Nouns is written by the players, four nouns each, and Fake Artist deals a single word to everybody except the faker, who gets the category.
Can we play without everybody joining on a phone?
Charades and Bowl of Nouns both have a pass-and-play mode that runs on one device, which suits a game where the room is looking at the actor anyway. The two drawing games need a phone each.