Forbidden Words is our take on Taboo, the buzzer game. Five related words sit fenced off under every card — always the five you would have reached for first — and the opposing team reads the same card with a finger on the buzzer. Below four players it becomes a fifteen-level challenge ladder instead.
Charades bans speech outright and hands you a deck of over a thousand films, shows and famous people. Only One turns the ban inward: any two clues that match are thrown away before the guesser sees either.
Table Party is not affiliated with the publisher of the box game. Forbidden Words is our own game with our own cards; what carries over is the shape of the panic — a clock, a teammate, and the perfect word you must talk around.
Pick by the night you’re having
Forbidden Words
Teams from four. Two or three of you? It switches to a fifteen-level ladder with no opposing team.
One phone, passed round
Charades
Only the actor needs a screen, so it runs pass-and-play on a single device.
Nobody against anybody
Only One
One score for the table, thirteen cards, and the obvious clue is the one that gets thrown away.Three games about forbidden words
Forbidden Words2–12 players · 10–15 minFive banned words under every card, the other team watching the same card with a finger on the buzzer. Our own version, our own cards.
Charades4–12 players · 10–15 minNo speaking at all. The word shows only on the actor’s phone; a deck of over a thousand films, shows and famous people.
Only One3–7 players · 10–15 minCo-op, no teams. Everyone writes one clue and any two that match are thrown away before the guesser looks.The box, and what you get here
| Taboo in the box | On Table Party | |
|---|---|---|
| The cards | A printed deck you have seen before | Our own cards, five forbidden words each, dealt fresh to the clue-giver’s phone |
| The buzzer | A plastic buzzer | The opposing team sees your card on their own screens and buzzes from there |
| Below four players | It does not really work | A fifteen-level challenge ladder for one or two |
| Setting up | Card holder, timer, buzzer, two teams | A room code, or one phone passed round |
| Cost | The box | Free. No app, no sign-up, no adverts |
Playing in under a minute
- 1One person opens tableparty.io on a phone or a laptop and picks a game.
- 2Everyone else types the four-letter room code on their own phone. Nothing to install.
- 3Play. Anything secret stays on your own screen, so it works across a table or a video call.
Questions about Word-guessing games to play online
How close is this to the box game?
The shape is the one you know: describe the word, five banned words on the card, the opposing team on the buzzer, teams from four players. The cards and the app around them are ours.
What happens with two or three players?
Forbidden Words switches to a fifteen-level ladder with no opposing team, and Only One runs from three — though at three, two matching clues can leave the guesser with nothing at all.
Which is the loudest?
Charades. The actor may not say a word, so their whole team shouts guesses at once while the clock runs down.
Do we need a phone each?
Not for Forbidden Words or Charades — both run pass-and-play on a single device, since only the person on stage ever needs to see something secret. Only One needs a phone each, because everybody writes a clue in secret.