Trapwords Review

The dark tunnel ended at another stone portal, sealed tightly shut.

“Look, the password is to do with… life?” she winced in anticipation but the echoes just bounced harmlessly down the passage.

“Birth?” suggested the slightly broody orc.

“No don’t just guess randomly! It’s… lots of life in one area. Umm…”

“A city?”

“No! What did I just say!? Ah! We’re running out of time!”

“Death?”

“Shut up! Think… trees. Arrgggggggh…!” Her scream trailed away down the pit that had opened up beneath her feet.

“Oh forest! Shame about that Trapword…”

Players: 4-8
Time: 30-45 mins
Designer: Jan Březina, Martin Hrabálek, Michal Požárek
Artist: Régis Torres
Publisher: Czech Games Edition

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If there’s one thing success breeds, it’s an unquenchable thirst for more success. Often in a similar area. And so ever since Codenames stormed the unsuspecting Party Game shaped hole in gamers’ (and families’) outer defences, Czech Games Edition has been throwing new editions and all new lines into the breach. Codenames Duet and Pictomania 2nd Ed bowled over our defenders like so many pins but That’s A Question! caught the cannonball of indifference square in the face. Tentatively stepping through the scattered cards and assorted singed cardboard comes Trapwords, a somewhat smarter beast.

Trapwords is a game of imagination and terror. Or at least tension. Of getting your team to guess a particular word through your clever clues. But knowing you are walking through a linguistic minefield without a map. You see, each round the other team sees your target word first and sets some traps, in the form of words you must not say. Unfortunately for you they haven’t told you what the traps are. They’re just sat across the table clutching their paper, grinning at you. No pressure.

Well, you think, you can’t use any obvious words then. Which sets you up for quite a challenge getting your team to understand what you’re getting at. You need to be close enough but not so close you fall straight into a pit. It’s a mind game, and it works both ways. When you’re setting traps does it make sense to just cover obvious words since you doubt they’ll risk saying them anyway. In fact, maybe don’t cover any obvious words at all! But isn’t that delightfully risky…

That’s the central conceit and it can work really well. Coming up with a cunning way of leading your team to the answer that the opposition just didn’t think of feels brilliant. Catching your opponent on the first word they say is always hilarious! But for every entertaining moment there are several that left me feeling indifferent and I think there are a few reasons for that.

For one, writing out traps is not much fun. It’s difficult but in the sense of unpredictability rather than true challenge. You can make a best guess but ultimately how your opponents will give clues is entirely up to them and it’s impossible to cover every angle. So if the clue giver stumbles into your trap it feels a bit more luck than skill and that diminishes the sense of triumph, while if the clue giver avoids all your traps you can only really shrug. Perhaps it’s more fulfilling when you really know your opponents but honestly I’m not sure I could ever know someone well enough to know how they’ll give clues to ‘toaster’.

From the other side, it is super tense being the clue giver, and getting caught will give you an emotional response but the rest of your team are pretty much in the dark. Likewise, even if you win that round, it’s mostly a sense of mild relief you feel as a guesser. There was not a huge amount you could do. And that’s just disappointing in a game that should be making everyone feel invested.

I find the timer to be a necessary evil. I understand the need for it – having unlimited time to make guesses would drag out an already moderately long game interminably and the time pressure encourages more risky play… but it feels like you’re forcing the fun a little. Like the core is only of limited entertainment and you need to induce a panic. The timer just felt too tight, not giving quite enough opportunity for crafting really clever clues or letting you deal with tough words or recover from a couple of clues that went in the wrong direction. I’ve seen players clam up almost completely in trying to think up clues. Now, the game does have suggestions for handling these situations but a really good game would not be reliant on so fragile a system for keeping it in what I’m going to attempt to call “The Fun Zone”.

Compare this to Codenames where the included timer exists not simply to put pressure on a team but mostly for humour. Instead the timer in Trapwords puts a restriction on creativity in the name of chaos and in so doing reduces the investment players get to feel. Of course, it IS required…

This feels like a very negative review but that’s not true. It’s just very hard to describe why Trapwords left me wanting. It’s a lot of small moments, or frustrating design elements. Like how getting caught in a trap doesn’t advance the game. Or how often draws are likely to occur. Oh God I’m doing it again…

The fact is it is fine. I have had some laughs playing and I would play it again if someone wanted to. The monsters and curses throw fun curveballs into the mix with special restrictions, I like the choice between ‘fantastical’ words and normal words to tweak the game to the play group. It’s a nice production. But ultimately I feel like there are better games in this market out there. Like Codenames. Or Decrypto.

Rating: It’s a Trap!

Our copy of Trapwords was provided for review by Czech Games Edition.