OffLimits

Buzzkill

Describe the word without saying any of the three forbidden ones. 30 seconds.

🏆 Show no mercy · Crown the winner
Filters· 28 cards
Category
Group size
Vibe
Spicy meterHeat level: 3

🌶️ Secret spilling & personal call-outs · 28 cards in play

Word 1 / 2830s

Get your team to say

Pizza

Without saying

cheesesliceItalian

Say a forbidden word and it's a foul, no point.

1. How to Play

  1. Add players or teams to the scoreboard bar.
  2. The clue-giver taps the card to see the target word and three forbidden words, then taps Start round for the 30-second timer.
  3. They describe the target out loud. Saying the target, any forbidden word, or an obvious version of one is a foul and scores nothing.
  4. Every clean guess: tap +1 for that guesser, then tap Next word and keep rolling until the buzzer.
  5. A foul ends that word. No point, move on.
  6. Rotate the clue-giver each round. Finish & Crown Winner when you are done.

2. Host Playbook & Room Dynamics

  • You are the taboo referee. Watch the clue-giver's mouth, not the timer. A mumbled forbidden word still counts.
  • Rule on obvious variants before round one. If slice is forbidden, slicing usually is too. Then hold that line all game.
  • Fast talkers bury forbidden words in run-on sentences. Make them pause between clues if they are sprinting.
  • Let the guessing team shout over each other. That is fine here, unlike Charades. Only the clue-giver is gagged.
  • If a card is genuinely unfair for your group, the clue-giver can burn it once per turn with Next word. No foul, no point.

3. Game Features & Special Mechanics

  • Three forbidden words per card. The constraint is the whole game. The deck is tagged by category and heat, from office-safe to 18+.
  • A 30-second timer with a tick that speeds up and a hard buzzer.
  • A tap-to-score strip that stays on screen, so you award points as fast as the team guesses.
  • Foul calls are yours. The app tracks the clock and the score. You police the language.

4. Roster Setup & Social Sharing

Seed the field with the GROUP SIZE pills. 2-4 adds two, 5-10 adds five, 11-20 adds eleven. Scaling down only trims untouched Player N slots.

Rename any scoreboard pill on the spot. Tap it, type the real name or the team name, hit enter.

Finish & Crown Winner, then Share the podium, gives you a 9:16 recap card for Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok. Mobile uses the native share sheet. Desktop downloads the image, copies the caption, and opens the site.

5. Companion Wheel

Spin the Buzzkill Hot Seat Selector. Every slice below is editable, so tweak it to fit your group.

Buzzkill Hot Seat Selector
Player to the…Youngest in t…Last person t…Whoever's tur…Eyes closed, …The current l…Whoever is lo…Dealer's choi…

Options [8]

  • Player to the host's left gives clues
  • Youngest in the room
  • Last person to laugh
  • Whoever's turn got skipped
  • Eyes closed, point at random
  • The current leader
  • Whoever is lowest on points
  • Dealer's choice

6. Frequently Asked Questions

Does a forbidden word from the guessing team count as a foul?

No. Only the clue-giver is bound by the taboo list. Guessers can say anything.

Are hand gestures allowed?

Buzzkill is a talking game. Gestures are not on the list, but plenty of groups ban acting it out. Decide before round one.

Plurals, tenses, root words?

House rule, set up front. The common standard: any word that shares a root with a forbidden word is also forbidden.

Scaling to twelve or more people?

Tap 11-20 or 20+ to seed the roster, split into two or three teams, and rename the pills to team names. One clue-giver per team per round.

Alcohol-free version?

It is dry already. If you had a drink-on-a-foul rule, swap it for the fouling team skips their next turn, or a spin of the Hot Seat Selector.

Points reset when we came back. Bug?

That is intended. Buzzkill scores are session-only and start at zero on re-entry. Crown the winner before leaving to keep the recap card.

TikTok share did nothing on my laptop.

Desktop cannot push a file into TikTok, so we download the 9:16 card, copy the caption, and open tiktok.com. Upload the saved image there. On a phone, the share sheet lets you pick TikTok.

7. Play Next