Caution Signs

As anyone else, I love a good party game. I’m not the kind of person to play games like Cards Against Humanity or What Do You Meme, and so the family style party games actually interest me a bit more. Caution Signs was therefore a perfect fit for me, and I was very excited to get it to the table. What is this game? Is it suitable for the whole family? Is it fun? Let’s find out…

DANGER: I CAN’T DRAW

Designed by Danielle Reynolds and Scott Brady, and published by Wacky Wizard Games (a family-focused offset of Wise Wizard who brought us Star Realms, a personal favourite of mine), Caution Signs is a fast-paced sketching party game. With whiteboards and markers in hand, the sketchers pull 2 cards, one with an adjective and one with a noun (for example: “dancing” and “sheep”), and have 20 seconds to draw that “dancing sheep” to the best of their ability. They then hope the guesser correctly identifies their drawing amongst a sea of descriptors so that they can both score those sweet sweet points.

It really is that simple, which is what you want from a game like this, and if you can’t draw, that’s great! The people who can don’t have long enough for it to make a difference!

POSITIVES THIS WAY

Caution Signs is incredible fun and translates fairly well to all ages (though you may need to alter the timer length for younger children or players with reading/comprehension difficulties). The rounds move fast, and it isn’t long before chaos erupts, the room filling with laughter and confusion. This game is TENSE, and that clock never feels long enough. You’ll receive two prompts that often make NO SENSE together, but you’ve got 20 seconds to figure it out AND finish your drawing, and the results are always hilarious. I love that the score-sheet is a whiteboard and not paper so you can play for longer, and the point reminder on top is well designed and useful. Caution Signs is the kind of game that you can’t take seriously, but even if you do, it’s funnier. That being said, this game…annoys me?

NO THROUGH ROAD

Despite the immense fun I’ve experienced with this game, the experience is over-shadowed by a handful of nitpicks that leave me unsatisfied. I’m not proud of this feeling to be honest… this is LITERALLY a game for children, it feels wrong to hold a bit of a grudge against it. Nonetheless, I at least believe that it is in my best interest to highlight the problems that block the road for me so that YOU can make a decision as to whether you follow the diversion, or make a U-Turn.

1) Price – This game should not be £25. I’m lucky enough to have received this game as a review copy, but when I looked up the RRP after playing, I was gobsmacked that they can charge this much for this game. The game feels worthy of £10, maybe £15, but I cannot see where my £25 would be going. There are other games like Telestrations or Jackbox Party Packs which have similar vibes to this but the value for money is much better.

2) Cheap materials – The markers are lousy at best. I understand that packing 8 high-quality markers could quickly steep the price, but I don’t want a stained whiteboard from a pen that I feel is going to dry out in six months (and there’s no spares). I likewise feel that if I’m paying £25 for a game like this, I want a sand timer, or a timer of some sorts. I have learned, as of writing this, that they have an app which has a timer on it. Unfortunately, this timer isn’t adjustable, or worth swapping your normal phone timer for, as no work has gone into making it unique or immersive for the user. It adds nothing to the game. Bummer.

3) Points System – The guesser pulls in a bit of a disadvantage here. If they guess both of the descriptors that link to a sketchers card, they only get 2 whilst the sketchers get 3. Annoying, but we can live with that. If they at least guess 1 right though, the sketcher runs away with a point whilst the guesser gets…NOTHING? Keep in mind, in regards to how this looks in the game, guessing one correctly is commonly down to the fact that the drawing is near impossible to decipher, but the guesser is using all their brain power to make something out of it. I’d recommend house ruling this to give a point to each to provide some desire for the guesser to at least try.

4) Theming/Accessibility – This is my biggest gripe of the game. Wacky Wizard Games should have picked almost any other theme. Anything that meant they didn’t have to design Caution Signs the way they have. Don’t get me wrong, the choices made are completely logical to keep with the theming, but I therefore feel the theme should have changed. The cards used for Caution Sings are not your usual cards. Instead, they have been cut into small triangles. When the adjective card and noun card come together, they form a complete sign, which passes the theory test, but hits a few minors on the practical. Why make your game so fiddly to play when the actual gameplay is perfectly simplistic?! During the game, you hold both cards face down in one hand and the pen in the other, and flip the cards over after the timer starts. This is just silly and uncomfortable, and if you struggle with motor functions or physical disabilities, I can see this being more hassle than it’s worth. Not to mention, this triangle shape makes clean up really awkward, and offers up extra pointy edges to stab into your hand as you group the cards together. The colour gradient is also fairly minimal on the cards which makes re-organising the cards into the right piles from initial glance more awkward than it needs to be too. It’s so tedious. WHY MAKE YOUR EASY GAME WEIRDLY UNCOMFORTABLE?

EXIT

Caution Signs is undeniably a fun game, but there’s a nagging part of me that feels discontent. I feel like I’ve played 100 games just like this. It’s not complex, it’s not hard to produce (unless you waste money cutting cards that were better left untouched), and it’s not hard to come by similar games at better price points. I can’t recommend choosing this game over any other whiteboard drawing game or even Gartic Phone (do people still play that?). I own it already, and therefore could see myself bringing it to the table again, but I would never pay full price for it, and wouldn’t recommend you do that either. This is Zatu though, so if it isn’t already on sale, one will come by. Spend your money then.