Codenames is the rare party game that works at both 4 and 16 players. Two teams; two spymasters give one-word clues for multiple words on a grid; field operatives guess what the clue means.
The community's biggest tip for new spymasters is to avoid being too clever on your first clue. A connect-four clue that loses a turn because operatives can't reverse-engineer it costs you more than a safe two-word clue. Calibrate to your team's wavelength before stretching.
The single best house rule the community has converged on is "no English nouns that share a stem with the target word". This prevents the cheap "Wash..." clue for WASHINGTON. Adopting this rule from game one separates good spymasters from lazy ones, and tightens every match into a clue-crafting puzzle.
For groups, the original word-based Codenames remains the right buy. The Pictures version is great for non-native English speakers; Duet (2-player co-op) is excellent for couples but plays differently.
