Pictionary Rules and Scoring
Pictionary lives or dies on one rule: the drawer may not write letters or numbers. Everything else is negotiable, that one is not.
What the drawer cannot do
- No letters, numbers or symbols.
- No speaking, gesturing or mouthing.
- No pointing at people or objects in the room.
- Arrows and underlines to emphasise part of a drawing are allowed.
Word categories
| Category | Contains |
|---|---|
| Object | Physical things |
| Person / place / animal | Proper nouns included |
| Action | Verbs |
| Difficult | The hardest words in the deck |
| All play | Every team draws and guesses at once |
Scoring without the board
The boxed game advances a token, but the simplest house method is one point per correct guess within the minute, with the "difficult" category worth two. First team to fifteen wins — around forty minutes of play.
Frequently asked questions
One minute in the standard rules. Ninety seconds works better with younger players or a large word list.
Only the exact word on the card counts. Guessing "dog" for "puppy" does not score — which is why drawers learn to emphasise the distinguishing detail.