Cranium without a scorekeeper: Teamzy balances the teams and keeps the wins
Teamzy draws teams balanced by level, you mark the winning team at the end, and the app keeps the match in the history. Over the evenings, you see who really wins most often among friends.
The rules of Cranium in 30 seconds
Cranium is a Hasbro board game played in teams, from 4 players. On its turn, a team tries the challenge on a card before the timer runs out: draw, sculpt in clay, act, hum, answer a question or solve a word puzzle. Challenge won: the team rolls the die, moves its mover, and it is the other team's turn. Challenge failed: the mover stays where it is. On an ALL-PLAY card, every team plays at the same time and the first to get it moves. This sequence (die rolled only after a challenge won, then the turn ends) is the one of the classic boxes (Hasbro rules). To win, a team has to finish the track, all the way to Cranium Central, and then win the final challenge. There are no points, and never a tie.
How a game of Cranium ends
There is nothing to count: nobody scores points, you move your mover. The game has two parts. First you move along, challenge after challenge: each challenge won earns a roll of the die. Then, once on Cranium Central, the other team picks the color of the card you play, and a single challenge won is enough to win on the spot. If it fails, you try again on your next turn with another card. In Teamzy there is nothing to enter: you mark the winning team.
The end of the game, as Teamzy explains it
| What counts | Points |
|---|---|
| Finish the track and win the last challenge | win |
| Challenge won | roll the die |
| Tie | never |
An evening for four, two balanced teams, one win
Lucas, Emma, Hugo and Léa make four. Each has a Cranium level in Teamzy, from 1 to 5 stars. The app draws two teams balanced by level, so that the sum of the levels is as close as possible from one team to the other: the Eagles (Lucas, Hugo) against the Tigers (Emma, Léa). Each team has its mover on the board, and on each turn the team in play tries the challenge on a card.
- 1First turn: the Eagles pick the color of their card, as at the start. They take a clay challenge: Lucas sculpts, Hugo guesses before the timer runs out. Won: the Eagles roll the die, move their mover, and their turn ends there. The Tigers then try an acting challenge: Emma acts, but Léa does not guess in time. Failed: no roll, the mover stays put, and it is the Eagles' turn again.
- 2On the Eagles' next turn, an ALL-PLAY card is drawn: both teams look for the same answer at the same time. Léa shouts the right answer first: the Tigers roll the die and move. That turn is over: now it is the Tigers' turn.
- 3A few turns later, the Eagles land on Cranium Central, with the Tigers nowhere near. On their next turn, the Tigers choose the color of the card, and they pick a word puzzle. Hugo cannot solve it: the turn ends, they will have to try again. The Tigers play, then the Eagles try again with another card, of any color: this time, Lucas gets his challenge guessed in time.
The Eagles win: the track finished, then the final challenge won first. The failed challenge cost nothing more than a turn, and the Tigers, who had not arrived, could not catch up. There are no points, and never a tie.
In Teamzy, on the match screen, mark the Eagles as the winners, then save the match: it joins the history with its winning team. "Save and play again" saves it the same way and sets up the rematch with the same teams. Before tonight, 4 matches had already been played with the same teams: the Eagles had won 3, the Tigers 1. With this one, the game details show 5 matches and, under "The best", Hugo and Lucas lead with 4 wins ("4 W · 80%"), then Emma with 1 win (20%); Léa, tied with Emma, is in "See the full leaderboard". Teamzy draws the teams, remembers every match and keeps the count for you: all you have to do is play.
The questions that come up at the table
You have to finish the track on the board, all the way to Cranium Central, and then win the final challenge. You move along challenge after challenge: each challenge won in time earns a roll of the die. On Cranium Central, the other team picks the color of the card, and one challenge won is enough to win. In Teamzy, you mark the winning team on the match screen: the match joins the history and the leaderboard.
The Cranium rules on the Hasbro siteA team that lands on Cranium Central has not won yet. On its next turn, the other team picks the color of the card, and the team has to win the challenge before the timer runs out. If it does, it wins right away. If not, it tries again on its next turn with another card, of any color. An ALL-PLAY card also counts on Cranium Central. Depending on the edition, the finish can also be getting back to the start space after a full lap of the board.
If the team has not succeeded before the timer runs out, it does not roll the die and its mover stays on its space: it is the other team's turn. The die is rolled only after a challenge won (or, on an ALL-PLAY card, by the team that gets it first), and that ends the turn. The color of the space the mover is on gives the category of the card to play; on a purple space, the team picks the category. This sequence is the one of the classic boxes (Hasbro rules); other editions may change it.
The cards come in four categories, each with its own color on the board: Creative Cat (sketch and sculpt in clay, sometimes with your eyes closed), Star Performer (act and hum), Data Head (trivia questions) and Word Worm (word puzzles, spelling backwards, defining silly words). Recent editions mix them into a larger number of activities. Teamzy does not draw the cards: they are the ones in your box.
No. You do not score points: you move your mover, and the game stops as soon as a team wins the final challenge. That is why Teamzy has no score sheet for this game: you mark the winning team at the end, and the app counts everyone's wins in the leaderboard. There is never a tie.
The idea is the same in every box: teams, challenges to win to move forward, and a finish. Cranium Black is a 2007 edition, also published under the name Cranium WOW, with its own cards. The finish and the way a turn runs vary by edition: Cranium Central in the classic boxes, a full lap of the board in the recent edition from Funko Games. For Teamzy, only the winner matters: a single "Cranium" game, and you simply mark the winning team, whichever box you play.
Give each mate a Cranium level, from 1 to 5 stars, then choose "Balanced by level" before drawing. Teamzy splits the players into teams whose sums of levels are as close as possible, so a team of acting champions does not crush the other; if several splits are equally good, it picks one at random, and "Reshuffle" offers another. The balanced draw is part of Premium (one-time purchase): without it, teams are drawn at random. Teamzy sets up a game from 4 players, with two teams by default.
With Teamzy: save every Cranium match with its teams and the winning team. The game details and the leaderboard show the mates who win the most, with their number of wins and their success rate, and each mate's page retraces their matches.
Your next game of Cranium, with fair teams and a leaderboard
Draw balanced teams, mark the winning team, follow up with "Save and play again", find your matches in the history and see who wins most often among friends. Free to start, Premium as a one-time purchase, no account and no ads.
