Noggin

About this board game

Noggin is a fast-thinking card game for 3–99 players that takes about 10 minutes to play. Players use letter cards and action cards to create answers as quickly as they can.

On each turn, a player deals their cards equally onto three piles. When an action card appears, the top cards of the other two piles are letter cards. The action card tells everyone how to use those two visible letters to form an answer.

The challenge is to make a credible response before the other players do. If you answer first and your playing partners agree that your answer is credible, you keep the action card.

• Describe: combine the letters M and A to answer “Amazing Magician.”
• Name Initial: use M and A to say “Muhammed Ali.”

Each action card creates a new prompt, while the changing letter combinations keep the answers moving. The goal is not simply to think of a response, but to find one quickly enough to claim the card.

At the end of the game, players compare their collected action cards. Whoever has the most wins. With its simple three-pile setup, letter combinations, and range of possible answers, Noggin offers a compact test of quick thinking for a very wide player count.