Scary Scribbles

Scary

Scribbles

2–16 players10-20 minNo app or download

How to playPlay

About Scary Scribbles

Scary Scribbles is Halloween drawing charades played on the phones already in the room. One player — the doodler — is handed a secret card on their own phone: a bedsheet ghost with eye holes, a pumpkin too big to carry, a toothbrush handed out as a treat. They draw it with a finger, the drawing appears live on the TV and on every other phone, and their team shouts guesses out loud. The second the doodler hears the right answer they tap “They got it!” and the clock stops.

The clock is the score. However many seconds are left when the card is guessed become the points for that turn, so dithering costs you in front of the whole street. The card is then revealed and the players on the other teams confirm that somebody really did say it: two Yes votes settle it, so no team ever marks its own homework. A drawing that runs the clock all the way out scores nothing at all.

Play in teams, where your team guesses and the other teams confirm, or solo, where everyone guesses and the doodler taps who got it and takes double points for it. Two to sixteen players, ten to twenty minutes, and because it plays in the browser with no app to install, the cousin on a video call can take a turn drawing exactly like everyone in the hallway. All 126 cards sit inside Halloween night itself: costumes, the doorbell, the pumpkins, the monsters, the haunted house and the candy haul afterwards.

How a room starts

1. Pick a game from the catalog — every occasion has its own room.
2. Put the game's board screen where everyone can see it: a TV, a laptop, or a shared screen on a video call.
3. Players scan the QR code (or type the room code) in their phone's browser. No app, no account.
4. Play — everyone answers, votes, and scores from their own phone.

How to play Scary Scribbles

A short narrated walkthrough of the whole game, from joining on your phone to the final scores: watch the how-to video. It is one tap from inside the room too, so a first-time group never needs the rules explained.

Where Scary Scribbles fits

You will find it in the Halloween room and the Family Showdown room, alongside the other games picked for that occasion.

Common questions

How many people can play, and how long does a game take?

Two to sixteen. Teams mode needs at least four so there are two teams; solo works with two. Two teams over three rounds runs about ten minutes.

Is it too scary for children?

No. Every card is fun-spooky and never gory — costumes, jack-o-lanterns, cartoon monsters and sweets — so a nine-year-old and a grandparent draw from the same deck.

Do we need a TV?

It is better with one, because the drawing is the show — but the same live drawing streams to every phone, so a group with no shared screen can still play by watching their own.

I cannot draw. Is that a problem?

That is rather the point. One colour, one finger, sixty seconds on the clock and the category on screen for the whole room — terrible drawings are usually guessed faster than careful ones.

What stops someone peeking at the card?

The card is only ever sent to the doodler’s own phone. Every other device, the TV included, holds nothing but a hash of it until the reveal.

What if somebody joins late or wanders off?

A latecomer joins and is placed on the smallest team at the next turn. Anyone who drops and comes back lands on their own seat with their points intact, and if the doodler disappears mid-turn the card goes back in the deck and the turn scores nothing.