I’ve played Blank Slate more times than I can count. Family nights. Work happy hour. A sleepy Sunday with my neighbor and her teen. It keeps coming out of the closet because it’s simple, fast, and sneaky-funny (you can peek at my first hands-on session with photos and scores if you want the blow-by-blow).
If you want to eyeball the contents (and maybe grab a copy), the game’s official product page has the full rundown.
You write a word. You try to match with one other person. Not the whole table. Just one. That’s the little twist that makes it spicy.
How it works (the quick version)
- One player flips a card. It shows a prompt like “Rain ” or “ Cake.”
- Everyone writes a word to fill that blank on a little board.
- Flip and reveal.
- If you match exactly one person, both of you score 3 points. If you match more than one person, you still score, but it’s just 1 point. No matches? Big ole zero.
- First to 25 wins.
That’s it. No long teach. No rule fights. It takes about 20–30 minutes with 4–6 people. Ages 8 and up works fine if kids can read and spell a bit. We play with 3 to 8 players. I like 5 or 6.
Real rounds we played
Here’s where it got funny.
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“____ Cake”
- I wrote “cheese.”
- My sister wrote “cheese.”
- Three others wrote “birthday.”
- We got 3 points each. The “birthday” crowd got 1 each. My brother grumbled, “Cheesecake isn’t a cake.” We ignored him.
-
“Garden ____”
- I wrote “hose.”
- My aunt wrote “gnome.”
- My cousin wrote “party.” (She’s 22. It tracks.)
- No matches for me. The gnome crowd was just her, so also zero. My neighbor wrote “salad.” We had to pause and laugh, then Google. It’s a thing.
-
“Paper ____”
- I wrote “clip.”
- My friend Lana wrote “clip.”
- Two others wrote “towel.”
- We fist-bumped for 3 points. They got 1 each. The person with “plane” sighed. “I should’ve gone clip,” he said. Yep.
-
“Snow ____”
- I went “cone.”
- Three people went “man.”
- One “ball,” one “angel.”
- My “cone” got me nothing, but I did eat a cherry sno-cone later, so who’s the real winner?
-
“Laser ____”
- I wrote “tag.”
- My coworker wrote “tag.”
- Everybody else wrote “pointer.”
- Our 3-pointer sealed the game. He did a tiny dance. It was adorable and also a bit much.
What I love
- It’s fast. You don’t sit around bored.
- The boards wipe clean and feel good in the hand. I like the little clack when we reveal. It gives me the same satisfying “click” vibe I get from the tiles in Azul.
- The “match one person” rule leads to silly mind games. You think, “They’ll say birthday… so I’ll say cheese… but will they say cheese too?” It messes with your head, in a good way.
- It plays great with mixed groups. My mom and my coworker both crushed it in the same night.
- You can learn it in one minute. No joke.
What bugged me a little
- The markers that came in my box dried up fast. We swapped to fine-tip Expo markers and a microfiber cloth. Problem solved.
- Some prompts feel super common. “Birthday” wins a lot. It can make people overthink and freeze up.
- If you play a ton, you’ll start to see repeat cards. We wrote our own extras on sticky notes and tossed them in the deck.
- The score track on the board is small. We used a phone note the last time, which was cleaner.
- Younger kids who are still learning to read can struggle. Not a deal breaker, but worth knowing.
Tiny moments that sold me
We used this as a warm-up at work. It broke the awkward quiet fast. The prompt was “City ____.” I wrote “park.” My boss wrote “park.” We didn’t talk much before that, but we laughed like we were at a ball game. Weird how one word can do that.
At my mom’s birthday, we did three rounds before cake. My nephew spelled “musroom” for “____ Soup.” He stuck with it the whole night. He even scored 3 points with the same misspelling later. New family legend: Musroom Soup.
Tips that helped us play better
- Use a 15–20 second timer. It keeps the pace snappy and stops overthinking.
- Swap in your own prompts. We added “Local ____,” “School ,” and “ Taco.” Regional stuff sparks great matches.
- Mix the deck well and pull from the middle. Feels silly, but it spreads out repeats.
- Write big, bold letters. Reveals are more fun when everyone can read fast.
- When the crowd wants something tenser afterward, we pivot to the real-time puzzle of Color Rush to keep the momentum going.
Who this game fits
- Families who want quick, loud laughs.
- Teams or clubs that need an easy icebreaker.
- Friends who like word games but don’t want heavy rules.
For an adult-only crowd that wants laughs with a splash of drinks, King’s Cup tends to follow Blank Slate at our table. If your adult crowd is full of singles who’d enjoy mixing cheeky word-play with a dash of flirtation, you might also want to skim this nightlife cheat-sheet for Strasbourg. It curates the best bars, event ideas, and insider tips so you can weave a quick game of Blank Slate into an evening that keeps the sparks—and the laughs—flying. Similarly, if your post-game plans drift toward unwinding in the Shreveport–Bossier area, the local parlor guide at Rubmaps Bossier lays out late-night spa options, pricing notes, and honest customer ratings so you can segue from wordplay to well-deserved relaxation without any guesswork.
If your group prefers deep strategy or long stories, this isn’t that. It’s light and bright. It does its job and steps aside. Curious gamers can browse more word-play goodness directly from Flatout Games to see how Blank Slate stacks up against their other designs.
Quick compare
- Like Just One? Blank Slate is trickier because matching exactly one person takes a bit of risk.
- Like Scattergories? This is faster and cleaner. No arguing over “Does this count?” Well, mostly.
- Not as thinky as Codenames. Which can be a nice change when your brain is fried.
- Crave a quick word shout-fest? Tapple is the manic cousin of Blank Slate.
Final take
Blank Slate is a keeper on my shelf. Simple rules. Big laughs. It’s become our “we have 20 minutes before dinner” game. I wish the markers were better and the deck a tad bigger out of the box, but those are easy fixes.
Score from me: 8.7 out of 10. On a weeknight with the right crowd? It feels like a 10. Gaming publications seem to agree—GamingTrend’s in-depth review called it “the ultimate party palette for word fans.”
You know what? Bring snacks, grab new markers, and try “____ Cake” first. Someone will write “pound.” Someone will write “cup.” And two people will whisper “cheese” and grin like bandits. That moment never gets old.