Designed by: Jun Sasaki
A Fake Artist Goes to New York is a party game in the tradition of charades or Pictionary, only one player has a slightly bigger challenge than the others… Each round there is a question master who will announce a category; for instance films, countries or animals. Then the question master writes down a word for everyone on cards, except for one card on which they simply write an X. They shuffle them and hand them out, and the cards represent the work the question master is commissioning this round. Players look secretly. The player who receives the X this round is the current Fake Artist!
Now the drawing begins. Starting from the question master’s left, the first player begins a drawing that represents the word on the card. They can’t do any old scribble, as they want to show the other real artists that they aren’t the faker. But at the same time they don’t want to give away what the word is to the fake artist. (If they are the faker, of course, they’ll have to just do something random with an air of insouciance!) Having started the drawing they pass the ‘canvas’ to the left, and the next player adds a little to the drawing. This continues twice around the table, after which the question master will count down:
3… 2… 1… point!
On point, everyone points to the person they think is the fake artist (the fake artist must point at someone too). If the fake artist has been pointed to the most, they must reveal their identity. But they do get to guess what the artwork is supposed to be – one guess only! If they are right, they and the question master get two points each. If they’re wrong, the artists earn one point each.
If the fake artist gets away with it and a bona fide artist is the most-accused (or they tie as most-accused), the fake artist and question master get 2 points. In this instance the fake artist may guess at the title anyway, but they don’t get extra points for doing so correctly. The artists get nothing.
Play continues for as long as you want it to, with the question-master role moving clockwise.
There's no targeting other players at all, although it's possible to make false accusations and the game does seem to invite table-talk.
None. The only pause is really when the question master decides what the commission will be.
None when acting as artists. You're just drawing! When the question master you need to come up with a commission, but that can be as easy as looking around the room.
Randomness is generated by the players imaginations, and drawing 'badly' can only help the game rather than hinder it.
5-8
Players
8+
Years
15-30
Mins
Sam says
A game where you absolutely do not have to have any drawing skill at all. It's one of those where the chaos and misunderstandings are part of the fun.