Triangulation Review: Home In on the Message Without Giving It Away

In this team-based word party game, give three carefully selected clues to your teammates so they can guess the secret message — but make sure your opponents can’t sniff it out before all three clues are revealed.

Triangulation is a party game for 3-8 players published by Allplay, with a play time of 15 minutes (though it was longer for us).

Gameplay

Players split into two teams of at least two players each. Each team takes four mission tokens and places them face-down. Also, an Insider (clue-giver) is selected for each team.

The Insiders simultaneously draw their own message cards and choose one of the messages on the card to use as their secret message. All messages are proper names, and can refer to a person, place, or thing that is real or fictional (e.g., New York City or Santa Claus). The Insiders must come up with three one-word clues to write on their team’s boards. These words should be vague enough to not give away the message too soon.

Once both Insiders finish writing, the team whose Insider finished first has their message guessed first. The Intercept team (opponent) reveals one clue and attempts to guess the secret message, then repeats for a second clue. If they guess correctly either time, they have successfully intercepted the message, and they flip one of their mission tokens face-up. If not, the Contact team (Insider’s team) flips the final clue and has a chance to guess. If they get it right, they flip a mission token face-up; otherwise, the Intercept team does. The process is repeated for the opposite team.

Play continues until all four of a team’s mission tokens have been flipped face-up. This team is declared the winner.

Review

Triangulation shares familiar elements with other party games we enjoy, such as Just One or Decrypto. Yet, we found ourselves completely immersed in this game due to its simplicity combined with the unique challenge it provides. How can you come up with just the right clues that make perfect sense when all three are revealed, but go over the heads of your opponents when they only have one or two to go by?

Sometimes there is a certain amount of luck involved. You might hope that the most obvious word will not be flipped too early, but it’s up to your opponents to flip the clues, so they might get lucky.

We like that the secret messages are selected by the Insider, allowing them to choose the message they will be able to convey most effectively. For an easier game, teams can also decide to reveal the chosen category before the clues are revealed. This is a nice adjustment for players who don’t take the game quite as seriously.

Scoring a point as the Contact team is a rewarding achievement, since the Intercept team has multiple chances to guess before the Contact team does. If the Contact team is wrong, the Intercept team gets a point. So, for careless players, a lot of the points will be scored by intercepting.

The box and components are surprisingly compact for this game. But we have no complaints about the quality; everything seems very well produced, with thick dry-erase clue boards, helpful player shields, and decent cards (albeit small). It is portable and easy to take along, or slide into a tiny corner of your game shelf.

As a thinky party game, this might not be for everyone. But if your group enjoys similar word and clue-giving games, this one is definitely worth a try. It has a heavier feel than Just One but offers a similar tension to Decrypto — while remaining very easy to learn. Recommended!

Pros: Easy to learn, compact box, meaty party game that is great for the right group

Cons: May not be ideal for the most casual party gamers