How to play Pictionary

What you need

The DKD47 box lists these contents:

• 120 Adult cards and 80 Junior cards, plus 2 card boxes
• 4 category cards (one per team, plus spares)
• 2 erasable boards and 2 erasable markers
• 1 game board and 2 colored movers
• 1 sand timer (one minute) and 1 die

You also need at least four people, split into two teams. Mattel notes that the pens may stain some surfaces, so lay down a placemat or newspaper if you play on a good table.

Set up the game

1. Remove the category cards from the Adult deck and put the Adult cards in one card box. Put the Junior deck in the other box. Place both boxes and the timer where everyone can reach them.
2. Divide into two teams. Give each team an erasable board, a marker, a category card and a mover. Put both movers on the Start square.
3. Each team picks its first Picturist, the player who draws the first word. The Picturist changes every time a team sketches a new word, so everybody draws.
4. Roll the die to see who starts. Highest roll goes first.
5. Agree how exact answers must be. The rules leave this to the table, with examples like whether "bunk" is fine for "bunk bed."
6. Do not roll to start. The Start square is yellow, so the first word comes from the yellow Object category.

Playing Pictionary

1. The starting team's Picturist takes the top card and secretly reads the word for the square their mover is on. On a Junior card, the Picturist reads the category at the top aloud, but not the secret word.
2. Flip the timer. The Picturist has one minute to sketch silently. No written letters or numbers, no speaking, no sign language and no letter-count dashes.
3. A correct guess earns a die roll, movement and another clue from the new space. The team picks a new Picturist and keeps going for as long as it keeps solving.
4. A failure passes control. The other team takes a new card for the space its own mover already occupies and sketches before any roll. Only a solved word earns a roll.
5. Landing on an All Play square means both teams' Picturists see the same word and draw at the same time. The first correct team takes the die, rolls, moves and continues. If nobody solves it, the die goes to the team that did not land on the All Play square, and that team draws for its own square without rolling.
6. If a younger player is involved, use the Junior deck. In an All Play with a Junior Picturist on either team, draw from the Junior deck even if the adult team landed there.
7. On a Wild square, the Picturist may choose any category on the card (or any clue on a Junior card), and must announce the category before sketching.
8. Reach the final All Play square; an exact roll is not needed. To win there, your team must control the die and win the subsequent All Play challenge.

A sample round, turn by turn

Team Red (Alex, Bea, Chris) against Team Blue (Dana, Eli, Fran), Adult deck throughout.

1. Opening. Red rolls a 5, Blue a 3. Red starts on yellow Start without rolling. Alex draws a card; the Object word is "umbrella." He sketches a stick figure, rain lines and a curved dome on a hook handle. Bea says "umbrella" at about 20 seconds. Correct.
2. Red rolls a 4 and lands on an orange Action square. Bea becomes Picturist; the Action word is "juggling." She draws three circles in an arc over two hands with motion lines. Chris: "Throwing… catching… juggling!" Correct. Red rolls a 2 and lands on green Difficult.
3. Red stalls. Chris draws the Difficult word, "gravity." He draws an apple falling on a stick figure's head. Guesses: "apple," "Newton," "headache." Time runs out. Red stays on the green square and the die passes to Blue.
4. Blue does not roll first. Blue's mover is still on Start, a yellow square, so Dana takes a new card and sketches the Object word, "ladder." Eli gets it in ten seconds. Now Blue rolls a 6 and lands on an All Play square.
5. All Play. Both Picturists, Eli for Blue and Alex for Red, see the same card and sketch the word in the category matching the All Play square's color, "lighthouse." Alex draws a tower with beams; Eli draws a boat and rocks first. Red shouts "lighthouse" first. Red takes control, rolls a 3 and moves on with a fresh card, even though Blue landed on that square.

The key moments: a solved word is the only thing that moves you, a failed turn hands the die over with no roll, and an All Play can steal control in either direction.

How you win, with a worked example

Pictionary DKD47 has no points. Progress is your mover's position, and the finish needs control of the die at the right moment.

• Reach the final All Play square. You can overshoot; an exact roll is not needed.
• You must then have control of the die and be first to solve the All Play word that follows.
• If nobody solves it, the die passes to the other team.
• If the other team solves it first, the die passes to them. A team on the final square cannot win by solving an All Play that the other team controls. It must win back the die and try again.

Worked example. Red rolls a 5 from four squares away, so it reaches the final All Play square. Red controls the die, so an All Play starts. Blue's Picturist is faster and Blue solves first. Blue now has the die and plays on from its own square, rolling and moving. Two words later Blue fails a clue, so the die returns to Red. Red draws a new card and both teams play the final All Play again. This time Red solves first and wins. Blue's earlier All Play win did not end the game because Red did not control the die at that moment.

Beginner strategy that actually helps

• Draw the core idea in three seconds. A stick figure pushing a large circle can suggest a wheel more quickly than a carefully shaded object. Your team needs a hint, not art.
• Use arrows and circles generously. Drawings are allowed to point. Circle the part of a scene that matters, or draw an arrow at the cat's tail when the word is "tail."
• Split hard words into syllables or homophones. The rules explicitly allow breaking a word into syllables and drawing "dock" for "doc" or "flu" for "flue." For "carpet," draw a car plus a pet.
• Plan for the square you will land on. Green Difficult and red Pop Culture squares are tougher. You cannot choose your roll, but on a Wild square you can choose the easiest category on the card.
• Guessers: keep talking. Every guess helps the Picturist see what is landing. If your guess is close, the Picturist can circle that part of the drawing and add to it.
• Rotate Picturists honestly. The rules require a new Picturist for each new word. It also helps your team: someone who struggles with Action words may be great at Objects.
• On All Plays, start simple. Speed beats detail when both teams draw the same word. Draw the most recognizable feature first and add context only if needed.

Common mistakes and rule disputes

• Rolling before every clue. The official answer: you roll only after solving a word in time, or after being first to solve an All Play. Receiving the die never earns an automatic roll.
• Treating arrival on the final square as an immediate win. You must control the die and win the next All Play.
• Drawing dashes for letters. Not allowed. Neither are letters, numbers, an ear symbol for "sounds like," speech or sign language.
• Gesturing at the drawing. The sheet bans speaking and sign language. Tapping the board to point at a part of your drawing is not mentioned. We treat it as fine, but agree on it first; acting out the word with gestures is not.
• Close answers. The rules say precision is up to the teams and should be agreed at the start. Decide whether singular and plural count, and whether "enlarged" counts for "enlarge."
• Who gets the die after a failed All Play? The team that did not land on the All Play square. It draws for its current square without rolling.
• Two movers on one square. Allowed. More than one mover can share a square.

Popular variants and house rules

None of these are in the DKD47 rules. Label them clearly at the table.

• House rule: paper Pictionary. No board: rotate artists, give equal timed turns and award one point per solved prompt. Do not mix that scoring with the board race.
• House rule: no-board party mode. Each team writes words for the other team on slips. Good when the box is missing or the group is large.
• House rule: non-dominant hand. Experienced artists draw with their other hand to level the field.
• House rule: steal. After a team times out, the other team gets one guess at the same drawing before drawing its own word.
• Related format: if you want drawing without teams or timers, Telestrations passes sketches around the table like the telephone game.

Teach it in five minutes: a script for the host

1. "Two teams, one marker each. One person per team draws, and the drawer changes every word."
2. "Your mover's square color tells you which word on the card to draw: yellow is objects, blue is people, places and animals, orange is actions, green is difficult, red is pop culture."
3. "You get one minute. No letters, no numbers, no talking, no dashes. Syllables and sound-alikes are fine."
4. "Guess it in time and you roll, move and draw again. Miss it and the other team takes over, without rolling first."
5. "All Play squares mean both teams draw the same word at once. Whoever gets it first takes over."
6. "To win, reach the last square, then win one more All Play while you have the die. Let's start: we're on yellow, so it's an object."

Age and group-size advice

• Box age is 8+. Younger children can join a team if the Junior deck is used whenever they draw.
• Junior cards keep the category on the card itself, so a child gets a hint at what kind of word they have.
• Four players is the minimum: two per team, alternating Picturist every word.
• Six to ten is the most lively range. Teams of more than five tend to drown out each other's guesses.
• Big groups: play the paper house rule with three teams, or run two boxes.
• Nervous drawers: run one untimed practice word before the real game. Seeing that wobbly drawings win turns is the best reassurance.

Pictionary questions people ask

Check yourself

Sources and edition notes

Mattel DKD47, two-team board edition. Other Pictionary boxes, including BJM16 and Air, differ. Card counts, categories, All Play, Wild square and winning rules above come from the DKD47 instruction sheet.

Sources and stated format checked October 2026. This records a document check, not a claim of hands-on testing.

• Mattel Pictionary DKD47 instructions (PDF)

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