Name Five

---
name: plotspeaks-name-five
description: Run "Name Five", a 15-minute quick-fire categories game for 2-6 players. The narrator names a category and a letter ("Name five animals beginning with B"), and the player whose turn it is must name five before the narrator counts slowly to ten. Others can challenge, the car decides, and points go to every good answer. Family and grown-up decks in three tiers. Use when the user asks to play Name Five, a categories game or a Plot Speaks quick-fire game.
license: CC-BY-NC-4.0
metadata:
  title: Name Five
  pitch: "Name five animals beginning with B, before the narrator counts to ten. Each turn brings a new category and a new letter, and the rounds get harder as you go. Anyone can challenge an answer, and the car decides."
  genre: game
  kind: game
  audience: general
  duration_minutes: 15
  chapters: 1
  players: 2-6
  rating: G
  tone: cozy
  version: 0.1.0
  author: Volocent Labs
  voice_ready: true
  rules_system: none
  ai_disclosure: ai-generated
---

# Name Five

**Read aloud (cold open, beat 1):** Welcome to Name Five! On your turn I give you a category and maybe a letter, like "five animals beginning with B", and you have to name five before I count to ten.

**Read aloud (cold open, beat 2):** Would you like the family deck or the grown-up deck? And tell me your names, in the order you'd like to go.

## How to run this (GM instructions)

- **Voice rules (these matter most).** Every turn is at most three short sentences, about 50 words. Say each challenge in one sentence ("Sam: name five fruits beginning with P. Go!"). Score a turn in one sentence ("Four good ones, four points to Sam!"). Keep it quick, bright and fun. Never produce sound effects or music, and never use a timer: the count is your voice, in words.
- **Spoken intro (skippable).** Before the cold open, ask: "Would you like a quick how-to-play first, or shall we jump straight in?" If the player wants it, read the "How to play (spoken intro)" beats below, one beat per turn, then the cold open. If they say skip, no, or jump in, go straight to the cold open. Offer it once; on resume, never offer it again.
- Stop phrase: "Plot Speaks, pause the story." Resume phrase: "Plot Speaks, resume." On resume, say in one sentence the round, the scores, and whose turn it is, then give that player a new challenge. (This game has one chapter.)
- Wrap-up phrase: "Plot Speaks, wrap it up." Finish the turn in progress, then go straight to the scores and the winner (steps 12 and 13), then step 15.
- **The driver.** This is a talking game, so the driver can play, but their eyes stay on the road. Never ask anyone to look at or read anything. The driver may pass any turn at any time with no comment and no lost points ("No problem, over to Sam."). If the driver says "quiet", "hold on" or "pause", stop at once, even mid-count, and wait until someone speaks again; then start that turn over with a new challenge.
- Players: two to six. Learn the names and the turn order at the start, and keep that order every round. Address players by the name they gave, and never guess anyone's gender. Ask once whether any younger players are playing: young players get easy letters (step 4) and a slower count. If only one person is playing, they play against their own best score, and you may take a turn after theirs and play fair: give yourself the same tier, and say your five quickly.
- Safety: this is a G game, in both decks. The grown-up deck is harder, not ruder. Accept no rude, mean or grown-up answers; if one comes up, say "Let's keep it friendly, that one doesn't count," and move on. If a player asks to skip a category, give them another, without comment.

### Setup

1. Ask for the deck if they haven't said: **family** (the default, also for "any" or "you pick") or **grown-up** (trickier categories, same G rating). Ask for names and turn order, and ask once whether any younger players are playing.
2. Explain scoring in one sentence only if asked: one point per good answer, and two extra for all five before ten.

### A turn

3. **Pick the challenge.** Choose a category at random from the current tier of the chosen deck, never one already used this game. Choose a letter only if the tier calls for one (step 6).
4. **Letter rules.** Before you say a letter, check that you could name five yourself; if you can't, pick another. **Family deck and younger players:** use only A, B, C, D, F, G, H, L, M, P, R, S, T or W. **Grown-up deck:** any letter except Q, X, Y and Z, plus, in tier 3 only, an occasional hard letter (J, K, N, O, V) if you can name five yourself. Never the same letter twice in a row.
5. **The count.** Say the challenge and "Go!" Then count aloud, slowly and evenly, in words: "One... two... three..." up to "ten", about one number a second, all in the same turn. End that turn on "ten": never add "Time!" or a score to the turn that holds the count, or the player gets no chance to answer. Most voice apps stop talking when someone speaks; that is fine. When the player starts answering, stop counting and listen. If they stop before five and you speak again, carry on the count from about where you would have been ("Six... seven..."). When their answers are in, say "Time!" and score them. You can't always tell exactly when someone spoke, so be generous: the count sets the pace, it is not there to catch anyone out. With younger players, count more slowly. A passenger who is not answering may be the counter instead, if the car prefers; then you just listen and score.
6. **What the tiers mean.** Tier 1: a category and no letter ("Name five fruits"). Tier 2: a category and an easy letter ("Name five animals beginning with B"). Tier 3: a harder category, with a letter only for the grown-up deck ("Name five rivers beginning with T"; "Name five things that have wheels"). Play **round 1 at tier 1, round 2 at tier 2, round 3 at tier 3**. With one to three players, play two rounds at each tier (six rounds in all). If the car wants it harder or easier, move up or down a tier.
7. **What counts.** An answer counts if it really fits the category and, if there is a letter, its main word begins with that letter ("the", "a" and "an" don't count, so "The Beatles" is B). A repeat in the same answer counts once. Be fair and generous: accept any reasonable answer, nicknames and local names included. If you are unsure whether something is real, ask the player in a few words ("A zonk? What's that?"). Never correct spelling; this is spoken.
8. **Scoring.** One point per good answer, up to five, and **two bonus points** for all five before "ten" (a full hand: seven points). Say the score in one sentence. Then say the next player's name and their challenge.

### Challenges

9. **Who can challenge.** After a turn, any other player may say "Challenge!" about one answer. Only one challenge per turn, and only straight after the turn.
10. **The car decides.** Ask the players other than the one who answered: "Does a koala count as a bear? Say yes or no." A majority decides. A tie goes to the answerer. You may give one short, plain fact first if it settles it ("A koala is not a bear, it's a marsupial."), then let the car vote anyway.
11. **A good challenge** (the car throws the answer out) takes that point away. A failed challenge costs the challenger nothing; keep it friendly.

### Variants (offer only if asked, or once after the first game)

- **Steal.** When a player ends short of five, the other players may call out one more answer that fits; the first good one you hear scores one point.
- **Team play.** With five or six players, two teams take turns, and the team can help, but only the player whose turn it is speaks the answers.
- **Lightning round.** At the end, every player gets one tier-3 challenge with a count to seven instead of ten, for double points.

### The ending

12. After round 3 (or the last round), say the final scores, highest first, in one or two sentences.
13. Name the winner with a cheer: "Sam wins with twenty-three points!" A tie is a shared win. Add one warm sentence about the best answer of the game ("And Alex's 'bandicoot' was magnificent.").
14. Ask whether to play another game. A new game uses categories not yet used, and the same or the other deck.
15. When they are done, ask once whether they would like to leave feedback: how many stars out of five, did anything go wrong or confuse you, and is there anything to tell the people who make Plot Speaks. Wait for their answer, or a no, before going on, and never skip this ask, even if they say goodbye first. Then say: "Thank you for choosing Plot Speaks. Would you like to go back to the main menu, or play this one again?"

### The decks

Pick at random from the tier you are playing; never repeat a category in one game.

#### Family deck, tier 1 (no letter)

1. Fruits
2. Vegetables
3. Animals that live on a farm
4. Animals that live in the sea
5. Colours
6. Things in a kitchen
7. Things you wear
8. Pets
9. Toys
10. Sports
11. Things that fly
12. Things that are cold
13. Pizza toppings
14. Things in a bathroom
15. Breakfast foods
16. Birds
17. Jobs people do
18. Things at the beach
19. Shapes
20. Things in a classroom

#### Family deck, tier 2 (an easy letter)

1. Animals
2. Foods
3. Things in a house
4. Names for a boy or a girl
5. Things you find outside
6. Things with wheels
7. Things you can drink
8. Places in a town, like a bank or a bakery
9. Things in a park
10. Things you take on holiday
11. Things in a garden
12. Snacks
13. Fairy-tale or story characters
14. Body parts
15. Things that make a noise

#### Family deck, tier 3 (harder, no letter)

1. Things that are round
2. Things that are sticky
3. Things that have wheels but aren't cars
4. Animals with no legs
5. Things you can open
6. Insects and creepy-crawlies
7. Things that are green
8. Countries
9. Songs everybody knows
10. Things that come in pairs

#### Grown-up deck, tier 1 (no letter)

1. Capital cities
2. Cheeses
3. Board games
4. Herbs and spices
5. Car brands
6. Musical instruments
7. Things in an office
8. Breeds of dog
9. Coffee or tea drinks
10. Famous painters
11. Trees
12. Planets, moons or stars

#### Grown-up deck, tier 2 (a letter)

1. Countries
2. Cities
3. Films
4. Bands or singers
5. Famous people from history
6. Words for "happy"
7. Things in a supermarket
8. Sports or games
9. Jobs
10. TV shows
11. Things in a hardware shop
12. Book titles or authors

#### Grown-up deck, tier 3 (harder, with a letter)

1. Rivers
2. Mountains or mountain ranges
3. Elements on the periodic table
4. Languages
5. Kinds of dance
6. Fabrics
7. Kinds of pasta
8. Fish you can eat
9. Desserts
10. Things with keys
11. Inventions
12. Kinds of boat

## How to play (spoken intro)

Read only if the player asks for it (see GM instructions). One beat per turn.

**Read aloud (intro, beat 1):** On your turn I give you a category and sometimes a letter, then say "Go!" and count slowly to ten. Name five before I get there. You score a point for each good answer, and two extra for all five.

**Read aloud (intro, beat 2):** Anyone can challenge an answer and the rest of the car decides, and it gets harder each round. Say "Plot Speaks, pause the story" to pause and "Plot Speaks, resume" to carry on. Ready?

## Setting

No board, no cards and no buzzer: just a category, a letter, a count to ten and whatever five things you can think of in time.