Party Game Review: ‘True Colors’ from Games Adults Play

True Colors from Games Adults Play challenges players to see who knows the others the best without revealing any slips of friendly misinterpretation. Several party games on the market serve as “what do you think about your friends” thought-experiments, but True Colors stands apart in that it is not just about what friends think about each other. Instead, True Colors goes the extra step of how well players can predict what their friends think about them.

Gameplay in True Colors is straightforward. Each player picks a color and corresponding token and then receives a deck of voting cards with two cards for each other player. Three “guessing cards” are laid on the table: Most, Some, and None. Players take turns asking questions from the question card deck, vote secretly on who they think is the best match for the answer, and then put their token on which guessing card for how many votes they believe they will receive.

The hilarity of the question cards is the real fun of True Colors. Cleverly worded, they bring out questions as simple as “who is the best detective” with much more engaging, “You’re all investigating a crime, but only one of you comes away with a big piece of evidence. Who’s the Sherlock among you?” Some questions are fairly introspective, like “You’re going on a really important job interview. Which player do you go to for advice?” or “You are a doctor and every player has come to your office for a visit today. Who did the most Googling of their symptoms?” Others are downright silly, such as, “Lost in space. Which player probably is not from Earth?”

With the question read, players place two votes into the voting box as a secret ballot. There is no voting for oneself, even if a player might be the obvious choice for “Shh! Who would have a lot to say—and say it—while watching a movie?” Instead, players have to look among their peers to see who might fit best. Players may either put both cards for one or split their vote among two top contenders for, “Who do you think has broken the most laws in their life?”

While pondering questions is the fun part of True Colors, the real strategy is in knowing how the other players will respond. Once the votes are in the box, players set their tokens on the appropriate guessing card for how many votes they think they received: most, some, or none at all. Scoring comes from the predictions on friends’ voting, not from earning the most votes, so players will have to think like their opponents do to gain the most points. After scoring, the game continues through ten question cards with the player tabbing up the highest score winning.

True Colors is a party game for three to six players aged thirteen and up. With games lasting only ten rounds, True Colors is very speedy. It can be a moderately long party game if players take their time pondering questions, or it can fly by with players making their votes as soon as the questions are read. As soon as one game is done, players will be eager to reset and go again to see who knows their friends’ brains best.