Caution Signs is a fantastic mash up of a drawing party game and a deduction game. No, not social deduction, just deduction, as the active player must try to deduce what everyone else has drawn.
This party game has been a huge hit with my immediate family, our extended families, friends, and at every local public play event we’ve brought it out to.
Disclosure: Thanks to Wise Wizard Games for letting us snag a review copy of this drawing game from their booth at Origins. Some links in this post are affiliate links, using them costs you nothing extra and helps support this website. As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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Caution Signs is a different kind of drawing game
Caution Signs is one of the first games from Wacky Wizard Games, the new family game imprint of Wise Wizard Games. It was designed by Danielle Reynolds and Scott “boop” Brady. It’s a mashup of drawing party game and deduction game where players will be drawing diamond shaped caution warning signs based on cards they are dealt and then the active player has to try and guess what each sign means.
You need at least three players for Cautions Signs to work and it plays up to nine. The rules are dead simple and the game is great for players of pretty much any age. While one round of the game is over in minutes a full game where each player gets to be the guesser once or twice can take half an hour or more.
The game comes with 100 “Caution” descriptor cards, 100 “Signs” subject cards, 8 double sided dry erase boards with markers, a dry erase scoreboard, and the instructions which are super clear and short. The rulebook is quick enough to read that you can easily crack the game open and be playing minutes later.
The component quality here is pretty good for a low cost party game. I personally wish the 200 triangular cards were a bit thicker, but then again none of ours have gotten bent or torn or anything (and that’s after a lot of play).
To play you will also need a twenty second timer of some sort. There’s a free timer included as part of the Cautions Signs Web App, but we usually just use someone’s phone. Also technically the Guesser could countdown from twenty if there isn’t another option available.
Caution Signs is as easy to learn as it is to play
Each turn in Caution Signs, one player is the Guesser and the other players are Sketchers.
Each Sketcher is dealt two cards, one from the Descriptor Deck and one from the Subject Deck. Once everyone has their cards, the Guesser starts a 20 second timer. Then the Sketchers look at their word cards and draw a caution sign based on those words.
Possible word combinations include all kinds of silly things like Flexible Cow, Ghost Farmer, Playful Baby, Energetic Mouse, etc. With 200 cards in each deck there are tons of potential combinations.
When the timer runs out everyone has to stop. The Sketchers then pass their drawings to the Guesser and place their cards face down into a pile.
Two cards drawn off of each deck are added to this pile and then you mix up all of these cards, so that the Guesser doesn’t know which come from the deck and which come from other players.
Next is my favourite part of Caution Signs, the Guesser takes all of the word cards and uses them to try to figure out which pair of cards matches with which drawing. Remember that there are two extra cards of each type added in, so it’s not as easy as it sounds. If you find the Guesser is having AP problems you can set a 3 minute timer.
One the Guesser has locked in their answer they yell “Yield” and the drawers each hold up zero, one, or two fingers based on how many words the Guesser got right on their picture. A Sketcher holding up two fingers gets 3 points with the Guesser also getting 2 points. A Sketcher holding up one finger gets 1 point with the Guesser getting nothing.
You continue playing until each player has been the guesser twice, unless you’re playing with six or more players, in which case each player gets to be guesser only once.
At least that’s what the rulebook says. We treat this one like the party game it is and just stop when we are sick of it and often don’t even bother with points.
When playing Caution Signs with younger players or with anyone who’s first language isn’t English, the game recommends that you add one extra step. Have players look at their words before the timer starts, discard any cards with words they don’t recognize and draw new ones. On the guesser side of things if someone don’t know what a word is they can ask the group to define it.
I’ve actually started using these rule in every game of Caution Signs, even with people fluent in English. I let people discard any card for any reason.
Caution Signs is one of the best drawing games we’ve played!
We first got to try Caution Signs when it was just a prototype at GAMA Expo and I was immediately hooked. I got to learn the game from one of its designers, Danielle Reynolds, and would have snatched a copy then and there, but the game wasn’t actually done yet.
Fast Forward to Origins and there’s Danielle in the Wise Wizard booth running her game over and over for people. I can’t remember a time I went by that booth when there wasn’t at least one group playing Caution Signs and every group I saw playing was super into it.
We picked up our copy on Thursday and then played it that same night at the first ever Tabletop Bellhop Origins Meetup where it was again a huge hit. I actually cracked the shrink at our meetup, took a quick look at the rules and then we just got to it. It’s not often we find games that you can get to the table and play right away without any real prep.
Since then we’ve played the game many times and I’ve taught the game to a large number of gamers, often playing Guesser for one round and then leaving groups to enjoy the game on their own. Caution Signs is a regular for any public play event I host and something I bring out to every casual game night and special event where I know games will be played.
This is a game that just works, it’s dead simple, people get the concept right away, and it pretty much plays exactly how you would expect.
One of the things that I think really makes Caution Signs work and elevates it above some other drawing games for me, is the super short time limit on drawing. Twenty-seconds is super quick, and honestly, not enough time to draw anything well, which is why it works. With that little time all you are trying to do is get across an impression of what you are drawing. By only giving twenty seconds this game levels the drawing skill playing field, and I love it.
The other brilliant thing in Caution Signs is the word choice for the Descriptors and Subject decks. When you are first handed a pile of cards the deduction part can seem pretty easy. The person with the pitchfork drawn with dotted lines is obviously the Ghost Farmer. But then you get a round where the two of the Subject Cards are Bear and Panda and two of the Descriptors are Cute and Loving.
The deduction system in Caution Signs is what really makes it unique when compared to other drawing games we’ve played. This is where the fun comes in either struggling to make sense of the mess in front of you as a Guesser or watching someone try to figure out your drawing as a Sketcher.
The best moments come from when the Guesser has one of your words wrong but then has an Ah-Ha moment and swaps things around and gets it perfect.
Of course, it’s just as much fun when they are way off and you are sitting there asking “What the heck? How is that NOT a panda? Look at the rings around the eyes!”
One thing I did notice is that there’s a bit of evolving gameplay with Caution Signs. Once players know that there are similar words in both decks they start to learn how to differentiate between those. Plus when you play with the same group you can end up developing known clues, certain things players draw for certain Descriptors like a Halo for Angelic vs Wings so as to not get it confused with Flying. I don’t really see this as a problem, but it’s something we have noticed develop over time with some groups.
Overall I love this drawing game. I’m a fan of drawing games in general and Caution Signs is one of the best I’ve played. The deduction part of the game is brilliant and I love how short the drawing time is so that there’s no time for the great artists to get into fiddly details.
If you, in any way at all, also enjoy drawing games you need to rush out and pick up Caution Signs right now.
Let’s make this game sell out and force Wise Wizard Games to do another printing, and maybe encourage them to create some expansion packs. I could totally see some themed genre packs going over rather well, or even just more generic Descriptors and Subjects.
Now here’s the interesting one, if you normally don’t like drawing games I encourage you to give Caution Signs a try, for two reasons. For one, this is a drawing game where no one has enough time for detailed drawing, so drawing skill isn’t the advantage it sometimes is in other games, and second, the deduction aspect of this game is a ton of fun and that smart puzzle element is something you don’t usually see in this kind of game.
FAQs
How important is drawing ability in Caution Signs?
Of all the drawing games I’ve played Caution Signs requires the least actual drawing ability. Due to only having 20 seconds to draw you don’t have time for perfect, fancy drawings. The best Sketchers are those that can get an idea across with the least amount of work, not the ones that can draw the best.
Is Caution Signs language dependant?
Unfortunately, yes. All of the cards in Caution Signs are in English and some knowledge of English is required to play. That said there are rules specifically for players who have English as a secondary language, where they can discard cards until they draw words they recognise.
Is Caution Signs better than Telestrations?
Telestrations from The Op has been the Gold Standard for drawing party games for a long time and that honour is well deserved. There’s even a new printing coming out in 2025. I still love Telestrations and continue to enjoy it. When pitting it against Caution Signs, I do not think either games is better than the other. They each bring out different emotions and play styles and that’s a valid reason to have both in your collection.
That’s it for our look at Caution Signs from Wacky Wizard Games, the new family game imprint of Wise Wizard Games. This drawing game was way more fun than I expected and has been a huge hit with friends, family and strangers.
- Caution Signs is a fast-paced party game about warning your friends of hazards they didn’t know existed!
- You have only twenty seconds to sketch a Caution Sign to signal others to be on the lookout!
- Ten thousand possible card combinations ensure that no two games will be remotely alike!
