How to play “Guess the Smell!”
Set up
Players
From 2 players over 5 years old. There is no maximum limit.
What you need to play
A blindfold and some household objects – the weirder, the better!
Team Formation
It’s more fun in teams—just make sure they’re evenly matched!
Agree on the number of rounds
In a round, each player takes a turn and tries to guess a sound. The ideal number of rounds depends on the total number of players and the amount of time you want to spend playing.
Which team goes first?
In each round the teams will alternate turns guessing one player from each team at a time. The team with the youngest player goes first.
Order within the team
We also recommend establishing the order in which players from the same team will participate during a round.
Object Selection
Each team meets and agrees on which objects they will use to propose to the opposing team.
Goal of the game
Who wins?
The team that manages to recognize the most objects using only its sense of smell wins.
“Guess the Smell!” rules: playing a game
Blindfold
The player whose turn it is sits in a chair. The opposing team puts the blindfold on him and makes sure he sees nothing.
Search and bring the object closer
A player from the other team goes to look for the object they had previously decided on – discreetly so as not to give away any clues – and holds it up to his or her nose.
Smell
The blindfolded player breathes in… sniffs… and…
What is it?
It’s time to prove you have a good nose!
If you guess the object, a point is added to your team’s score.
Next turns
Now it is the turn of a player from the other team. Teams will alternate until a round is completed.
Next rounds
The game continues if it has been agreed to play several rounds.
Rule 1 – No cheating!
The player whose turn it is may not use any other sense to guess the object other than smell.
Your teammates cannot do or say anything to help you. In case of doing so, the turn will be lost without scoring any points.
Rule 2 – Not everything is fair game
Objects that do not give off any type of odor may not be used. Nor objects that may be harmful by inhalation.
End of the game. Who wins?
Game over
The game ends when the rounds agreed upon before the start of the game have been completed.
And the winner is…
The team that has guessed the most objects is the winner.
Tips for playing “Guess the Smell!”
Headphones with music
It is possible for the blindfolded player to suspect which object the opposing team has gone to look for: by the noise, the time it takes, the comments or the laughter of the players.
In that case you can put some headphones with music while he goes to look for the object and when he already has it in front of him you can take them off.
Number of rounds
- For 2 players (1 vs 1) = 6 rounds (12 objects in total).
- For 6 players (two teams of 3 players) = 3 rounds (18 objects in total).
- For large groups, a single round will suffice, i.e. only one object per player.
Just an idea—you get to decide!
For very large groups
If there are many of you, the game can be quite long even if you play only one round. To speed it up, you can take turns in parallel: two players at a time, one per team.
Make it fun
Let your imagination run wild! Hats off to this brave and creative group of friends!
“The smell of passion” by MastaBaba is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 
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Games like “Guess the Smell!”
This game is part of a series of games that could be used to organize a real
SENSES CHAMPIONSHIP
SMELL: Guess what it is by smell
TASTE: Guess the flavor
TOUCH: Guess what it is by touch
EAR: Guess what it is by sound
Yep, we know, sight is missing from the lineup. We will shortly add a game for it. When? We don’t know yet, but if you follow us on social media, we’ll keep you posted 😉
