Codenames is about to swap its word-guessing party nights for something stranger: a cooperative dungeon crawl. Czech Games Edition has revealed Codenames: Critical Role Adventures, a fully co-operative campaign game that reworks the 2015 hit into a series of branching missions led by a game master, arriving in Q3 2026.
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Start organising for freeIf you have only ever played Codenames as the quick team game where a spymaster gives one-word clues, this is a big departure. One player takes the role of game master and guides the rest of the party through three separate campaigns of branching missions, each with its own goals and rule tweaks. There are dice now too: heroes make d20 skill checks, earn XP from successful missions, and spend it to unlock personal abilities and buy gear along the way.
The pull for Critical Role fans is the cast. The party picks three of seven heroes drawn from the actual-play show's campaigns: Vex (and Trinket), Percy, Grog, Jester, Nott, Dorian and Fresh Cut Grass. Each comes with a miniature, a character sheet and abilities that grow as the campaign continues. A separate Vox Machina expansion adds Keyleth for players chasing the full Campaign 1 line-up.
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Find events near youThe pedigree is hard to argue with. The original Codenames, designed by Vlaada Chvátil, won the Spiel des Jahres in 2016 and has since been published in dozens of languages. Turning that clean word game into a legacy-lite campaign is a bold swing, and co-designer Felix Podlesny joins Chvátil on the reinvention.
It is built for 2 to 4 players at roughly 25 minutes a mission, so it slots into a normal game night rather than eating a whole weekend. If you fancy running the full campaign for your group, round up a crew here.
Sources: Czech Games Edition | Wikipedia
