One crossword. The whole room filling it in at once.

The grid goes up on the big screen and everyone works on the same puzzle. Clues arrive on each person's phone, answers land on the shared board, and the picture fills in in front of everybody.

There is a phrase hidden in the finished grid

The room is not just clearing clues. Completing the crossword reveals a phrase, so everyone has a reason to care about the whole board and not only the words they were handed.

That is the difference between a group game and a lot of people quizzing in parallel.

It needs a crowd, and that is the point

A puzzle runs to around 40 clues. That is a slog for six people and about right for a full room, because the clues divide up. More people means a faster fill and more to watch.

Plan for about 30 minutes. This is the main event rather than something you drop into a gap.

You pick the topic, and you can check the words first

Use a crossword you already have, or type a topic and let AI build one around it.

Either way you see every clue and answer laid out before the game starts, and you can edit any of them. Nothing goes in front of the room that you have not looked at.

It works in any language that uses the Latin alphabet.

Answering fast is a decision

Speed helps and a wrong answer costs you, so every clue is a choice about whether to commit or wait for someone else to open it up.

Crowd Crossword is part of the Games for Crowds library.