How can we make Just One more difficult/competitive?

Question

Our friend group has been playing Just One a lot but it gets a bit boring quickly as 95% of the time the person can guess their word, even if we follow all the rules strictly (only dictionary words, no punctuation, no capitalization, singular form only). Is there a way to make the game more competitive and challenging?

Answer 1

One simple idea has been posted here. In short:

• Each turn, select two words to be guessed. If using the provided cards, this can be done by selecting two numbers, as described in the linked post. However, if you have played a lot, you might start to remember some combinations of words found on the same card; in that case, it may be better to take two cards and select one word from each.
• Each player other than the guesser still writes a single clue.

To further adjust the difficulty, you can choose whether or not to allow players to indicate which word or words their clue is intended for.

Answer 2

Here is one idea I had.

• Each turn, two players will be guessers (instead of one).
• As usual, the other players each write a clue.
• After removing duplicates, divide the remaining clues between the two guessers. (This decision could be made by the other players together, or if it proves impractical to do that without leaking information, a single player could be designated to do the division.)
• Each guesser writes down a guess, seeing only the clues assigned to them. (If playing in person, have the guessers positioned opposite each other, to make it easier to show clues to only one of them.)
• Score a point only if both guesses are correct. (This avoids having it be optimal in some situations to assign all the clues to one guesser, unless that is unavoidable because less than two clues remain.)

Answer 3

Add a traitor?

Find a deck of cards, take (n-1) hearts and 1 spade, and everybody draws a card. The one who draws the card is the traitor, and his job is to sabotage your attempts without being identified.