Acid? Dangerous? Annoying? A car saleswoman! Edible? Quick? Flexible? Captain America — or an ostrich? In Platypus, players co-operate to gradually eliminate bad words in order to find and identify the "platypus" through their adjective cards. To set up, eight common words or proper names — the "platypus" cards — are placed face up in front of all the players. The guides know the card that the explorers must guess, and to help the explorers, they give clues in the form of adjective cards that best define the platypus for them. Each guide has a hand of four clue cards, and after each new clue, the explorers must eliminate one or two cards that they think don't match what's being defined by the clues. If the explorers eliminate the platypus, then everyone loses; if they succeed four times, however, then the platypus will stand alone and everyone wins.