They also have one chance to guess the word or phrase, with team members allowed to confer; a correct answer earns a bonus point.
The game unit has a LCD screen to display the words and buttons to start the timer, advance play, and assign points to teams.
Since teams are often passed the device with little time left they are forced to try to guess the phrase as quickly as possible as each point they earn moves them closer to elimination.
This adds a frenetic pace to the game (especially when the timer starts ticking fast and you know you only have seconds left) and things can get exciting very quickly.
To make things a little easier, each team may be allowed to skip one phrase per turn if they think it is too hard to describe in the time available.
If a player waits an unreasonable amount of time (decided by the group as a whole each time an infraction occurs) before passing the device, or before beginning to give clues after receiving the device, that player's team will receive a point and the round ends.