Who Wrote That?

Objective

Everyone answers the same personal prompt anonymously. Then you try to work out who wrote which answer.

How to play

1. A personal prompt is shown, like 'The worst gift I ever got'. Everyone types a short, anonymous answer.
2. The answers are then shown in a shuffled order. For every answer that is not yours, pick the player you think wrote it.
3. The reveal shows who wrote each answer and who guessed right.

Scoring

Each correct guess scores 1 point. Each author also scores 1 point for every player they fooled.

Example round

1. The prompt is 'My most useless talent'. Ana, Ben, Cleo and Dan each type an answer in secret.
2. The answers appear in a random order: 'I can fold a fitted sheet', 'Burping the alphabet', 'Naming every Pokemon', and 'Falling asleep anywhere'.
3. Ana is not allowed to guess her own answer, so she picks an author for each of the other three. She thinks the burping one is Dan's and picks him.
4. At the reveal, 'Burping the alphabet' was written by Cleo, not Dan. Ana loses that guess, and Cleo scores a point for fooling her.
5. Ben guessed Cleo correctly and scores a point, so the answer paid off for its author and for one of the guessers. Everyone's points are added up for the scoreboard.

Strategy tips

• As a guesser, think about voice as much as content. Who would phrase it that way, use that word, or know that detail?
• Use the process of elimination. Once you are sure about two answers, the remaining ones have fewer possible authors.
• As an author, decide whether you want to be recognised or not. A very typical answer is easy to match to you, while an answer that sounds like someone else can fool several people at once.
• Short answers leak less. A single line gives fewer clues than a long sentence full of your usual phrases.

Best with

Needs at least three players, and works best with groups who already know a bit about each other, from five to ten players. It suits friends on a night in, family gatherings, new teams getting to know one another and video calls.

Variations

• Pick a theme for the whole evening, such as childhood, travel or work, and write your own prompts for it.
• Add a house rule that the player fooled the most often has to say what gave the author away.
• Ask each author to read their answer out loud in the reveal, in their best impression of someone else.

FAQ