Spyfall

Spyfall is a game of deduction where all the players are involved all the time: the spy is trying to work out their location, and the other players are trying to work out who the spy is.

In the box are a whole bunch of location cards that will need sorting into separate bags. Each bag will also need a spy card in it, and then the bags are shuffled face-down and one bag randomly chosen. Without looking at the location, the dealer will count out the amount of cards needed for the players, making sure the top card (the spy) is included. These cards are then shuffled and dealt, so at the time of dealing nobody knows either the location or who the spy will be.

Then everyone looks at their card – the spy now knows they are the spy but they don’t know the location. The other players know the location – and if you choose to use them, the role they have in the location (also on the cards) – but they don’t know who the spy is. Set the timer for 8 minutes: the game now begins!

How the game works is easy: starting with a random player, everybody asks each other questions about the location; trying to give the impression they know what that location is, without giving it away to the spy. The spy of course needs to also give the impression he or she knows the location. The questions can be anything: what’s that smell? How long have you been here? Why are you so tired? – and so on. And the inadvertent silliness the game produces is as much fun as the deduction.

At any time during the game the spy can guess the location – but in doing so will reveal themselves as the spy, so they’d better get it right. And the other players can accuse someone of being the spy. The non-accused players take a vote and if it’s unanimous, the accused player reveals their card – if they are the spy the other players win. If they’re not the spy, the spy wins!

You can play just one round or several.