How to play Who Said Dat?: rules, scoring and tips

How a round works

Every player leads one round, in a random order, so a game has as many rounds as there are players. The leader's name can turn up in the prompt itself (“Sam's secret talent” when Sam is leading), which is where things get personal.

1. Answering. Everyone reads the prompt and writes an answer, up to 80 characters. You can write your honest answer, or what you think someone else would say, or something designed to throw people off. You can change it until everyone's in. The phase ends early once every player has answered.
2. Guessing. All the answers are laid out face up, shuffled, with no names. The leader guesses first: pick an answer that isn't yours and say who wrote it.
3. Right guess: you score a point, the author is out for the rest of the round (they can't guess any more), and you guess again.
4. Wrong guess, or out of time: the turn passes to the next player who's still in and still has someone else's answer to guess.
5. The last answer is revealed on its own when only one is left. Nobody scores for it, so the last player standing has kept their secret.
6. Results. Every answer is shown with its author. The host starts the next round when everyone's done laughing.

When every player has led a round, the game ends and the highest score wins.

Scoring

Each correct guess is worth 1 point. Because a right guess lets you keep going, one sharp player can sweep several answers in a single turn. That makes the order of your guesses matter: start with the answer you're surest about, and use each name you rule out to narrow down the rest.

There are no points for writing an answer, so your answer's only job is to protect you. The longer nobody can pin it on you, the longer you stay in the round guessing.

Tips for writing answers

• Write like someone else. If you're known for long, careful sentences, go short and lowercase. If you always make a joke, be serious this once.
• Borrow a friend's style. Use a phrase or opinion everyone associates with someone else in the group. If they guess that person, it's a wrong guess and the turn moves on.
• Don't be too obvious about it. An answer that screams one person's name is often a decoy, and experienced groups know it.
• Keep it short. Long answers have more clues in them: spelling, punctuation, favourite words.
• Remember who's leading. When the prompt is about the leader, everyone has an opinion. Use it.

Tips for guessing

• Look at the writing, not just the idea. Capital letters, emoji, full stops and spelling are fingerprints.
• Use elimination. Every correct guess knocks a writer out. With fewer names left, the remaining answers get easier.
• Watch the reactions. In person, people's faces when an answer is read out are free information.
• Don't burn your turn on a coin flip. If two answers both feel like the same person, take the one you're surer about first. A right guess keeps your turn going.

Host settings and custom prompts

Before the game, the host can change a few things:

• Answer time: 30 seconds to 3 minutes (90 seconds by default).
• Guess time: 10 to 90 seconds per turn (30 by default).
• Spicy prompts: mixes in a deck of cheekier prompts, about half the time. Leave it off for family game night.
• Custom prompts: add up to 50 of your own. They're used first, in a shuffled order. Type {leader} anywhere in a prompt to drop in the round leader's name.

Custom prompts are the best way to make the game yours: inside jokes, questions about a trip you took together, or prompts aimed at whoever's birthday it is.

The host can also skip a player who's stepped away during guessing, or end the game early.

Playing with a group

Five to eight players is the sweet spot: enough answers to hide among, without the guessing phase dragging. Groups who know each other well get the most out of it, but mixed groups work too. You'll just learn more about each other.

Players who join mid-game start answering and guessing from the next round, but don't get a round to lead. On a video call, everyone joins from their own device, so no one needs to share a screen.

Questions