How to Play Whose Tweet?

What you need

One phone, tablet or laptop with a web browser, and three to eight people sitting close enough to pass it around. Nothing to install and no accounts. Four to six players is the best range: with three, guessing gets easy fast, and with eight, a round runs closer to ten minutes.

Setting up

1. Type everyone's name on the setup screen. Names have to be different, so if you have two Sams, add an initial.
2. Pick a prompt pack. Classic covers habits, opinions and small confessions. Work-safe is written for coworkers. Family is fine for kids and grandparents. You can also mix all three.
3. Choose three, five or seven rounds and tap Start.

The site remembers the names on this device for next time. Nothing else is stored.

Playing a round

1. The prompt

The round screen shows a prompt, such as "Post your worst life hack." Read it out loud. If the group groans, tap Shuffle. If you have a better idea, tap "Write our own."

2. Secret writing

The game tells you who gets the phone first. That player taps the button with their name, types a post of up to 280 characters and taps "Lock it in." The screen then asks you to hand the phone to the next writer, so nobody sees the previous answer.

The counter works the way X counts: most characters count once, emoji count twice, and a link counts as 23 no matter how long it is.

You can write like yourself, or you can write like somebody else at the table. Both strategies win games.

3. Guessing

When everyone has written, the posts come back in a random order, one at a time and without names. Someone reads the post out loud. On the count of three, every player points at the person they think wrote it. The writer points too, at someone else, to keep the bluff alive.

Then record each player's vote in the list on screen and tap "Reveal the writer."

4. The reveal

The game shows who wrote the post and who guessed right. Expect some shouting.

Scoring

After the last post of each round, the group picks one favorite post. Tap it to give its writer the bonus, or skip if the table can't agree. The scoreboard appears between rounds, and the player with the most points after the final round wins. Ties stand. Share the crown or play one more round.

The final screen also lists the favorite posts of the game with a "Copy the best post" button, in case one is too good to lose. If nobody picked a favorite, it shows the post that fooled the most people.

Variations

Teams

With more than eight people, split into pairs who write and guess together. Enter team names instead of player names.

Speed round

Give each writer 45 seconds. Someone counts down out loud. Short time limits produce stranger posts.

Impersonation round

Pick one player as the target. Everyone else writes the post they think the target would write, and the target guesses which friend wrote each impression. Score the target's correct guesses as usual, and give a bonus point to whoever wrote the impression the target likes best.

Paper version

No device handy? Write answers on identical slips of paper, fold them, mix them in a bowl and have one person read them out. Score the same way with a pen.

Tips for good rounds

• Write the way you talk. Players remember speech habits more than opinions.
• Don't make every post a joke. A plain, honest answer sometimes fools everyone, because nobody expects it from you.
• Hosts: keep things moving. If a vote stalls, count down from three and go with what people point at.

Questions