How to Win at the Imposter Game — Word Wolf Tips

The first question decides most rounds

Rounds are lost the same way nearly every time. Somebody opens with “do you like it?” Anything answerable with yes or no is answerable by a wolf who has no idea what the word is.

Ask something that forces a specific into the answer and the wolf has to reach for their own word instead — and somewhere in there, the texture is off. Every tip below is a version of that one idea.

Playing as a citizen

• Start abstract. Color, sound, size, weight, season. An angle that cannot pin the word down lets you speak early without handing anything over.
• Ask everyone the same question. Scattered questions give you answers you cannot line up. Only when the whole table answers the same thing does one odd texture stand out.
• Note who is only nodding along. Agreeing with everything is how a wolf gets through a round. Shy players do the same thing, though, so never convict on that alone.
• Keep the giveaway details to yourself early on. A helpful citizen naming something specific is exactly what a wolf needs to build a perfect imitation. Wolves are usually saved by citizens.
• Do not accuse too early. Say “it is you” in minute two and the rest of the round is one person defending themselves. Let them run and check again on the second lap; you will learn far more.

Playing as the wolf

• First, notice that you are the wolf. Everyone else is treating something as obvious and it is not landing for you. That is the signal, and the earlier you catch it the more moves you have.
• Spend the first lap listening. Talking with no information is the fastest way out. “Let me hear a couple of you first” buys you a whole round.
• Borrow from the person before you — but never repeat them. Echoing is spotted instantly. Take what they said and give it back as your own experience instead.
• Get on the asking side. While you are asking you are not answering, and information keeps arriving. The tighter the spot, the more useful the question.
• If you are suspected, agree. Denying it flatly keeps the spotlight on you. “Fair, that last answer of mine was thin” — then look at someone else — splits the vote far more reliably.

Questions to open with

The game screen hands you a question whenever the talk stalls — more than 200 of them, three attached to every word. All of them are built to pull out the feel of a thing without identifying it. These are real ones from the deck.

• If it were a color, what color?
• Describe it in exactly one word.
• If it were an animal, what animal?
• What decade does it feel like?
• What kind of store would you find it in — or near?
• If it had a signature scent, what would it be?

Running a good round

Let a group talk freely and the loudest two people talk, while the quiet one gets voted out for “saying nothing”. Fix the speaking order for the first question at least. One question, everyone answers in turn, then open it up: the answers line up side by side, and everybody gets a moment.

And vote all at once, on the count of three — always. Going around one by one just means the later players read the room and join the majority.

Three things strong players do

1. They do not invent anything. Even as the wolf, they describe something they have really experienced and blur only the object. Invented detail falls apart the moment anyone pushes on it.
2. They ask well. Strong players talk less than everyone else and listen more.
3. They shrug off a loss. A round is five minutes, so the next one is already starting. Play several in a row and the whole table gets sharper.

Common questions

How do you win the imposter game?

As a citizen, ask the whole table one question and look for the person whose answer has a different texture. As the wolf, get on the asking side and build on what the last person said. Both come down to the same thing: talk about how the word feels rather than what it is.

Is there a guaranteed way to win?

No — luck never fully leaves the game. You can move the odds, though. Citizens should keep the giveaway details back early on, and the wolf should spend the first lap listening. Those two habits alone change results noticeably.

How do you keep a round fun for everyone?

Fix the speaking order and go around once. Left to themselves, the loudest people take the round and the quiet ones get voted out for being quiet. One shared question answered in turn, then free discussion, gives everybody something to do.

What makes someone good at this game?

Good players are not good liars, they are good questioners. Instead of asking things answerable with yes or no, they ask what forces a specific into the answer — a color, a sound, a size, a scene. That is where a wolf runs out of words.

I never realize I am the wolf until the end. What am I missing?

Watch the temperature of the conversation. Either everyone is treating something as obvious and it is not landing for you, or you are the only one who can talk about it in detail. Either way you are almost certainly the wolf. Once you see it, stop committing to anything and build your next answer out of what the person before you said.

Does it work as an icebreaker at work or in class?

It does, and that is why it gets used for exactly that. The game trains two things: reading the assumptions behind what someone says, and tuning your own words to the room. Five minutes is enough to get people who have never met talking to each other.

Read next

The finer points — how many wolves at each player count, what happens on a tied vote, the comeback rule — are on the rules page. Fox mode, for groups that want more, is in the Word Wolf app.