Would You Rather
Two options. No opting out. Everyone has to justify their answer.
Tap to choose which categories to play with
1 of 6 categories on
Be able to fly or be invisible?
1 of 10 this round · press space for the next one
How to play
- 1Read the question out loud to the group.
- 2Everyone answers at the same time. Count down from three so nobody copies.
- 3Go round and make each person defend their choice. That argument is the actual game.
What's in the deck
Questions for every kind of gathering, sorted into 6 categories. Have a look at each one.
Classic
Good for any group
- Be able to fly or be invisible?
- Always be 10 minutes late or always be 20 minutes early?
- Never use social media again or never watch another film?
- Have unlimited money or unlimited time?
…and plenty more in the game above.
Why this one works
Would You Rather is the most reliable icebreaker there is, and the reason is structural: there's no correct answer, so nobody can be wrong, and there's no way to opt out with "I don't mind". Everyone has to pick a side and then explain themselves, which is where you actually learn something about the person.
The best questions are the ones that split the room. If everyone answers the same way instantly, the question was too easy. A good dilemma costs you something whichever side you take. That's why the Hard category exists, and why it's the one that turns a five-minute warm-up into a forty-minute argument.
It works particularly well in situations where people are stuck together and slightly bored: car journeys, waiting rooms, the start of a workshop, the awkward first twenty minutes of a party. All it needs is one person willing to read the first question out loud.
The trick to playing it well
Don't let anybody negotiate the question. It is the mistake nearly every group makes, and it looks like curiosity. "Can people still see me in mirrors?" "How fast is the flying?" Each clarification sounds fair, and each one is somebody looking for the version of the dilemma that costs them nothing. Allow one question of detail per card, let whoever is reading settle it on the spot, and from then on the card stands exactly as written. A dilemma with a way out is only a preference, and preferences are what This or That is for.
The house rule worth adopting: the smaller side speaks first. If seven people say fly and two say invisible, hear from the two. The majority's reasons are the ones everybody had in their heads before anyone spoke, so going round the circle in seating order, which is how most groups do it, spends the first few minutes on the most predictable answers in the room. The minority holds the only arguments nobody has thought of yet, and those are the ones that change minds. When the room splits evenly, the side the reader is not on goes first, which stops whoever holds the phone steering every discussion towards their own answer.
Watch for the switch. The best thing that can happen to a question is somebody changing sides after hearing the argument. It means the dilemma was balanced and the reasons were good, which is the whole game working at once. If five cards go by and nobody has moved, either the questions are too easy or the room is being too polite to push back.
Hard is the one to save, not the one to start with. The deck opens on Classic, and that is the right first category: the opening questions are there to get everybody answering out loud, not to make anybody think. Hard asks things like whether you would give up your best friend or your career, and dropped on a room in its first minute it produces a long silence rather than an argument. Bring it in once people have disagreed about something easy and found out that disagreeing is the fun part. It is also the cure for the too-polite room, because Hard has no comfortable answer to hide behind.
One honest difference from the websites people usually mean: there is no percentage at the end. The big Would You Rather sites record every click and tell you what share of strangers chose to fly. This page has nowhere to enter an answer, so it never learns which side you took, and the only split it can show you is the one in your room. That suits the game better than it sounds. A percentage from strangers settles a question; the room's split is what starts one.
Common questions
- How do you play Would You Rather?
- One person reads a question with two options. Everyone answers at once (counting down from three stops people copying), and then each person explains their choice. The explanation is the real game; the question is just the prompt.
- How many people do you need for Would You Rather?
- Two is enough, but it's best with four or more, because the fun comes from the group splitting and arguing. Above about ten, split into smaller groups so everyone gets to speak.
- Is it suitable for kids?
- Use the Family category. It's written for children and is entirely silly and clean. Classic and Funny also work for most ages. Hard contains genuine moral dilemmas better suited to teenagers and adults.
- Can I use it as a work icebreaker?
- Yes, switch to the Office category, which sticks to work scenarios and asks nothing personal. Classic and Funny are also safe. Avoid Hard and Couples with colleagues.
- Are there Would You Rather questions for couples?
- Yes, there's a Couples category of 100 questions built for date nights and long drives, about how you'd live together, argue, travel and plan, rather than anything you'd be uncomfortable answering.
- Can I play with only one category?
- Tap the category chips above the card to turn any of them on or off. Switch everything off except one and the deck draws only from that.
- How do you write your own Would You Rather questions?
- Give both sides the same price. The test is whether you can picture a sensible person choosing either one; if you can only picture one answer, the other option needs to improve or the first needs a catch. Make the cost concrete rather than vague, since "never eat cheese again" lands and "lose something you love" does not. Keep the two options about the same length so neither sounds like an afterthought, and close the obvious loophole before somebody finds it.
- Will the same question come up twice?
- Not until you have been through every question in the categories you have on. The deck shuffles the whole selection and deals it in order, and the question on screen sits out the next shuffle, so it cannot come straight back round when the deck runs out either. Turning a category on or off starts a fresh shuffle of the new mix, so after a change, a question from earlier in the evening can turn up again.
- Are there dirty or 18+ Would You Rather questions?
- No. Every category, Couples included, is written to be read out in a room that could contain anybody, because the phone gets handed round and nobody checks which categories are on before passing it to the next person. The category that gets uncomfortable is Hard, and it does so with moral dilemmas rather than anything explicit.
- What are the hardest Would You Rather questions?
- Not the gross ones. Hands for feet or feet for hands is decided in a second, because disgust answers for you. The hard ones put two things you value against each other: being right and alone or wrong and surrounded by people, knowing a painful truth about someone you love or protecting them with a lie. That is the whole of the Hard category.