How to play the impostor word game: rules, word lists and variations
The impostor game explained, with or without phones. Setup on paper or with a deck of cards, clue rules, voting, scoring, 100 words by category and the best variations.
The impostor game is one of those party games that nobody seems to have invented. Somebody explains it at a party, you play it once, and a week later you’re explaining it to someone else. It needs no board and no kit, it works with four people or twelve, and the rules fit in one sentence: everyone knows the secret word except the impostor, who has to bluff.
This post covers how to play it properly, how to set it up with just paper or a deck of cards, a scoring system for a whole evening, a hundred words to get you started and the variations worth trying once your group has the hang of it.
The rules in one minute
- Pick a secret word and a category, for example Animals: penguin.
- Everyone gets the word, except one player, who only learns that they’re the impostor.
- Going round the circle, each player says one word linked to the secret word.
- After one or two rounds of clues, everyone discusses who seemed off.
- On the count of three, everyone points at the person they think is the impostor.
- If the impostor gets the most votes, they’re caught, but they get one guess at the secret word. Guess it right and they steal the win anyway.
That’s the whole game. Everything else is about doing it well.
What a good clue looks like
The tension in this game comes from one problem: every clue you give helps the impostor too.
Say the word is penguin. If you say “Antarctica”, the impostor now knows exactly what to say next. If you say “animal”, you’ve told everyone nothing and you look like you’re hiding something. The good clues sit in between: “tuxedo”, “waddle”, “huddle”. Someone holding the word nods. Someone without it has to guess.
Some house rules most groups settle on quickly:
- One word only. “Black and white” is three words. Make people choose.
- No saying the word, and no rhymes or translations of it. “Pen” plus “gwyn” is not a clue.
- No repeats. If someone has said “ice”, it’s gone for that round.
- No long thinking. Five seconds or so. A suspiciously long pause is part of the game.
How to set it up without an app
The tricky part of playing on paper is that somebody has to know the word and who the impostor is. Here are two ways round that.
Paper slips and a host
One person sits out the round as the host. They tear up a slip for each player, write the secret word on all of them except one, write “IMPOSTOR” on that one, fold them and hand them out at random. The host runs the round, keeps the clue order honest and counts the votes, then hands the job to the next person.
It works well, but somebody always misses out on a round, and with a small group that adds up.
A deck of cards, no host
This version lets everyone play. Take as many cards as there are players, minus one, and make sure one of them is the joker. The player whose turn it is to pick the word doesn’t take a card that round.
- Everyone else draws a card and looks at it secretly.
- The word-picker writes the secret word on a slip and passes it round, face down.
- Each player who doesn’t have the joker reads it. The player with the joker pretends to read it, with a straight face.
- Play the round as normal. The word-picker plays too, as an innocent: they know the word, and they know they aren’t the impostor, but they don’t know who is.
Next round, the word-picker role moves one seat to the left.
On a video call
The host sends the word to everyone by private message and “you’re the impostor” to one person. Ask everyone to keep their cameras on during the clues. Faces give away more than words do.
Who starts?
Going first is the hardest seat for the impostor, who has heard nothing yet. Going last is the easiest. So don’t always start with the same person. Roll a die, spin a bottle or start with whoever arrived last. If the impostor ends up first, that’s just bad luck, and it makes for a good round.
With four to six players, play two rounds of clues before the vote. With seven or more, one round is usually enough, or the game drags and the impostor gets too much to work with.
Scoring a whole evening
One round takes three or four minutes, so most groups play ten or more. A simple scoring system makes the evening into a proper competition:
- The impostor escapes (someone else gets the most votes, or there’s a tie): the impostor scores 2.
- The impostor is caught: everyone who voted for them scores 1.
- The caught impostor guesses the word: the impostor scores 2.
Write the names down the side of a sheet of paper and keep a tally. First to 10 wins, or whoever is ahead when the food arrives.
Picking good words
Most bad rounds come from a bad word, not bad players.
- Everyone has to know it. If one person at the table has never heard of the word, they’ll look exactly like the impostor.
- Concrete beats abstract. “Lighthouse” gives people a lot to work with. “Freedom” makes everyone vague.
- Not too narrow. In the category Fruit, “banana” is fine. In the category Yellow fruit, it’s a giveaway.
- Match the group. Animals and food for kids, jobs and places for families, films and celebrities for a group who all watch the same things.
100 words to start with
Ten categories, ten words each. Read out the category so the impostor has something to go on, then pick a word.
Food: pizza, pancake, sushi, porridge, curry, sandwich, chips, trifle, popcorn, cheese on toast
Around the house: kettle, toaster, sofa, hoover, bath, doorbell, radiator, fridge, wardrobe, ironing board
Places: airport, library, hospital, beach, campsite, cinema, cathedral, train station, swimming pool, motorway services
Jobs: dentist, firefighter, postman, pilot, chef, plumber, teacher, hairdresser, lifeguard, magician
Animals: penguin, giraffe, hedgehog, octopus, owl, kangaroo, squirrel, shark, flamingo, snail
Sports and hobbies: darts, tennis, fishing, skiing, karaoke, knitting, chess, bowling, surfing, gardening
At a party: balloon, birthday cake, playlist, fancy dress, confetti, crisps, dance floor, candle, sparkler, taxi home
On holiday: suitcase, sunscreen, passport, flip-flops, hotel, postcard, sunburn, souvenir, ferry, swimming costume
Weather and nature: rainbow, thunder, fog, puddle, volcano, waterfall, snowman, desert, island, full moon
Harder: jealousy, Monday, nostalgia, gossip, deadline, luck, silence, rumour, first date, hangover
The last category is for groups who’ve played a few times. Abstract words make the clues vaguer, which makes life easier for the impostor.
Variations
Once everyone knows the basic game, these keep it fresh.
Undercover
The impostor isn’t told they’re the impostor. Instead they get a similar word from the same category: penguin for everyone, puffin for the impostor. They give honest clues for the wrong word, and for the first round or two they often suspect somebody else. It’s the funniest version to watch, and the reveal is usually a mix of horror and laughter.
Two impostors
With eight or more players, add a second impostor. They don’t know about each other, which leads to some excellent moments when two bluffers start building on each other’s made-up clues.
No category
The impostor gets nothing at all, not even the category. Much harder for the impostor, so it suits experienced groups or a player who keeps winning.
Questions instead of words
Everyone gets the same question to answer in one word, for example “What do you eat at the cinema?”. The impostor gets a slightly different one, like “What do you eat at a football match?”. The answers overlap a lot, and that’s the point. It’s a gentler version that works well with mixed ages. We’ve put the full rules and 60 ready-made pairs in the impostor game with questions.
The empty round
Every now and then, without telling anyone, the host gives everyone the real word. There is no impostor. Watch a perfectly innocent group tear itself apart, then reveal it at the vote. Use it once a night at most, or nobody will trust the game again.
Playing with kids
Children are often brilliant at this game, mostly because they have no idea how to keep a poker face, which is funny in itself.
- Use the questions version or always give the impostor the category.
- Stick to animals, food and things around the house.
- Let them say a short phrase instead of one word. “It lives in the cold” is fine for a seven-year-old.
- Make sure being caught isn’t a big deal. Laugh, swap the role, play again.
Common mistakes
- Clues that are too obvious. The first two players say “Antarctica” and “ice”, and the impostor walks it. Go sideways.
- Staring at the slip for too long. The impostor reads “IMPOSTOR” in half a second. Everyone else should look about that quick too.
- Talking about the word between rounds. Someone always says “I knew straight away when you said…”, and gives the next round away. Save it for the reveal.
- Voting for whoever spoke last. The last clue isn’t the most suspicious one, it’s just the freshest in your mind.
Playing on phones
The paper version is great, but it has the host problem, someone has to keep score and the slips get soggy by the third round. If your group would rather skip all that, Faker on Guezzer is our version of the impostor game. The game deals the words and picks the impostor, so nobody has to sit out. It keeps the clue order random, checks that clues are really one word and that nobody says the secret word, counts the votes and keeps the score. It has the Undercover and questions variations built in, and it works for 3 to 12 players in the same room or on a video call. Everyone joins with a code in their phone’s browser, with nothing to install.
If you like the bluffing, the classic party game rules post covers Mafia and a few other games in the same spirit.
One last tip
The best impostor rounds aren’t won by the cleverest clue. They’re won by the person who says something slightly wrong with complete confidence, then calmly votes for their best friend. If you’re the impostor, commit. If you’re not, watch the ones who seem a little too relaxed.
