Name Place Animal

How to play

You probably played this at school with a sheet of paper folded into columns. A letter comes up, and with it five categories. Three are classics such as Place, Animal or Food. Two are wildcards, such as Football club or Cartoon character. Everyone fills in their own sheet at the same time, on their own phone: one answer per category, and every answer has to start with the letter.

The moment all five of your boxes are filled, you can press STOP. Everyone else then gets 5 seconds to finish what they’re writing. If nobody stops, the round runs until the clock runs out or everyone has tapped “I’m done”.

Then the referee takes over. Answers that don’t start with the letter are out straight away. An AI referee checks the rest in a few seconds: does “Lemur” count as an animal, does “Lamp” count as a food? Every ruling comes with a short, cheeky note. When the referee isn’t sure, it doesn’t decide alone. The answer goes to the table, and everyone except the person who wrote it votes “It counts” or “No way”. The majority wins, and a tie goes to the referee.

After that, the answer table shows who wrote what and what every box scored. Each round brings a new letter and five new categories. When the last round is done, the highest total wins.

Scoring

The classic rules, with bigger numbers:

• You’re the only one with a valid answer in a category: 200.
• A valid answer nobody else wrote: 100.
• The same answer as somebody else: 50 each.
• Empty or ruled out: 0.
• STOP bonus: +100 for the player who pressed STOP, but only if all five of their answers count. One answer ruled out, and the bonus is gone.

The referee treats two ways of writing the same thing as the same answer. “Hippo” and “Hippopotamus” are one animal, so the two of you share the 50.

An example round

Four friends, and the letter is B. The categories are Girl’s name, Animal, Food, Brand and Cartoon character.

• Priya writes Bella, Badger, Bread, BMW and Bart Simpson.
• Jack writes Beth, Bear, Bread, Barbour and Bugs Bunny.
• Ellie writes Bella, Bat, Biryani, Boots and Bluey.
• Sam writes Bea, Bear, Beans on toast, nothing yet for Brand, and Batman.

Jack fills his fifth box first and presses STOP. Five seconds later the sheets lock, and Sam still hasn’t thought of a brand.

The referee goes through the answers and hesitates over one. Is Batman a cartoon character? He started in comics, but there have been plenty of animated series. It goes to the table: Priya, Jack and Ellie vote, and it counts by two votes to one.

Now the points. Two Bellas, two Bears and two Breads score 50 each. Everything else that counts is unique and scores 100. Sam’s empty box scores nothing.

• Priya: 50 + 100 + 50 + 100 + 100 = 400
• Jack: 100 + 50 + 50 + 100 + 100 = 400, plus 100 for a STOP where every answer counted = 500
• Ellie: 50 + 100 + 100 + 100 + 100 = 450
• Sam: 100 + 50 + 100 + 0 + 100 = 350

In the next round the letter is I, and only Ellie comes up with an animal in time: Iguana. Being the only one with a valid answer makes that single box worth 200.

Playing alone

You can open a room and play on your own. The letters, the categories and the clock are the same, and the referee still checks every answer. There’s no vote, so the referee’s word is final, and every valid answer is worth 100. Pressing STOP simply ends the round when you’re done. It’s a good way to warm up before friends join, or to find out how many B animals you really know.

Tips

Skip your first idea. The first B animal everyone thinks of is Bear, and a shared answer is worth half a unique one. Give yourself two more seconds and write Badger.

But never leave a box empty. Any valid answer beats a blank. On a hard letter, a plain answer can turn out to be the only valid one in its category, and that’s 200.

Treat STOP as a bet. It cuts everyone else short and can pay 100, but only if all five of your answers survive the referee. If your fifth answer is a guess, it may be worth more to keep writing.

Watch the others’ progress. During the round you can see how many boxes each player has filled, though not what they wrote. When somebody is on four, they’re about to press STOP.

Vote on the answer, not on the scoreboard. It’s tempting to vote down the leader’s borderline answer. The same table will be voting on yours a round later.

Read the referee’s notes. Tap any answer in the table to see why it counted or didn’t. Half the fun of the reveal is in there.

Free rooms and Guezzer Pass

Free rooms play 3 rounds, and the host can set the writing time to 45, 60 or 90 seconds. With Guezzer Pass, the host can also open 5-round games.

When it works best

Name Place Animal takes 1 to 12 players, and a free game lasts around five minutes. Almost everyone already knows the rules, which makes it an easy first game for a mixed group: grandparents, cousins, colleagues. With two or three players, unique answers are easy and the race to STOP matters most. With eight or more, every obvious answer is shared, and the points go to whoever thinks sideways. Everyone writes on their own phone, so it works just as well on a video call as round a table.

Questions people ask

Is this the same game as Stop the Bus or Categories?

Yes. It goes by many names: Name Place Animal Thing, Stop the Bus, Categories. Other countries know it as Stadt, Land, Fluss, Petit Bac, Basta or İsim Şehir. The idea is always the same: one letter, a few categories, and the rarer your answer, the better.

Who decides whether an answer counts?

First the letter rule: an answer has to start with the round’s letter and be at least two letters long. Then the AI referee checks whether it really fits the category. If the referee has doubts, the table votes. If the referee can’t be reached during a round, every answer that starts with the right letter counts for that round.

Which letters can come up?

The awkward ones, such as Q, X and Z, never do, and a letter doesn’t come up twice in the same game. Capital letters don’t matter when you type.

Are the categories the same in every language?

No. Every language plays with its own categories, the ones people there grew up with. An English room gets Football club and UK town or city; a German room gets Stadt, Land and Fluss.