- Very social
- Easy to teach
- Great for all parties
Spyfall is one of our favorite social deduction games. It’s so simple and yet so exciting. If you are the spy you might feel your heart beating in your throat while you try to answer questions you definitely don’t know the answer to. (Try answering ‘How often do you come here’ when you know you’re either at the zoo, on Mars or in prison…)
How To Play Spyfall
In Spyfall everyone is dealt the same location except the spy, who is dealt a blank card. The spy wants to find out the location, the other players want to identify the spy. The players do this by asking other players questions that can verify that they know the location. For example if you’re on the North Pole you might answer a player how the weather is. If he answers that the weather is good, he’s probably the spy. But, beware that you don’t give away the location to the spy through your answers. If you answer that it’s freezing, you give the spy a lot of information. Instead, try answering something more cryptic, like ‘well, at least it’s not raining!’ (because it can’t rain on the North Pole), or ‘this weather has our fate sealed (get it? Seal?).
Spying In Spyfall
As the spy you can’t constantly check the cheat sheet with the locations, as that can give you away. Therefore, you have to memorize all the possible locations. But with the default everyday locations (bank, grocery market, etc.) that’s very hard because those locations are not very memorable. That’s why we created a list of extra movie locations, in which every location is a famous movie. This is much better because movies are much more memorable. When someone inevitably answers a question with I’ll be back, you won’t have to check the cheat sheet to know you’re in the Terminator.
Spyfall is also quite hard for the spy if you play with a small group. The game becomes easier for the spy if you play with a larger group though, because there are more suspects, and fewer of the questions will be directed at the spy. This gives the spy more information and less opportunities to accidentally reveal himself. We think that Spyfall is most fun when played with more than 4 players.
Recommendation
Spyfall is a fantastic social deduction game. Due to its easy and quick setup and accessibility for all players, it’s actually also one of the best party games. We recommend this game for pretty much all groups and situations.