Spyfall

Spyfall is played over several rounds, and at the start of each round all players receive cards showing the same location — a casino, a traveling circus, a pirate ship, or even a space station — except that one player receives a card that says "Spy" instead of the location. Players then start asking each other questions — "Why are you dressed so strangely?" or "When was the last time we got a payday?" or anything else you can come up with — trying to guess who among them is the spy. The spy doesn't know where he is, so he has to listen carefully. When it's his time to answer, he'd better create a good story!

At any time during a round, one player may accuse another of being a spy. If all other players agree with the accusation, the round ends and the accused player has to reveal his identity. If the spy is uncovered, all other players score points. However, the spy can himself end a round by announcing that he understands what the secret location is; if his guess is correct, only the spy scores points.

After a few rounds of guessing, suspicion and bluffing, the game ends and whoever has scored the most points is victorious!

Preparing the game

Before the first round begins, sort all the cards into location decks. Each deck should have seven cards with identical illustrations and one spy card. Each deck goes in a separate ziplock bag. All cards should be face down, with the spy card on top. All the locations are shown in the middle spread of the rulebook. The players are advised to study it well before the first round begins. This should give the “potential spies” an idea of the kinds of locations they will have to choose from during the game. We strongly advise the spies not to study the middle spread during the game that’s a dead giveaway.

Beginning of the round

Each game is a series of short rounds, the number of which is agreed upon by the the players before the beginning of the game. We recommend playing five rounds for your first session (this should take about an hour). A new dealer is chosen for each round. The dealer participates in the game as a regular player. The most suspicious-looking player is the dealer in the first round. This player takes all the card ziplock bags out of the box, turns them face down, shuffles them, and chooses a random ziplock bag. The dealer then removes the cards from the selected ziplock bag very carefully to avoid turning them over. The dealer selects a number of cards that corresponds to the number of players from the top of the stack, shuffles them, and gives a card to each player. If there are five players, five cards are played. The remaining cards are not turned over. Put them aside carefully — you won’t be needing them. Each players looks at their card without letting the others see it, then places it face down in front of them. The dealer for the each successive round is the player who was the spy in the previous one. That player selects a new deck and deals the cards as described above

Game Flow

The dealer starts the stopwatch, and the game begins. The dealer then asks one of the players a question, calling them by name: “Tell me, John...” The questions usually pertain to the deck’s location. This is prudent, but not mandatory. Questions are asked once; no follow-up questions are allowed. Responses can take any form. The player who answers the question proceeds to ask any other player a question of their own, with the exception of the player who asked the last question (so you can’t answer a question with another question). The order in which the questions are asked is established by the players themselves and based on the suspicions they have after hearing the questions and answers.

Note: if you are not the spy, your card will also specify your status in the given location. Before the beginning of the game, the players should agree on whether they will adhere to the status on their card and play the corresponding role or not. We strongly recommend doing this in order to make the game more interesting. The name of the status might seem to suggest that you’re playing a male character, but all characters can actually be either male or female. So the flight attendant on the airplane could also be a stewardess, or the actor could also be an actress.

End of round

A round ends when one of the following three things happen.

1. Eight minutes have passed;

When time runs out, the players must declare their suspicions as to the spy’s identity. The dealer asks each player to vote, starting with themselves and proceeding clockwise. If need be, the players can discuss their suspicions and then vote. If everybody but the suspect votes for the suspect, the spy loses. In every other case the spy wins. Note: The players can agree on a different round length. Make sure you decide how long you want rounds to be before you start the game. First-time players might want to play longer rounds — say, 12-15 minutes.

2. When a Player Gets Suspicious;

Any player can stop the game at any time (but only once per round) to declare one of the players a suspect and ask the others to vote. If all players vote for the same suspect, the round ends (even if it turns out that the suspect they’ve voted for isn’t the actual spy). It’s in the players’ best interest to stop the game. If the spy is caught this way, the player who initiated the vote gets an extra point. However, it might also benefit the spy to accuse another player in order to divert suspicion from themselves. If the initiator of the vote fails to receive the support of all the players, the round continues as usual from wherever the game was stopped. Note: we recommend players abstain from discussing the spy’s identity during voting (i.e. „I think this player is the spy because their pyjamas are pink, but they should be green!“). The players’ arguments „for“ and „against“ the spy’s identity could inadvertently reveal the location’s identity to the spy.

3. At the Spy’s Request.

The spy can stop the game at any time by revealing their spy card to the other players. The spy is then allowed to consult the location list in the middle spread of the rulebook and identify the current location. The spy wins if they identify the location correctly. Otherwise the other players win. Note: once the game is stopped by one of the other players in order to accuse the spy, the spy can no longer attempt to identify the location. The spy has missed their chance. If the other players vote against them, the spy loses the round. Once the round is over, the cards are returned to the dealer and can no longer be played in the current game. The ziplock bag with this deck is returned to the box.

Scoring

Tally up the points earned by the players at the end of the round based on the results.

If the Spy Wins

• Victory: The spy earns two points.

• The spy stops the game and identifies the location correctly: the spy earns extra two points.

• All the players accuse an innocent player: the spy earns extra two points.

If the Non-Spies Win

• Victory: Each non-spy player earns one point.

• A successful vote (before the end of the round): the player who stops the game and names the suspect earns an extra point.

End of the Game

Whoever scores the most points after the agreed-upon number of rounds wins the game.