TableNight/Games/Who Knows Me
Party · One phone each · 10–25 minutes
Who Knows Me
You say you know your friends? Each round one person secretly picks an answer about themselves, and everyone else has to guess which. Pastry at a café or just coffee, snooze five times or up at the first ring: you find out who has actually been listening all these years.
What Who Knows Me is
It is the game people have always played at dinner when someone says “I bet I know what you'll order”. Here the bet has a score. Each round has a main character, the target, and an entry from the deck with four possible answers. The target picks theirs without showing it; everyone else, at the same moment, picks the one they think the target chose.
Once everyone has answered, the real answer is revealed and you see who got it. That is usually when the arguing starts: “wait, you don't drink coffee?”, “since when are you scared of spiders?”. The game is that conversation; the score just gives it an excuse.
Unlike the other games on the site it needs no preparation and no general knowledge. The right answers are not in a book. They are in the head of the person sitting opposite you.
In short: this is the one to pick when the group already knows each other, or wants to. It works with strangers too, but then it becomes a game of instinct rather than memory.
Game sheet
| Players | 3 to 12. The sweet spot is 4 to 8. |
|---|---|
| Length | 10–25 minutes, depending on how many of you there are, how many turns each you pick and how long you argue between rounds. |
| Suggested age | 8 and up. Everything in the deck is suitable for all ages. |
| What you need | One phone each. No big screen. |
| Questions | Sixty entries with four answers each, shuffled for every game. |
| Language | Italian and English. Each phone picks its own, so one room can play in two languages. |
| Sign-up | None. You join with a name and a four-character code. |
| Price | Free, with no in-app purchases. |
Setting up
- Someone opens the room They type their name and tap “Open a room”. A four-character code appears, with a QR code to scan.
- Everyone else joins They scan the QR, or open the game and type the code. With no internet you use the QR greeting, explained in the guide to playing without internet.
- Pick the turns The host chooses how many turns each person gets (one, two or three) and how many seconds there are to answer (30, 45 or 60).
- Start You need at least three people. The order of the targets is random.
How to play, round by round
1. The entry appears
Everyone sees the same entry with the same four answers, for example The most hated chore: ironing, washing up, cleaning the bathroom, grocery shopping. The target's name is at the top, and the time bar starts to fall.
2. Everyone answers at once
The target picks the true answer. Everyone else picks what they think the target gave. Nobody sees what the others tapped, only how many have answered. You can change your mind until time runs out.
3. The reveal
As soon as everyone has answered, or when time is up, the target's answer lights up and the initials of whoever chose each answer appear beside it. This is where the laughing happens.
4. On to the next
The host taps “Next”. If nobody does, the game moves on by itself after 25 seconds. The next round has a new target and a new entry.
Scoring
| A right guess | 2 points. |
|---|---|
| The target | 1 point for each person who guessed them. |
| A wrong guess | 0 points. |
| If the target does not answer in time | The round does not count and nobody scores. |
The target's point is the most important rule in the game. Without it, the best move would be to pick the least likely answer and fool everyone; with it, honesty pays and bluffing leaves you empty-handed. At the end, as well as the winner, you see the closest pair: the person who guessed the same person the most times.
Tips for your first game
- One turn each, 45 seconds. That is the default, and it lasts long enough to tell whether the group is enjoying it.
- Leave room for the conversation. The host need not rush to tap “Next”: the best round is often the one where everyone stays talking.
- No hints. While people answer the target stays quiet, and so does everyone else. A raised eyebrow counts as cheating.
- With people who barely know each other choose 60 seconds: there is more reasoning, and building the character is half the fun.
Mistakes that ruin the game
- Answering for laughs. A target who picks the funniest answer rather than the true one takes the game away from the others, and loses points.
- Closing the host's page. In On your device mode the game runs in their browser: if they close it, it ends for everyone, so the host keeps the screen on. If a player drops out, they rejoin with the same name and find their score waiting.
- Twelve people with three turns each. That is thirty-six rounds, too many for one evening. In a big group one turn is plenty.
Where a game like this comes from
Guessing what someone else would answer is a pastime as old as dinner with friends, and it has inspired board games and TV shows in many forms. Who Knows Me starts from that general idea: the rules, the scoring, the deck, the interface and the code are original.
Frequently asked questions about Who Knows Me
How many people do you need to play Who Knows Me?
From 3 to 12, each with their own phone. The sweet spot is 4 to 8: below four the rounds fly by, above eight you wait a little longer for your next turn.
Do you need a big screen?
No. Everything sits on each person's phone, scores included. You can open the room on a laptop if you want them larger, but the game does not require it.
Does it work without internet?
Yes, on three conditions: everyone on the same network, even a phone hotspot; the game already opened once while you had a connection; and a QR greeting between the host and each player. With internet, the room code is enough.
Can you play over a video call?
Yes, in both modes: the host shares the four-character code and everyone joins from wherever they are. Online, the host can even close the page and come back; on your device they have to keep it open until the end.
Can you write your own questions?
Not for now: the deck holds sixty entries in Italian and English, shuffled for each game. No entry comes up twice in the same game.
Is it worth lying to trick the others?
No, and that is deliberate. The person answering scores a point for each person who guessed them, so a bluffer ends up on zero along with everyone who missed.