Serious faces. Ridiculous answers.
How to bluff when you have no idea
As a Bluffer you see the prompt but not the answer, yet you have to sound like the one player who was handed it. These seven tips are reasoned from the rules of a round, not drawn from playtest data: what each role sees, who controls the speaking order and how points are awarded.
4–8 players · 40–60 minutes · Ages 13+ · Free, no download or account
Know how a Bluffer scores
A Bluffer scores in exactly one situation: the Genius selects you as the Honest One. If the Genius selects the real Honest One, those two players each gain a point and you do not. If the Genius selects a different Bluffer, only that Bluffer scores. Bluffers are not a team. The Genius selects exactly one player, so a merely plausible explanation is not enough: you have to be more convincing than everyone else at the table, including the player telling the truth.
Build your explanation out of the prompt
Find the part of the prompt that is unfamiliar: an odd word, a strange phrase, or a described event that needs a name or a cause. That is what your explanation has to cover; the rest is context. Take the invented practice prompt on the rules page, “Cloud-sea swimming pool.” One fictional Bluffer there makes it a stage pit filled with white silk; another makes it a bath where climbers practice holding their breath. Both explain why clouds and a pool share a name. Neither is selected in that example, and both carry more detail than you need. An explanation that skips the strangest part of the prompt hands the Genius an easy first question.
Offer one concrete detail
A place, a material, a purpose or an origin can make an explanation sound remembered rather than invented. One is enough. Every detail you add is one more thing you have to keep consistent when the Genius comes back to you during discussion.
Rehearse one sentence you can say again
Once everyone has spoken, the Genius can ask any player to elaborate or to say their explanation again, and no timer will cut the discussion short. Before preparation ends, say your explanation to yourself as a single sentence. If it changes when you repeat it, simplify it. The Honest One has a written answer and can reopen it on their phone while people are still speaking; all you have is your memory of what you made up.
Plan for the follow-up question
Preparation has no timer, but the Genius can end it at any moment, so settle your one sentence first and spend whatever time is left on the questions it invites: where it comes from, when it was used, why it is called that or why it happens. During preparation the Honest One sees the correct answer but not the extra background that appears at the reveal, so even the player telling the truth may have to guess or say “I’m not sure” when the Genius digs deeper. That gives you three replies an honest player might also give: answer from the detail you already offered, make a guess and call it a guess, or say “I don’t know that part.” Avoid a confident new fact you have not rehearsed, because you will have to keep it consistent for the rest of the discussion.
Keep the delivery straight
The Honest One is working from a short written answer and has to keep its meaning truthful, whether reading it aloud or rephrasing it. Your role card asks for an explanation that is “believable and funny.” Those two can coexist: let the idea be funny and the delivery be straight. If your version arrives as a punchline while the true one arrives as a plain statement, the contrast risks doing the Genius’s work. Playing purely for the laugh is fair in a party game too; just do not expect to be selected in that round.
Adapt to where you fall in the speaking order
The app does not choose who speaks first; the Genius calls on players by name. If you are called early, nobody has another version to compare yours with. If you are called late, you have heard the others. If someone before you has told something close to your prepared version, you are the one who may look like the copy. Keep your core claim, change the one detail that overlaps, and fix the new wording in your head before discussion; it is now the version you have to repeat. Thinking of a spare detail during preparation makes that easier.
Before you speak
Five steps to prepare
Find the unfamiliar part
Work out which word or idea in the prompt needs explaining. The rest is context.
Choose one claim
Decide what you are saying it means, refers to or is caused by. Do not hedge between two ideas.
Add one concrete detail
Give it a place, a material, a purpose or an origin that you can repeat exactly.
Rehearse a single sentence
Say the whole explanation silently once. Trim it until it survives being repeated.
Prepare for one question
Think of the most obvious follow-up, decide how you will answer it, and keep one spare detail in reserve.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
How does a Bluffer score a point?
Only by being selected. If the Genius selects you as the Honest One, you gain one point and nobody else scores in that round.
Do Bluffers work as a team?
No. Each Bluffer scores alone, and only when the Genius selects that particular player. Another Bluffer being selected does not score for you.
Do I lose anything if I am not selected?
Not points: scores never go down and nobody is eliminated. But whoever the Genius did select moves closer to the target and you do not. Roles are assigned again in the next round.
How long do I have to prepare?
There is no clock, but the length is not yours to set. The Genius ends preparation with one tap, and the app does not check that everyone is ready. If you need another moment, say so aloud.
Can I look up the prompt on my phone?
Please don’t. The speaking screen tells everyone to put their phones down and not to look up the answer. Nothing in the app blocks a search, though, so keeping to it is a table agreement rather than a technical lock.
Think you can sell a made-up explanation?
Gather at least four players, create a free room and find out who the Genius believes.