How to play Truth or Dare

Truth or Dare is one of the oldest party games around, and still one of the best: all it needs is a few people and a bit of nerve. Here are the rules, the variations we like, and the small choices that decide whether a game is fun or awkward.

The rules

Players take turns. On your turn you pick truth, and answer a question honestly, or dare, and do whatever the dare says, there and then, in front of everyone. Then the turn passes to the next person. You can skip anything: a game where nobody can say no stops being a game.

There's no winner. You play until the room wants something else.

Picking the questions

A good truth is easy to answer and fun to hear. "What's the worst haircut you've ever had?" gets a story; "What's your biggest regret?" gets a silence. Light questions early, thoughtful ones later in the night once the room has settled.

Our three truth packs cover that range:

• Icebreakers (mild): easy questions for new groups, like "What was your first job?"
• Deep Talk (mild): bigger questions, for when the night slows down.
• Spill the Tea (bold): crushes, fibs and cringe moments. Save it for old friends.

Spill the Tea is switched on by default, so for a gentle game with new people, untick it on the setup screen before you start, or open Truth or Dare with only the Icebreakers truths.

Picking the dares

A good dare is a small performance: everyone watches, everyone laughs, nobody gets hurt or embarrassed for real. An impression, a silly voice, a thirty-second stand-up set, an infomercial for a spoon. The rules we write ours by work for any group:

• No touching. A dare is something you do, not something you do to someone.
• Nothing that leaves the room: no photos, recordings or messages.
• Nothing dangerous, nothing to eat or swallow, nothing that costs money.
• Nothing about how anyone looks.

Tip If a dare would only be funny to the person giving it, it isn't a good dare.

Six ways to mix it up

1. Let the game choose

Can't decide? The Surprise me button picks truth or dare for you, so the choice becomes part of the suspense.

2. Spin for the dare

Put a dare pack on the Dare Wheel and spin: whatever lands is yours. With No repeats on, a slice that's been spun greys out until every slice has had its turn.

3. Roll for it

Dare Dice turns dares into rounds that get a little bolder: the die holds six dares a round, and everyone rolls once before the next round starts.

4. The hot seat

One player sits in the hot seat while everyone else asks them one truth question each. On a birthday, the birthday person goes first.

5. Write your own

Before you start, everyone adds a dare of their own. On one phone, the dares you add are kept on that phone, and every one-phone game here can use them. In an online room there's a shared list instead, which everyone in the room can see and add to.

6. Play apart

Not in the same place? Start a room, send the link, and everyone plays on their own phone. When it's your turn you choose on your phone, and the card appears on every screen at once. Online there's no picking packs: the truths come from Icebreakers and the bolder Spill the Tea, the dares from our party mix, and the room's own list is dealt first. A game runs three rounds for up to four players, two for five or more.

Keeping it fun for everyone

• Say at the start that skipping is fine. Every truth and dare in our games has a Skip button; make sure people know they can use it.
• The host goes first. It's easier to do a silly dare when someone already has.
• Start mild. You can always get bolder. You can't take back a dare that made someone uncomfortable.
• Watch for the quiet ones. If someone has skipped twice in a row, give them an easy one, or change game for a while.

How many players?

It works with two, but it's best with three or more. Past eight, a turn takes too long to come round: split into two groups, or switch to a game everyone plays at once, like Imposter, which takes up to twelve names on one phone.

Every question and dare in our packs is on one page, if you'd like to read them first.