Who’s the Leader?

How the night unfolds

1. 01

   First private pass: roles and a signal

   Play with 4–12 people. Everyone privately learns their role. Followers learn who the leader is; the detective learns neither the leader nor the trigger. Only the leader chooses a trigger from the list or writes one. Everyone else just reads their role. Take a similar amount of time on every card, even if you finish early, then hide and pass in the displayed order.

2. 02

   Second private pass: learn the trigger

   Pass to everyone again using the same hidden handoff. The leader and followers privately learn the chosen trigger. The detective receives a neutral briefing without that information. Do not read cards aloud, point at the leader, or announce anyone’s role. Previous player lets someone privately reread an earlier card during that pass; it does not change the trigger or undo progress.

3. 03

   Trigger, act once, copy once

   Start the two-minute clock. Each time the leader wants a new action, they do the secret trigger, then one ordinary action once—for example, brush their own hair or cross their arms. Followers copy the action once, then return to normal conversation. Do not repeatedly loop the action or copy the trigger. The detective may copy or not, while trying to identify the leader.

4. 04

   Check privately, keep identities hidden

   Anyone may call a private detective check-in. Pause signals and pass the phone to every player. Everyone gets a suspect-or-not-yet choice; only the detective’s choice counts, and the result appears after the whole pass. The detective has two guesses. Finding the leader wins for the detective; two misses give the group victory.

5. 05

   The group gets two votes

   Anyone may call a group vote. Pause signals; everyone, including the detective, privately votes for one other player. A unique highest vote total selects the suspect. A tie counts as one failed attempt. Catch the detective and the group wins. After one wrong or tied vote, resume; after a second, the detective wins. Individual ballots stay hidden. Submitted ballots and check-ins are sealed; going back shows only a receipt and cannot change or repeat an action.

6. 06

   Finish, reveal, redeal

   The first completed win condition ends the round. If time runs out before the detective finds the leader or the group misses twice, the group wins. No new actions during pauses or private passes. If calls overlap, resolve the first clear call. Roles are revealed only at the result. Each round independently chooses a random detective and leader, so nobody can deduce the next detective by elimination. A player may be detective more than once; a match has one round per player.

Picture this

The trigger is “Anyway…”. The leader says it, then brushes their own hair once. Followers copy the hair-brushing once and carry on talking. Later the leader says “Anyway…” again and crosses their arms once; followers copy that new action once. The detective can copy to blend in, but is watching for who starts the changes.

A few good ground rules

• Two private passes: roles first, trigger second. Only the leader chooses the trigger; followers learn it in the second pass.
• The leader triggers and performs a new action once. Followers copy the action once, not the trigger.
• Everyone takes a card for group votes and detective check-ins, so a shared handoff never identifies the detective.
• All signals stop while a private pass or vote is in progress. The clock resumes with its remaining time.

Player names and settings stay in this browser. Matches can recover after a refresh in the same tab, but closing it may clear progress. Private cards are protected from casual peeking, not from someone inspecting the device’s storage.