Questions to Ask in Spyfall
A good question to ask in Spyfall is easy for anyone who has seen the location card, awkward for the one player who has not, and does not name the place for that player to hear. These 51 Spyfall questions are sorted the way a round goes: Openers, The senses, People and roles and Narrowing for the non-spies, Pressing a suspect for the last minutes before a vote, and a final group to ask when the spy card is yours.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Openers
Are you happy to be here?
Why ask it
A safe first question, because the answer is a mood and describes nothing in the room. The crew of a submarine and a guest at a day spa answer it very differently, and a spy who has to think before a simple yes or no has already told the table something.
How did you get here?
Why ask it
Answerable everywhere and dangerous for a spy, because transport differs sharply between a submarine, a beach, and an office party. Watch for the reply that avoids a method altogether, such as saying the usual way.
Are you here for work, or by choice?
Why ask it
Sorts the locations into places people are sent and places people pick, without showing which pile you are in. The spy must choose one and commit, and a wrong guess here contradicts everything they say for the rest of the round.
How long do people usually stay here?
Why ask it
Distinguishes places you pass through from places you spend a day in, and it sounds like idle curiosity. A spy who answers with a vague plenty of time is trying to stay compatible with everything, which is itself a pattern.
How often do you come here?
Why ask it
Every card has an honest answer, from every day for the staff roles to once in a lifetime for a space station. It also tells the table whether you are playing someone who works at the location or someone visiting, which makes your later answers easier to check.
What time of day is this place busiest?
Why ask it
A restaurant, a school and a casino each have an obvious rush, and a submarine has none. Evenings is a tempting guess for a spy because it is rarely far wrong, so remember who said it and see whether it still fits five answers later.
What did you bring with you today?
Why ask it
An object is a commitment, and a small one keeps your own answer safe: a towel says a lot, a bag says little. Listen for the player who brought nothing in particular.
Is it what you expected before you came?
Why ask it
Pure opinion, so nobody at the table can be wrong and nobody gives the place away. Use it in the first minute to get a quiet player talking, then hold their answer against what they claim later about how often they come.
The senses
Is it loud where you are standing?
Why ask it
Sensory questions are the spy's real problem, because they cannot be answered from general knowledge. Vague replies like it depends are the tell, since anyone actually there would simply say yes or no.
Does it smell like anything in particular?
Why ask it
Nearly impossible to fake convincingly, because a bluff has to invent a detail rather than reason from a category. Watch for the answer that names an emotion instead of a smell.
Is it warm enough for you?
Why ask it
Temperature pulls apart the polar station, the beach and the day spa while sounding like small talk. Someone who knows the place complains or gloats straight away. A spy tends to say it is fine, the one answer that fits every card and convinces nobody.
Is there anywhere to sit down?
Why ask it
Ordinary enough that nobody suspects the asker. A theater or a passenger train is rows of seats and a pirate ship or an army on the march has next to none, so a spy cannot tell whether the obvious answer is a laugh or a plain yes.
Could you fall asleep here?
Why ask it
Comfort and not fact, so the answer has to come from imagining yourself in the place: easy on a long train ride, unthinkable beside a circus ring. A joke about being tired is the dodge to listen for, because it says nothing about the room.
What is the floor like under your feet?
Why ask it
Sand, carpet, a steel deck and sawdust are four different rounds, and nobody plans an answer to this one in advance. If it is asked of you, describe the feel and not the material: hard, a bit slippery, cold.
Is anything around you moving?
Why ask it
Trains, ships, aircraft and a circus ring all give a quick yes, and a bank or a school gives a puzzled no. Aim it at someone who has only been asked for opinions so far, because it needs a picture of the place and not a mood.
How crowded is it right now?
Why ask it
A crew of a few people and a hall full of guests feel nothing alike, and the answer hints at the size of the place without describing a wall of it. Compare answers across the table: two players who really share a location will land close together.
What is the most expensive thing you can see?
Why ask it
Forces a specific object, and specific objects are where spies get caught. Be careful asking it if you are not sure of your own answer, since the same question tends to come back to you later in the round.
People and roles
What are you wearing?
Why ask it
One of the strongest questions in the game and also one of the riskiest to be asked, since your own honest answer may hand the location over. Keep your reply plausible in several places, such as something comfortable, rather than naming a uniform.
Is anyone here in a uniform?
Why ask it
Points at the places with crews, guards and staff without naming one of them. A non-spy can talk about other people and keep their own role out of it, while a spy has to guess whether the room is full of uniforms or has none at all.
What does a normal day look like for you here?
Why ask it
This is the role question. Your card gives you a job at the location, so answer from it: the cook talks about the morning rush, the passenger about the queue. With no role to lean on, a spy usually describes a day that could happen anywhere.
Who do you talk to most while you are here?
Why ask it
The answer is another role, a customer, a captain, a patient, and roles point at the place more gently than objects do. You can safely answer with a relationship in place of a title: the person who gives me my orders.
Are most of the people here strangers to each other?
Why ask it
Crews, classes and armies know each other; shoppers, passengers and audiences mostly do not. That sorts the cards by the kind of crowd, which is hard for the spy to reason out from the answers given so far.
How is the pay?
Why ask it
It assumes the other player works here and makes them decide on the spot whether they do. Staff roles grumble convincingly, visitors laugh and say they are the ones paying, and the spy has to guess which of the two they are meant to be.
If something went wrong, who would you tell?
Why ask it
Asks about the authority structure of a place without naming a role. Answers reveal whether there is staff, a captain, a guard, or nobody at all. A spy with no picture of who runs the place tends to say someone in charge, which names nobody.
Whose job here would you least want?
Why ask it
To answer, a player has to picture two or three jobs at the location and choose between them. Non-spies do that from their card in a second. Give more credit to a specific grumble, such as the person who cleans up afterwards, than to a shrug.
What would get someone thrown out of here?
Why ask it
Each place has its own unwritten rule: shouting in one, running in another, touching the controls in a third. Keep your own answer to behavior and away from equipment, or you will describe the room to the spy.
Narrowing
Are you paying to be here?
Why ask it
Separates paid venues from workplaces and public spaces in one move. It is also the kind of thing a real visitor answers immediately, so any pause is worth remembering when the accusation comes.
Could you buy something to eat here?
Why ask it
Almost everywhere has some answer, which is what makes it safe to ask, but the answers differ in a way that is hard to bluff. A yes is worth returning to when that player is questioned again: what they bought is where a spy usually overreaches.
Would you bring a child here?
Why ask it
Rules out the adult-only locations and does it gently. A spy will often answer yes because it feels harmless, which is exactly the sort of guess that becomes visible once the next two answers contradict it.
Would you bring your grandmother here?
Why ask it
Sounds like a joke and works as a filter for places that are cold, cramped or hard on the knees. A casino or an ocean liner gets an easy yes, a polar station or a pirate ship gets a laugh, and the spy has to guess which reaction the table expects.
Would you take a photograph here?
Why ask it
A beach or a circus gets an easy yes, a supermarket a shrug, and a bank or an embassy would probably rather you did not. What they would photograph is the better half of the question, so fold it in from the start if your table does not allow follow-ups.
Could you leave right now if you wanted to?
Why ask it
A submarine, an aircraft in flight and a space station all say no, and so, for different reasons, might a school or a hospital. It cuts the list hard, so hold it until the spy has already had to commit to a few answers.
Is this place open all night?
Why ask it
A hospital and a police station keep going through the night; a school and a theater lock up. It is a fact about the place, the kind a spy can only guess, and a wrong guess is easy for three or four players to notice at once.
Are you wearing shoes?
Why ask it
Worth a turn only when the honest answer at your location is no or not really, as it is on the beach or in the day spa. A spy will guess yes because nearly every other card demands it. Anywhere else the question tests nobody.
Can you see the sky from where you are?
Why ask it
Cleanly separates indoor from outdoor locations, and there is no honest way to dodge it. The cost is that it halves the possibilities for the spy too, so it is better asked once you can afford to trade information.
Pressing a suspect
What happened here yesterday?
Why ask it
There is no safe general answer to this, so the player has to invent an event that fits the place. A non-spy picks something small and local in a breath. Count the seconds before a suspect starts talking.
Did you finish what I asked you to do this morning?
Why ask it
It pretends the two of you already work together at the location. A player who knows the place plays along with a task that belongs there. The spy has to choose between refusing the premise and inventing a chore out of nothing.
What do you think my job is here?
Why ask it
A non-spy can pick any role that exists at the location and will often get a laugh for it. The spy has to name a job without knowing the building, and tends to reach for manager, guard or cleaner. One such answer proves little, so note it and wait for a second.
What is that right behind you?
Why ask it
A blunt demand for one object, best used late on a player whose answers have all been moods and opinions. If you are innocent and it lands on you, name something small and movable, a bucket or a clipboard, never the thing the place is known for.
What would you warn a newcomer about?
Why ask it
Warnings are specific by nature: mind the step, do not feed them, keep your voice down. A suspect who offers general life advice, be careful or stay alert, probably has no room in their head to describe.
What sound would tell you something had gone wrong here?
Why ask it
An alarm, a splash, a whistle, a sudden silence: each place has its own, and it takes a picture of the room to produce one. Aimed at a suspect who has offered only moods so far, it leaves no opinion to hide behind. If you are innocent, name the sound and not the thing that makes it.
What are you going to do when you leave?
Why ask it
Leaving means something different at each location: going home, going ashore, going back to barracks. It works on a suspect because the answer has to agree with what they said about how they arrived.
Would you come back?
Why ask it
A good closing question when you already suspect someone, because it invites a personal reply that is hard to keep neutral. Broad enthusiasm with no detail attached is what a bluff tends to sound like.
As the spy
What did you notice first when you got here today?
Why ask it
The safest question a spy can ask early, because it sounds like chat and the answer is usually a real feature of the place: the noise, the cold, the queue. Put it to the most talkative player and let them describe the room for you.
What would you change about this place if you ran it?
Why ask it
Complaints are full of detail, and people enjoy making them. When you hold the spy card, one answer to this can cut your shortlist to two or three locations. It suits non-spies too, since it shows who can complain convincingly.
What is everyone here waiting for?
Why ask it
The wording assumes you know there is something to wait for, which is good cover. Whatever comes back, the show, the all clear, the food, the landing, is close to a description of the location.
How does this compare with the last time we were here?
Why ask it
Saying we makes you sound like someone who has seen the place before. The other player will name what is different today, and you learn what is normally there. Once a game night is the limit; the table will remember it.
Where is the best place to stand in here?
Why ask it
You are asking for the layout without admitting you cannot see it. Answers come back as by the window, near the bar, up on deck, and each one is a piece of the room you were missing.
What would you grab if we had to leave in a hurry?
Why ask it
People name the most valuable or most useful object in the place, which is often the strongest clue a spy gets all round. Non-spies ask it of suspects as well, so using it does not mark you.
What do people get wrong about this place?
Why ask it
It invites a small speech, and speeches leak. As the spy, nod along and reuse one harmless detail from it in your own next answer, slightly reworded, so that you sound as if you knew it already.
What will you tell people at home about today?
Why ask it
A gentle way to collect the highlights of a place you cannot see. Save it for late in the round, when a single extra clue would let you stop the clock and name the location with some confidence.
Asking and Answering Without Giving It Away
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
How the Question Phase Works
Who asks whom
The dealer asks first, picking any player by name. Whoever answers asks the next question, of anyone except the player who just questioned them. You cannot simply fire back, so think of a question for someone else while you are answering.
One question, no follow-up
The printed rules give each asker one question and no follow-up, so fold the second half of a question into the first: ask what someone would photograph here, not whether they would. Plenty of tables relax this. Agree before the cards are dealt, because a follow-up is a strong weapon and both sides should know whether it is in play.
Stopping the clock
Any player can pause the timer to accuse someone, and in the published rules the vote has to be unanimous apart from the accused. The spy can also stop the round to name the location and win or lose on that one guess. Editions and apps differ on round length and scoring, so read yours once before the first game.
Your role is there to help you
Each location card also names a role, such as a pilot or a passenger. Nobody has to act it out, but answering from your role gives you specific, believable things to say that are about you and not about the room.
How to Play the Question Phase
Start wide, then narrow
The groups on this page are in playing order. Openers and The senses cost the non-spies very little. Narrowing questions help the spy as much as they help you, so they come after the spy has already had to commit to several answers, and Pressing a suspect belongs to the last minutes before a vote.
Never ask what you cannot answer
The player you question cannot fire straight back at you, but someone else at the table often will, and borrowing a good question is a standard move. Before you ask about the most expensive object in sight, have your own answer ready and make sure it does not name the place.
Prefer sensory and personal questions over factual ones
A spy can reason about what a place is probably like. They cannot fake what it smells like or whether they could fall asleep there. Anything requiring a first-person impression is where the bluffing breaks down.
Answer specifically enough to be believed
If you keep giving safe non-answers to protect the location, the table will read you as the spy, and a vote against an innocent player hands the round to the real one. Give one real detail that fits several places rather than nothing at all.
Track who has not been asked
Nobody chooses when they answer, but the table chooses who gets asked. A spy is safest while the questions keep going elsewhere, because every answer they hear is a clue and every answer they give is a risk. Notice who has reached the halfway mark without committing to anything and send the next question there.
Let your question vouch for you
A question shows what the asker knows. One that only makes sense at the real location, such as asking a fellow diner whether the special is any good tonight, tells the other non-spies you have seen the card. The spy hears it too, so spend it when suspicion has landed on you and not before.
If You Are the Spy
Keep a shortlist from the first answer
The list of possible locations is open to everyone, so use it. Each answer you hear rules a few places out. Look at the list as often as the other players do and no more, because the one person studying it is easy to spot.
Answer with a feeling and one small detail
When a question comes to you, give an opinion or a mood and attach one modest invented detail that fits everything left on your shortlist. Short and relaxed beats long and careful. Echoing the previous answer word for word is a quick way to be caught, so add something of your own.
Ask questions that make other people describe
The As the spy group is built for this: open questions that sound like they come from someone who knows the place. Avoid yes-or-no questions when you hold the spy card. They teach you little and the table expects sharper ones from a player who knows where they are.
Decide when to stop the clock
If you are down to two locations and suspicion is settling on you, a guess is usually worth more than waiting for the vote. If nobody is looking at you, keep playing, since every further answer narrows your list.
Mistakes That Lose Rounds
Narrowing too fast
You already know the location, so a question about the sky or whether anyone could leave teaches you nothing about the place and hands the spy a large part of it in one answer. Save those until you have a suspect to aim them at, or until the round is nearly over.
Accusing on a single odd answer
In the printed rules each player can stop the clock to accuse only once a round, and a unanimous vote against an innocent player gives the spy the win. People give strange answers because they are distracted or trying too hard to be careful, so wait for two answers that contradict each other rather than one that sounds unusual.
Questioning the same player repeatedly
Piling on one suspect leaves the rest of the table unexamined and tells the spy exactly who they are safe from. Spread your questions until the evidence is real.
Being too clever with your own answers
Elaborate misdirection from an innocent player usually reads as guilt. Plain, slightly boring answers with one concrete detail are the most convincing thing you can offer.