Snap Judgments rules: how to play the two-player deduction game

Snap Judgments is a two-player deduction game. Each player has a secret character hidden among a grid of sixteen faces. You take turns asking yes-or-no questions, flip down the faces the answers rule out, and try to name your opponent's secret before they name yours.

The twist is in the questions. Instead of "Does your person wear glasses?", the cards ask things like "This person treats golf like a personality trait, not a hobby." There's no objective answer. Your opponent answers for the face they're holding, based on their own snap judgment, so winning means reading the other player as much as reading the board.

The traits and prompts in Snap Judgments are comic fiction made for gameplay. They describe exaggerated characters, not real people, and they don't represent the views of the people who make the game.

What's in a match

16 faces drawn from the pack you choose, shown to both players on a shared grid.
1 secret character per player. By default the game assigns secrets at random. Turn that off to pick your own face.
A 12-card question deck. Each player starts with 5 cards in hand.

Taking a turn

On your turn, choose one way to ask:

Play a question card from your hand. The card goes to the discard pile, and you draw a replacement while the deck lasts.
Write your own question. Type any yes-or-no question, up to 200 characters.
Ask about a face. Point at one face and ask, "Is your secret this person?"
Make your final guess and name your opponent's secret outright.

Don't like your hand? Once before each question, you can redraw: your five cards go to the bottom of the deck, and you take five fresh ones from the top. Redrawing doesn't use up your question.

Answering

Your opponent answers yes or no for their own secret character. For card questions there's no right answer, only an honest one: would this line fit the face they're holding?

Updating your board

After the answer, you flip down every face it rules out. If the answer was "yes," flip down the faces you don't think fit the question. If it was "no," flip down the ones you think do fit. Then confirm your board, and the turn passes.

Winning and losing

You win by correctly naming your opponent's secret character, either through a face question that gets a "yes" or through a final guess.

Wrong guesses are costly. There are two match rules:

Wrong guess loses (default). Any wrong face guess ends the match, and your opponent wins.
Three strikes. With this setting off, you lose after your third wrong face guess. Face questions and final guesses both count.

Under the default rule, guess only when you're confident. With three strikes, an early face question becomes a reasonable gamble when only two or three faces are left.

Game packs

Each pack has its own cast of faces and its own deck of questions. Sixteen faces and twelve cards are drawn from the pack you choose, so no two matches look the same.

Pack	Faces	Questions	Flavor
Original	47	130	The classic cast and roast questions
Political	50	337	Fictional Capitol caricatures and political roast cards
Vehicles	38	67	Cars, trucks, bikes, and scooters with traffic-personality satire
Countries	34	50	Faces from around the world with travel jokes
Your pack	You decide	You decide	Build your own in Content Studio (at least 16 faces and 20 questions)

Custom packs are the best way to play with a group of friends: use your own photos and your own inside jokes.

Ways to play

Online against a friend. Create a room, copy the invite link, and send it. Both players pick a seat, set a name, and mark Ready. The host starts a short countdown, and the match begins.
Against the computer. Play solo against an AI opponent that asks and answers questions on its own.
On iPhone and iPad (coming soon). The Snap Judgments app adds nearby play, pass-and-play, and custom packs built from your own photos.

Settings at a glance

Setting	Default	What it does
Auto-assign secret characters	On	Each player gets a random secret; turn off to choose faces yourself
Wrong final guess loses	On	Off allows three wrong face guesses
Game pack	Original	Picks which faces and question deck are used
AI must ask new questions	Off	When on, the AI opponent writes a fresh question every turn instead of using cards

Who it's for

Snap Judgments is a party game with an edge, made for adults who know each other well enough to laugh at a roast. Some packs include political satire and crude humor. If you're playing with a new group, the Vehicles pack or a custom pack of your own photos is a good place to start.

Want to get better at it? Read our guide to deduction strategy for subjective questions.