Copycat

What it feels like

Ladies and gentlemen, every person in this room makes one sound nobody else on earth makes. Tonight, somebody else is going to make it for them. Here's how it works. In a private turn, you each spell out a sound that's yours alone. Your sneeze. How you answer an unknown number. Then one of you becomes the Copycat. You read someone's line in secret, without being told whose, and you perform it, out loud, the way its owner would. Everyone else names the owner. That's a point each. Then the owner rules on the impression. That's literally me scores the Copycat two. Close scores one.

How to play

1. In a private turn, spell out a sound or a line that is yours alone: your sneeze, how you answer an unknown number, what you say when you sit down.
2. Each round, one of you is the Copycat: you read someone's line in private, without being told whose, then perform it out loud the way its owner would.
3. Everyone else names whose it is. Then the owner rules on the impression.

Scoring: 1 point for naming the owner. The Copycat scores the owner's verdict: 2 for “That's literally me”, 1 for “Close”. If nobody names the owner, the owner scores 1.

You'll get prompts like

• “Your sneeze”
• “How you answer a call from a number you don't know”

Playing safely

Copy the sound and the timing, never someone's accent or looks. Keep it fond: if the owner isn't laughing, move on.

What you need

3 to 10 people and one phone, tablet or laptop to pass around — or everyone on their own phone in a room. Nothing to download, no accounts. The best lines can be sealed into your group's Almanac and come back in later games.

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