Charades Generator
Deal a charades prompt, act it out, press for the next one: this generator holds 320 prompts written for this tool, and every one is tagged by hand for whether it acts well, whether it draws well and how hard it is with a group. That second tag is the difference between this and a page that hands the same word list to both games, because a prompt like a barcode draws in three lines and dies on its feet, while walking a dog that will not walk is a gift to act and hopeless on paper. Charades mode deals the 266 prompts tagged as acting well, drawing mode deals the 242 tagged as drawing well, and the round works like a deck: every matching prompt comes up once before any of them comes back.
No card yet
Press Deal, or the space bar, for a card
Press Deal for the first card.
Press Space for the next card without reaching for the mouse. The timer is whatever you type in seconds, up to 600, and 0 turns it off; it starts when you press it and never on its own, and it restarts on each new card while it is running. Pass puts the card back in the deck, so it can come round again later in the round.
Common questions
- How is drawing mode different from charades mode?
- The two modes deal from different lists, not from one list with a different heading. Every prompt in the deck carries two separate tags written by hand: whether it acts well with a body and no props, and whether it draws well with a pen and no letters. Charades mode deals only the 266 prompts tagged as acting well and drawing mode only the 242 tagged as drawing well, so switching the game genuinely changes what comes up. The chips under each card show both tags, which is how you can tell that the card you are holding is a gift for the game you are playing and would have been a trap in the other one.
- How are the difficulty levels decided?
- By hand, while the prompt was written, and that is worth knowing because it makes difficulty a judgement rather than a measurement. Easy means a younger player or a mixed group can take it on, medium means you want a plan before the timer starts, and hard means expect a pass now and then. Nothing in the tool scores a prompt or learns from how your group did with it: the label is the one stored with the line. Pick Any to deal from all three, or pin one level when the group is uneven and you want the round to stay fair.
- Can the same prompt come up twice in one game?
- Not until the deck runs out. Each round keeps the cards it has already dealt out of play, so with a category and a difficulty chosen you will see every matching prompt once before any of them returns. The note under the stage counts what is left, and when it reaches zero the next card reshuffles the whole deck and says so. Pass is the exception on purpose: a card you passed on was never played, so it goes back into the deck and can come round again later. Changing the game, the category or the difficulty starts a fresh round, because it is a different deck.
- How do I play with a mixed-age group?
- Set the difficulty to Easy and leave the category on All, which deals from the friendliest end of all eight categories at once. Actions, Animals and Objects are the safest categories for younger players because the prompt is a thing you can do or a thing you can see. Feelings and ideas is the hardest end of the deck: the abstract prompts there act reasonably well and none of the hard ones draw at all, so if you choose that category in drawing mode at hard the tool tells you the deck is empty and offers the way out rather than dealing a card nobody can use.
- How long should a round be?
- Sixty seconds suits most groups and is what the timer starts on, ninety is kinder with hard prompts, and thirty keeps a big group moving. Type any number of seconds up to 600, or 0 to turn the timer off entirely. Nothing starts a clock on its own: the timer runs when you press it and stops when you press it again, and while it is running each new card restarts it. It is a convenience rather than a scorekeeper, it only counts while this tab is open, and no score is kept anywhere.
- Where do the prompts come from, and is anything uploaded?
- All 320 were written for this tool across eight categories, with no commercial card deck, no other generator's word list, and no film titles, franchises or real people in them. The film category is described scenes rather than titles for that reason. Everything runs in your browser: no account, nothing uploaded and no record of your round anywhere but your own screen. The game, category, difficulty and timer you chose are remembered in this browser so the next session opens where you left it, and Copy round puts the cards you have dealt on the clipboard as plain text.
Every prompt here was written for this tool and tagged by hand for whether it acts well, draws well, and how hard it is with a group. Difficulty is a judgement rather than a measurement: what is easy with friends who share your references can be impossible with a mixed group.