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Paranoia is the best party game most groups have never played, and the reason is that it is hard to explain in a sentence and trivially easy once you have seen one round.

The rules

Someone whispers a question to the person on their left. That person answers out loud, with a name — but nobody else has heard the question.

So the room hears "Priya" and has no idea whether the question was who is the funniest person here or who would you least want to be stuck with.

Then a coin is flipped. Heads, the question is revealed. Tails, it stays secret forever and everyone lives with it.

Play passes left. That is the whole game.

Why it works

The coin flip is the entire design. Without it the game is just Most Likely To with extra steps. With it, roughly half the questions are never explained, and the not-knowing is more entertaining than any answer would have been.

It is also the rare party game that gets better as the room gets quieter, which makes it a good eleven-o'clock game rather than a warm-up.

20 gentle ones

• Who here is the funniest?
• Who would survive longest in the wild?
• Who gives the best advice?
• Who is most likely to become famous?
• Who would you trust with your phone unlocked?
• Who is the best cook?
• Who has the best taste in music?
• Who would you call at three in the morning?
• Who is most likely to still be here in ten years?
• Who would be the best flatmate?
• Who has the best laugh?
• Who is the most organised?
• Who would win a fight, realistically?
• Who is the most generous?
• Who would you want in your corner in an argument?
• Who tells the best stories?
• Who is most likely to move abroad?
• Who has changed the most since you met them?
• Who is the calmest in a crisis?
• Who would be the best parent?

20 with more teeth

• Who is most likely to have read someone else's messages?
• Who is the worst at keeping a secret?
• Who is most likely to be late to their own wedding?
• Who has the most surprising search history?
• Who would break first in an interrogation?
• Who is most likely to have lied to get a job?
• Who is the most competitive about something trivial?
• Who is most likely to start an argument on purpose?
• Who cares most about what others think?
• Who is most likely to quit and never explain why?
• Who would be the hardest to live with?
• Who is most likely to be secretly wealthy?
• Who has the worst judgement about people?
• Who would take the most convincing to admit they were wrong?
• Who is most likely to be in a scandal?
• Who is the most dramatic?
• Who would you least want to be trapped in a lift with?
• Who is most likely to be lying right now?
• Who has the biggest ego?
• Who would sell the rest of us out first?

Rules worth adding

The reader has to be willing to be asked. If someone only ever whispers questions with teeth, the game turns on them fast, which is fine — but it should be understood.

The coin is final. No re-flipping, no "go on, tell us". The refusal is the point.

Skip anything that would actually hurt. The bolder list is fun in a group that can take it and corrosive in one that cannot. You know which you are in.

Play it with the coin built in

Paranoia deals the questions and flips the coin for you, free in the browser with no download — which stops the argument about whether the coin landed on its side. If your group is not ready for the secrecy, Most Likely To is the open version where everyone hears the question.