Most Likely To tips for hosts

Hosting Most Likely To is easy: the questions do most of the work. What makes the difference between a fun ten minutes and a flat one is the choice of decks, the pace, and how comfortable everyone feels being picked. This tutorial walks through a first game on one phone, then covers choosing decks, writing your own questions, when to vote in secret and how to keep the game kind. If you need the rules first, read the complete Most Likely To rules.

What you will learn

• How to run your first game, from typing the names to the results.
• Which decks suit kids, families, friends, a work team or a classroom.
• How to write your own “most likely to” questions that land well.
• When pointing works best and when to switch to the secret vote.
• How to keep the game kind, so being picked always feels good.

Your first game, step by step

1. Gather the group. Sit in a circle or around a table, so everyone can see everyone else. You need at least three people.
2. Set up. Type everyone’s name, choose a deck (Family is a safe start for any mixed group), and leave the voting on Everyone points. Ten rounds is a good length for a first game.
3. Put the phone in the middle. Everyone should be able to read the card. If the screen is small, the reader reads it out loud.
4. Read and count. The reader reads the question, counts to three, and everyone points at once.
5. Enter the result. The reader taps the person with the most fingers and confirms. If it is too close, tap No clear winner and move on.
6. Ask for a reason. Before tapping Next card, ask one or two people why they pointed where they did. This is where the laughs are.
7. Finish. After the last round, the results show every title and who won it. Read the list out loud: it is a funny summary of the evening.

A first game takes five to ten minutes. If the group wants more, Rematch keeps the names and decks and starts with a new reader.

Choosing decks for your group

Each deck has over 120 questions, and you can mix as many as you like.

• Kids (6–12): for a children’s party, a sleepover or a rainy afternoon. The questions are about pets, inventions, adventures and silly talents, and every child can win something.
• Family: for mixed ages at the same table. Grandparents and children answer the same questions, about cooking, holidays, hobbies and family habits.
• Friends (teens+): for teenagers and adults. Travel, music, big plans and small quirks, still clean and kind.
• Work: icebreakers for a team meeting, an onboarding day or an office lunch. Everything is fine to read out in front of a manager.
• Classroom: for a class and its teacher, about helping, curiosity, school projects and future jobs.

Mixing works well too. Family plus Kids suits a family with young children. Friends plus Work suits colleagues who already know each other well. If you play a long game with one deck, the game deals every card once before any card comes back, and it remembers the cards you saw recently on this device, so the next game starts with fresh ones.

Writing good questions of your own

Tap Add my prompts on the setup screen to add your own questions, then pick the My prompts deck. Custom questions are where the game becomes personal: a trip you all took, a team project, a running family joke. A few tips:

• Write the end of the question. “plan the next camping trip” reads as “Who is most likely to plan the next camping trip?”. If you type the whole question, the game tidies it up for you.
• Make it winnable by several people. The best questions spark a debate. If everyone would point at the same person before you finish reading, the round is over too fast.
• Aim for a compliment. “Who is most likely to remember everyone’s birthday?” makes the winner smile. “Who is most likely to forget a birthday?” makes them defend themselves.
• Keep it about the future or about habits. “Who is most likely to write a novel one day?” invites stories. Questions about the past can bring up things people would rather forget.
• Leave out the off-limits topics. Looks, bodies, relationships, money, grades and anything that could embarrass someone don’t belong in this game, even among close friends.
• Keep it short. A question you can read in one breath works best. The game allows 3 to 140 characters.

You can keep up to 100 questions on this device, and they stay there for your next game.

Pointing or the secret vote

Everyone points is the classic way, and the quickest. Use it with small groups who know each other well, when you want noise and laughter, and when time is short.

Secret vote is better when:

• the group is large (nine or more), and counting fingers becomes guesswork;
• some players are shy, or new to the group, and would rather not vote in public;
• people tend to copy whoever points first;
• you want a surprise at the reveal.

With the secret vote, the phone goes round the table and each person picks a name in private. The reveal shows only the counts, never who voted for whom, so a vote stays private unless its owner wants to explain it. It takes about a minute per round with six players, so 10 rounds is plenty.

Keeping it kind

Being picked should feel like being noticed. A few habits help:

• Choose the decks for the most sensitive person in the room. With a mixed group, Family is safer than Friends.
• Let anyone skip. Every player has a skip by default; you can make skips unlimited under More options. Nobody needs a reason.
• Spread the titles. If one person is collecting every title, switch to the secret vote or add the house rule that three titles means a rest.
• Celebrate, don’t tease. When someone wins “most likely to become a famous chef”, ask what they would cook first.
• Watch the quiet players. If someone hasn’t been picked at all, a well-chosen custom question can fix that.

Reading the room

Notice how people react after the first few rounds. If the group laughs and argues happily, keep going and try a few custom questions. If people are hesitant, slow down: read the question again, count clearly, and spend more time on the reasons. With children, keep rounds quick and make sure every child reads a card. At work, ten rounds is usually enough: stop while people still want more.

Three settings, three plans

A birthday party or sleepover. Pick the Kids deck, keep it to 10 rounds and let the birthday child read first. Read the results out at the end like an awards ceremony: every child who won a title gets a cheer.

A family dinner. Mix Family and Kids, or Family on its own. Let the youngest players read with a little help, and try a few custom questions about a holiday you shared or the family pet.

A team meeting. Use the Work deck with 10 rounds at the start of the meeting. Pointing is fine for a small team that knows each other; with a new or larger team, the secret vote keeps it relaxed. Ask for one reason per round rather than from everyone, and keep to time.

Quick reference for hosts

• Players: 3 to 12 on one phone.
• Voting: Everyone points (fast) or Secret vote (private, counts only).
• Ties: No clear winner when pointing; a shared title in a secret vote.
• Self-votes: allowed by default; turn them off under More options.
• Skips: one each by default; 0 or unlimited under More options.
• Rounds: 10, 20 or Endless; End stops at any time and shows the results.
• Keys on a laptop: 1–9 and 0 pick a person, N for no clear winner, Enter to confirm or go on, S to skip.

For more games with the same group, see our party games, or try Truth or Dare next.

Written by the Pass and Play Games team.