Forehead Charades

about this tool

How to play

Forehead Charades is a party game for any group with one phone. One player is the guesser: they hold the phone to their forehead with the screen facing out, so everyone else can read the word on it and they cannot. The rest describe it or act it out — without saying the word — and the guesser tries to name it before the clock runs out.

Start a round, lift the phone during the three-second countdown, and the first word appears. Got it? Tip the screen down towards the floor. Stuck? Tip it up towards the ceiling to pass. Either way the screen says so for a moment and the next word follows. A word still showing when time runs out does not count.

Tilting, tapping or keys

The page reads which way the screen faces, not how the phone is turned, so it works held upright or sideways and in either hand. A tip counts once, and only after the phone has come back upright, so a long nod is one answer rather than five, and a phone still lying on the table when the round starts is not a pass. On an iPhone the browser asks for permission to read the phone's motion when you start the game, so it is answered before anyone lifts the phone.

There are always two big buttons as well — pass on the left, got it on the right — for a teammate to tap if tilting is not your thing, and on a laptop the arrow keys do the same: down or right for got it, up or left to pass. During a round the page asks the phone to keep its screen awake and, where the browser allows it (Android phones and tablets, not iPhones), to go full screen. Turn on sound and vibration in the setup, and the phone beeps the countdown, each answer and the last five seconds — and on Android buzzes for each answer too — so the guesser knows without looking. A stray tap on stop asks before it ends the round.

The decks

Ten decks of fifty words, all written for this page:

• animals, actions and jobs — the easiest to act out.
• food & drink, everyday things and places — from samosa to sushi, a pressure cooker to a lighthouse.
• sports & games and festivals & occasions — cricket and kabaddi, Diwali and New Year's Eve.
• Hindi films and world films — the classic round of dumb charades, from Sholay to Titanic.

Pick any mix. The chosen decks are shuffled together with the browser's cryptographic randomness, the same fair draw as the random picker, and no word comes back until every one has been played; if a long game gets through them all, the pile is shuffled again with the last word kept off the top.

Scoring and teams

Every word got is a point. After each round the page lists the words in the order they came — got, passed or out of time — and any of them can be counted or uncounted with a tap, for the tilt that went the wrong way or the answer the table decides to allow.

Pass it round is the simplest: each round stands alone, and the page keeps a running list of the scores. Two teams take turns for the number of rounds you choose; a coin toss picks who starts, and the team with the most words got at the end wins. To split a group into teams first, the team generator does it fairly.

For a game of secret words rather than shouted ones, try Undercover; for clues on a dial, Mind Dial.

questions

How do you play Forehead Charades?

One player, the guesser, holds the phone to their forehead with the screen facing out, so everyone else can read the word on it and they cannot. The others describe it or act it out without saying it, and the guesser tries to name it before the clock runs out. Each word got is a point, and the next word follows a moment after each one, got or passed.

How does the tilt work?

Tip the top of the phone forward, so the screen faces the floor, when you get the word, and back, so it faces the ceiling, to pass. The page reads which way the screen is facing rather than how the phone is turned, so it works held upright or sideways. A tip counts once, and only after the phone has been held upright again, so a long nod is one answer, and a phone lying flat when the round starts is not a pass. On an iPhone the browser asks for permission to read motion when the game starts.

What if the tilt does not work?

Tap instead: there are big got it and pass buttons at the bottom of the screen, which a teammate can tap for the guesser, and the arrow keys work on a laptop — down or right for got it, up or left to pass. Laptops and some browsers have no tilt sensor at all, and the page says so after a moment. Tilting can also be switched off before the game.

What decks are there?

Ten decks of fifty words: animals, actions, jobs, food and drink, everyday things, places, sports and games, festivals and occasions, Hindi films and world films. Pick any mix; the words are shuffled together and none comes up twice until every one has been played. The film decks make it a game of dumb charades.

Can we play in teams?

Yes. Choose two teams and the number of rounds each, from one to ten. A coin toss picks which team starts, the teams take turns, and the team with the most words got after every round wins. Or just pass it round: each round stands alone, and the page keeps a list of the scores.

Can a wrong answer be fixed?

Yes. After each round the page lists every word in order — got, passed, or still showing when time ran out — and tapping one counts or uncounts it, which changes the score. A word left on the screen when the time is up does not count unless you tap it.

Is anything saved or sent?

No. The words are shuffled in your browser with its cryptographic randomness, the tilt is read on the phone, and nothing is stored or sent. During a round the page asks the phone to keep its screen awake and, where the browser allows it (not on iPhones), to go full screen. Reloading or leaving ends the game.