What Undercover is
Everyone shares a location and a role — except the spy, who must work out where you are before you work out who they are.
What the Spy lacks is not the list of places — it is which one is live. Each location deals eight named roles, specific enough that “what are you holding?” has an answer you either have or visibly do not.
Accusing is the only way to win and the quickest way to lose. Convicting takes everybody but the accused agreeing, you get one failed accusation and no more, and a wrong conviction pays the Spy four points on the spot.
If the clock runs out with nobody caught, everyone names a suspect in a sixty-second final vote. A strict plurality convicts — a table that splits its vote lets the Spy walk with the survival points.
Looking for the secret-word version?
Some games called Undercover deal out secret words instead of places. On Table Party that game is Imposter: everyone sees the secret word except the imposter, on a board of sixteen, then the table gives one-word clues and votes. It seats 3–12 too.
Playing in person around one phone? The imposter word generator deals a secret word to everyone but the imposter, with no board at all.
The 48 locations
Each round deals a board of sixteen places from these 48, the card everyone can see, and one of them is where you are. Every place has eight roles, so the questions have somewhere to go.
- Passenger plane
- Casino
- Hospital
- Submarine
- Film set
- Crusader army
- Polar station
- Corporate party
- Day spa
- Passenger train
- Pirate ship
- Motorway services
- Supermarket
- Theatre
- University
- Zoo
- Bank
- Space station
- Cathedral
- Beach resort
- Ski lodge
- Circus
- Police station
- Art museum
- Vineyard
- Nightclub
- Hotel
- Cruise ship
- Military base
- Embassy
- Rock concert
- Amusement park
- Farm
- Library
- Bakery
- Courtroom
- Newspaper office
- Gym
- Hair salon
- Restaurant kitchen
- Airport terminal
- Wedding reception
- Oil rig
- Race track
- Ferry
- Cinema
- Prison
- Fishing trawler
How to play Undercover
- Everyone gets the location and a role there — except the Spy. Hold your card to peek at it.
- Ask each other questions. Prove you belong without naming the place.
- Anyone can accuse, once each. It takes everybody agreeing to convict.
- The Spy can call the location — right and the round is theirs, wrong and it’s the table’s.
- At zero — or as soon as most of the table taps Ready to vote — everyone names a suspect. Most votes takes the fall; a tie and the Spy walks.
How to win at Undercover
Ask about texture
Questions about how a place smells or sounds are far harder to bluff than questions with a factual answer.
Answer before you are sure
Hesitation reads as guilt whether or not you know where you are, so commit to something and defend it.
Spend your accusation late
You only get one that fails, and the questions that would have convinced the table are the ones still to come.
Spy: farm the answers
Every reply narrows sixteen places to three, and calling the location correctly is worth four points and the round.
Never name the place
Proving you belong by saying where you are hands the Spy the whole game for nothing.
Agree on a name at zero
A split final vote convicts nobody and pays the Spy, so the argument has to end somewhere.
Questions about Undercover
What does it take to convict somebody?
Every player except the accused has to agree. A single no clears the suspect, the round returns to the questions on the same clock, and the accuser has spent their one accusation.
What happens when the Spy calls the location?
Right, and the round is theirs for four points. Wrong, and they have announced they were never there — the round ends immediately and every other player takes a point.
How long is a round?
Six, eight or ten minutes, or auto, which reads the table: six up to five players, eight up to eight, ten above that. Everybody should plausibly get asked something before the buzzer.
How is it different from the card game?
The round is the one in Spyfall: a shared location, a role each, and a Spy who has neither. Here the phones deal it, so there is no deck to shuffle, and every phone lists the sixteen possible places. The clock, the accusations and the last vote run in the app.
Is Undercover free?
Yes. It is free to play, with no adverts. An optional Plus membership opens bigger tables and extra packs.
How many people do you need for Undercover?
Between 3 and 12. Below 3 there are not enough of you for the game to work.
What do we need to play?
A phone or laptop each, with a web browser. One person opens a room and everybody else joins by typing the room code on their own phone. There’s also an iPhone app if you’d rather.
Can we play Undercover over a video call?
Yes. Share the room code in the chat and play with the call running — everything private stays on each player’s own phone.
