The Undercover word game.
Undercover is the imposter game with a twist: the odd one out gets a word too, just a slightly wrong one, and nobody is told which they are. Here is how it plays, where the imposter word game differs, and how to run the Mr White version in Side Eye, where the bluffer gets nothing at all.
How Undercover plays
Most players are civilians and share one secret word. One or two are undercover and get a word that is nearly the same: Pizza for the civilians, Calzone for the undercover. In bigger groups one player is Mr White and gets no word at all. Nobody is told their role, so for the first round everyone assumes they are a civilian.
- Round the table, each player describes their word in a word or a short phrase, without saying it.
- Everyone votes. The player with the most votes is out and shows their role.
- If Mr White is voted out, they get one guess at the civilians’ word, and win if right.
- Keep describing and voting until the undercover and Mr White are out (the civilians win) or they are as many as the civilians left (they win).
It comes from a Chinese party game, Who is the undercover, and the one-word imposter game seen on TikTok is its simpler cousin.
How the imposter word game differs
| Undercover | The imposter word game (Side Eye) | |
|---|---|---|
| Your role | A secret, even from you. You find out when you are voted out. | On your card. You know the word, or you are the imposter. |
| The bluffer gets | A near-miss word (undercover) or nothing (Mr White). | The category, or a grid of sixteen words, or nothing. |
| A turn | A word or a short description. | One word. |
| The vote | One player out each round, over several rounds. | One vote, after the clue passes. Then the last guess and the scores. |
| The last guess | Mr White only. | Every caught imposter. Right, and they still score. |
| Players | 4 and up; about 12 is where it drags. | 3 to 20, with two imposters from eleven. |
The Mr White version in Side Eye
Set Imposter sees to Nothing. The imposter’s card has no category and no word, exactly Mr White’s deal, and they have to listen to the first clue and improvise. From seven players you can have two imposters; leave Imposters know each other off and they are bluffing alone, like two Mr Whites. The full rules.
What Side Eye does not do: deal a near-miss word. Everyone except the imposter gets the same word, and everyone is told their role. If the slow reveal of Undercover is the part you love, you want Undercover.
Which to play
- Undercover
- A group that likes a slow burn and the doubt about their own card. Four to twelve, fifteen minutes a game, several votes.
- The imposter word game
- Shorter rounds, bigger groups, and the imposter always in on the joke. Five minutes a round, three to twenty players, one phone or everyone’s.
To see Side Eye’s version with no app, deal a round in your browser. To play it apart, start a room.
Questions
What is Mr White?
The player in Undercover who gets no word at all and has to bluff from the descriptions. Voted out, Mr White gets one guess at the civilians’ word. Side Eye’s Imposter sees: Nothing is the same deal.
Is Undercover the same as the imposter game?
Close cousins. Undercover deals a similar word and hides your role from you; the imposter game tells you your role and gives the imposter a hint or nothing. Side Eye plays the second.
Can Side Eye deal two different words?
No. Everyone except the imposter gets the same word. The imposter gets the category, a grid of sixteen, or nothing.
Spyfall, The Chameleon, Undercover, Insider and Werewolf are other people’s games, named here to describe how they play. Side Eye is made by Empyreal and is not connected to any of them.
