Prompt Duel
Two of you write. Everybody else decides which one was funnier.
A head to head. Two players get the same prompt and the same minute, and the rest of the room votes on the result without knowing who wrote which.
- Players
- 3 to 16 players
- Usually takes
- About 15 minutes
- What it plays from
- Prompts to write or draw from
- Ways to play
- Pass and play, Online room, Party screen
How it plays
Only two people write at a time, which means everybody else is reading rather than waiting, and a round moves fast. The two answers appear side by side with the names stripped off, and the room picks one. The winner takes the round and everybody who backed them takes a point, so voting is not a spectator sport. Over a few rounds everybody duels everybody, and the format quietly turns into a tournament without anybody having to organise one.
What happens in a round
Straight from the game itself: these are the phases the room moves through, in order, with the clock each one starts on.
Two of you are up
Same prompt, same clock. Write the better one.
1 minute
Pick a winner
Two answers, no names on them. The duellists sit this bit out.
25 seconds
The room has spoken
Three to the winner, one to everybody who backed them.
12 seconds
Who it suits
- Rooms that like writing something and being judged for it
- Groups of three upwards, including quite large ones
- An evening where you want short rounds rather than long ones
How you can play it
Pass and play
One phone, passed around the room. No signal needed, no accounts, nothing to set up.
Online room
Everybody on their own phone, in the same room or three hundred miles apart. Guests join with a four letter code and no download.
Party screen
The telly or a laptop shows the game to the whole room. Phones become controllers, so nobody has to squint at somebody else’s screen.
Play it with your own words
Every format runs on a deck, and you can write your own. A deck you make is yours to share with your family by code straight away. Anything you publish to strangers is read by a moderator first.
Play it tonight
Koven is in beta. Leave your email and we will send you a link when there is space, or open the player if somebody has already given you a room code.
Join the waitlist Open the player
Free on the free tier, like every other format in Koven.