What is ID Guessing?
ID Guessing hands every player an index card and a pen: write two things you've done and one thing you haven't, then turn the card in unsigned. The group reads through the pile and votes on whose card is whose — and which line is the one they're still waiting to try.
It works because a right guess takes real evidence, not a hunch — you have to connect a specific, plausible-sounding line to a person you actually know something about. The card everyone argues over is never the two things someone's done. It's the one they haven't, and that's the detail that gets the follow-up questions.
It's built around cards and pens passed around a physical room, so it doesn't travel to a video call without real rework — save it for when everyone's actually in the space. And because every card asks for a real gap, not just a fun fact, give the room a beat to write something safely vague if that's where they're at.
The rules
- Distribute an index card and a pen to every player.
- Each player writes two things they've done and one thing they haven't.
- Keep every line hard to guess — specific enough to sound real, ordinary enough to hide in the pile.
- Collect every card before the guessing starts.
- Go through the cards as a group and vote on whose is whose, and which line is the one they haven't done.
Before you start
- Group size: 8–15 participants. That range keeps the round moving without the vote dragging once the pile gets long.
- Materials: index cards and pens. One card and one pen per player is the whole materials list.
- Indoor space, seated so everyone can see everyone. A circle or a U-shape works best. Set the cards and pens out on a table near the seating before anyone arrives.
- Set the ground rules before pens go down. Say upfront that guesses stay respectful and nobody has to explain a card they'd rather keep quiet about — it keeps the room comfortable once the cards start getting read.
How to run it
- Pass out cards and pens 1 min
Hand every player an index card and a pen.
- Write two truths and a gap 3–5 min
Each player writes two things they've done and one thing they haven't, unsigned — worded so the odd one out is hard to guess.
- Collect every card 1 min
Gather all the cards once everyone's finished writing, before anyone starts guessing.
- Vote on whose is whose 1–2 min each
Go through the cards as a group and vote on who wrote each one — and which line is the one they haven't done yet.
← the blank line is the whole game.
Facilitator tips
Why it works
Reflection questions
For classrooms, trainings, and teams that want the debrief — these turn a guessing game into an actual conversation about how well the room already knows itself.
- What did you learn about your fellow participants through this activity?Surfaces details about the room nobody would have volunteered up front.
- How did it feel to share personal information with the group?A quick read on how safe self-disclosure feels here — useful before you run this again.
- Which of your own experiences or goals do you think was the most surprising or intriguing to the group? Why?Gets people naming what actually stood out, not just what they wrote.
- How did the group do in guessing who wrote each card? What strategies seemed to work well for making it difficult to guess the author?Turns the guessing into shared strategy talk — everyone compares notes on what worked.
- Did you find out anything new or unexpected about any of your fellow participants through this activity? If so, what?The follow-up conversation this whole game was built to start.