Truth or Dare is a mildly intense game of getting people to do things they are slightly embarrassed about.
How we play on disrob.ing
A game of Truth or Dare needs to have a start and a finish, because everyone needs to know who the other players are.
We play the game in the Truth or Dare room. It can be helpful to post a conversation in the Lounge to find players and a time to play.
Once the game begins and people know who the other players are, you need to decide a play order and a first player. Going alphabetically by username might be an easy way to keep track of turn order, and you can ask Bot to pick a first player for you:
!choose Jenny | Dale | Maisie | Freddie | Cruz
Making a move
When it is your turn, you first need to randomly pick a partner. You can ask Bot to help you with this - use the !choose command with all the names that aren’t yours. For example, if you’re Freddie:
!choose Jenny | Dale | Maisie | Cruz
Once you know who your partner is, you can type a message to them, starting with @ to tag them. The question is always the same:
@Maisie Truth or Dare?
At this point, your partner will pick one of the two options.
If your partner picks ‘Truth’
Ask your partner to tell the truth about one thing. The question can be as tame or as rude as you like, as long as you follow the rules. Some examples might be:
@Maisie Tell us a character from film or television that you would find attractive if they were real.
@Maisie What is one of your favourite sex positions?
@Maisie Have you ever been arrested?
Your partner then tries to answer the question. They can be as closed or as descriptive as they like as long as they answer the question. Of course, the idea is to tell the truth but there are no penalties for elaborate lies, if people want to play that way.
They could also decide to change their mind to ‘Dare’ once they have heard the question.
If your partner picks ‘Dare’
Ask your partner to do something they might find mildly embarrassing in a group context. They then do the thing you ask, and post about it when they’re done.
They might like to share evidence (e.g. a photo) of having done the thing, but this is optional and each player will decide for themself if this is something they are comfortable with. Your dare might be to request a photo - if it is, you may have to accept that the partner has done the thing and imagine the photo, depending on how comfortable the partner is with sharing photos.
Some examples of dares might be:
@Maisie Take off one item of clothing from the top half of your body.
@Maisie Find something spicy in your kitchen and eat it.
@Maisie Find some porn on the internet and play it for a few seconds with your volume turned up high.
@Maisie Sit on a vibrating toy until it is your turn.
There’s a high chance that the dare suggested will be something that is physically impossible for the partner to do, either because of disability or because of access to materials. If this happens, they can say “mulligan” and you should pick a new dare for them to do. This shouldn’t be used just because the partner doesn’t want to do the dare!
If after hearing the dare, the partner decides they prefer ‘Truth’, they can change their mind.
If after hearing both, they don’t like either, then they should remove an item of clothing. No photographic evidence is needed for this (and they could merely pretend if they like), but it’s encouraged.
Next turn and end of game
Once the partner has done the Truth or the Dare or removed an item of clothing, the play passes to the next player (e.g. alphabetically) to make their move.
The game ends usually when a critical mass of players drop out because they have something else to do, or you could decide on a predetermined end time or number of rounds at the start.
Other things to note
- People might like to stay in the room between games even if they’re not playing, so please keep this in mind when you play. We might implement some rules around this in the future.
- It’s fun to talk about the Truth or the Dare response, but it’s important to keep the game moving forward too, so maybe move the conversation elsewhere if you want to talk about something at length!
- People can join or leave the game at any time - just remember to add them to / remove them from the list of people when you’re asking Bot to choose.
- Make sure you include everyone in the random selection when you’re asking Bot to choose. I know you might really really want to target a specific person, but this is a game and games have rules for a reason.
- The rules are all really important here, especially remember that this is a shame-free zone.
Possible future Bot enhancements
It would be great to teach Bot more about how to play this game, like having it manage the turn order and pairing better by knowing who the participants are, as well as potentially allowing it to remember and dish out popular Truth/Dare prompts.
If this game is as fun as I hope it is, and it gets lots of play, I’ll think about writing some code for Bot to do just that!