Yes, No, Maybe

Yes, No, Maybe puts one player in the hot seat for sixty seconds while everyone else fires questions at them. They have to answer every question, and they cannot say “yes”, “no”, or “maybe”. Every slip is a drink. It descends from the Yes-No Interlude on British TV in the 1950s, where a gong went off when a contestant slipped, and it works as a drinking game without cards because the only prop is a timer and the only skill is not talking like a normal person.

What you need

• A timer, meaning the stopwatch on any phone
• A drink per player
• 2 or more players. With 2 it is an interrogation. With 6 or more, the questions overlap and the hot seat gets hard.

Setup

1. Sit in a circle with drinks in reach. The questioners need to see the player’s face, because a nod counts.
2. Agree on the penalty. One sip per slip is standard. Repeating the same answer twice in a row is also a slip.
3. Agree on the extras. Nodding and shaking your head are forbidden in most versions. Some tables also ban yeah, nah, yep, and nope. Decide now.
4. Pick who goes first. Youngest, oldest, last to arrive, or a quick roll of a die. After that, play passes to the left.

How to play Yes, No, Maybe

1. Set the timer for one minute and start it. The player in the hot seat is on the clock from the first beep.
2. Everyone else asks questions, as fast as they like. Any question, in any order. Questions built to bait a yes or a no are the whole point: “Is that your drink?”, “Are you winning?”, “Did you just nod?”.
3. The hot seat has to answer every question. Silence, “pass”, and “next question” are not answers. An answer can be a lie, a deflection, or nonsense, as long as it is a real reply.
4. Say yes, no, or maybe, and drink. One sip per slip, then the clock keeps running. The questions do not stop while you drink.
5. Give the same answer twice in a row, and drink. “I did” followed by “I did” is a slip. It closes the obvious escape of repeating one safe phrase for a minute.
6. When the timer goes, the turn ends. Count the slips out loud, then the player to the left takes the hot seat and the timer resets.
7. Play until everyone has had a turn, then decide on a second lap. Most groups do two. A clean minute with zero slips is rare, and it earns the survivor a drink to hand to anyone they choose.

Questions that catch people

The best questions are quick, closed, and boring. The brain reaches for “yes” before it can stop itself.

• Is that your drink?
• Are you having a good time?
• Do you know the rules?
• Did you drive here?
• Is your name what it says on your phone?
• Are you sure?
• Can I ask you something?
• Is it your turn?
• Have you played this before?
• Do you want another drink?
• Was that a yes?
• Did you just nod?
• Are you lying?
• Is the timer still going?
• Do you like this game?
• Are we done?

Variations and house rules

• The gong. The original TV version: someone holds a pan and a spoon and bangs it on every slip. Loud, satisfying, and it stops the “I didn’t say it” argument because everyone heard the gong.
• Nods count. Already standard at most tables, but worth stating: a nod or a head shake is a yes or a no. Some groups add thumbs up and thumbs down.
• Extra banned words. Add yeah, nah, yep, nope, sure, okay, and “I don’t know”. By the third word most answers are full sentences, which is harder and funnier.
• Thirty-second rounds. Halve the time and double the laps. Easier for the hot seat, more turns for the table.
• Survivor hands out drinks. A clean minute lets the player give out sips equal to the number of questions they survived, or a flat five.
• Two-player duel. One asks, one answers, then swap. Keep score of slips and the loser of each pair of rounds drinks the difference.
• Accent round. Every answer has to be in an accent or as an impression. The rules about yes, no, and maybe still apply, and nobody can keep an accent going for a minute under interrogation.
• Tag team. Split into two teams. When the player in the hot seat slips, a teammate tags in and the clock keeps running. The team that reaches the end of the minute with the fewest slips hands out drinks.

Tips

• Ask in bursts. Three fast closed questions in a row get more slips than one clever one, because the third answer is where people stop thinking.
• Hot seat strategy: answer with a question of your own, or with a flat statement (“that is my drink”, “I arrived by car”). Both are legal and both buy you a second.
• Keep the penalty at one sip. A bad minute can be eight slips, and eight sips in sixty seconds, repeated for two laps, is more than it sounds like. Water between laps.
• Keep the timer visible. The last ten seconds are when the table piles on, and the player deserves to see it coming.