Docs

Declassified

A censored file on screen — chat types words to take it back

Category: Word · Players: free-for-all · Status: Sim only

The Declassified stage mid-round, a manila file with most words redacted, avatar badges on the opened words, and the standings and traffic log on index cards beside it
Declassified mid-round: every uncovered word carries the face of whoever opened it, and the subject stays black

A short article goes up with every meaningful word blacked out. Chat types words, and a word that is in the document un-redacts every copy of itself at once. The page gets readable; the subject does not. Its own words stay black wherever they appear, so the room recovers the description and still has to name the thing.

It is the one game on the shelf that gets easier with more people. Every other guessing game has one answer and one winner, so a bigger room means a worse chance. Here a word is only worth anything the first time it lands, so nobody is racing anyone — two hundred people throwing words at a document uncover it faster than five, and a wrong word costs nothing at all.

Gameplay

1
A file comes up

Every meaningful word is a black bar the width of the word it hides. Short linking words are left visible so the sentences still read — the page is a puzzle, not a wall.

2
Chat types words

One word per message. A hit opens every copy of that word across the page and scores one point per box opened, capped at eight. A word that appears five times is worth five: common words are good guesses, not cheap ones.

3
First typer claims it

A word already on the page is spent. You cannot read a good guess off the feed and score it again, and you cannot paste a paragraph to sweep the page — a multi-word message is only ever read as a guess at the subject.

4
Name it

The subject’s own words never open by guessing. Type the subject to take the round and the bonus. The host can also call time, and the whole document uncovers either way.

Host options

  • Category — which shelf the files come off: internet culture, history’s strangest afternoons, screens and speakers, food that should not exist, crazes the world regrets, or things that are probably not real.
  • Documents — how many files the session plays.
  • Gift hint — one gift that uncovers letters of the subject, which is the one thing guessing cannot open. Letters only, alphabetised, no positions.

Sources

Documents are lead extracts from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Every file carries its article and licence, and the stage shows them at the reveal.