How to Play Impostor with Ancient Civilizations

What an Ancient Civilizations round looks like

Each round deals nineteen real civilizations, from the Egyptian Civilization to the Etruscan Civilization. Everyone writes a clue about their people, and the impostor writes an invented one to blend in.

The debate after that compares details: language, territory, religion, great buildings. Nobody wins by knowing the most, they win by asking the sharpest questions.

• Best with 4 to 12 players
• Each round lasts 3 to 6 minutes
• Great for families, classrooms and friends
• Free in the browser, nothing to download
• Pairs well with Historical Events and Ancient Wonders

How the database deals the civilizations

The system hands out peoples as different as the Phoenicians, the Hittites and the Incas. A good clue mentions something verifiable: the river it grew beside, the script it used, the city it built or the enemy it fought.

The impostor is caught when a clue fits two civilizations at once. Saying 'they built huge temples' works for Egypt, the Maya and the Inca, and that alone is a fair suspicion.

1. Create the room and select the Ancient Civilizations and Cultures category
2. Write a clue with a concrete detail: river, language, monument or enemy
3. Read the other clues and look for the one that fits two civilizations
4. Ask the suspect where their people actually lived
5. Vote together and the ejected player reveals their civilization

The real civilizations in the category and their usual clue

These peoples are in the game database. Placing them by geography and writing catches the impostor on the first read.

Strategies for an impostor who knows nothing about civilizations

You do not need dates. A clue that sounds like an ancient civilization and that nobody can contradict without sounding like a professor is enough.

• Use universal traits: 'they had gods', 'they built temples', 'they farmed'.
• Anchor your clue to a region already named: 'also in Asia' sounds natural.
• Avoid proper names. If you say Tenochtitlán and nobody else does, you stand out.
• Match the length of the other clues: one short line.
• Ask your own question: 'which river did they depend on?' forces the others to explain.
• Do not try to guess the theme, the list mixes empires, tribes and cultures.

How to catch the impostor when you know ancient history

Geography is your best weapon. A civilization is placed by its river, its sea or its mountain, and the impostor usually fails exactly there.

1. Ask for the territory, a clue with no river, sea or city is vague
2. Compare scripts: hieroglyphs, cuneiform, the Phoenician alphabet
3. Hunt the impossible, the Vikings did not live in a desert
4. Watch who writes late, the impostor needs time to invent
5. Close the vote before voting, split accusations hand the round away

Common mistakes that ruin the round

• Naming the civilization in your first clue
• Confusing the Maya with the Aztecs and accusing without proof
• Voting against the player who knows the least history
• Reusing the same clue round after round
• Playing with more than 12 people, the debate turns chaotic
• Arguing about which culture was better instead of comparing clues

Recommended settings for a civilizations game

With a group of experts, the full list is a real challenge. With children, it is better to keep only the civilizations they meet in textbooks.

House rules for the civilizations category

Once the group knows the list by heart, these house rules raise the difficulty:

• Only civilizations from the Americas
• Mandatory clue: mention the script or the river
• One-word clues
• Two impostors with different fake clues
• The ejected player becomes the impostor in the next round

Frequently asked questions

Game guides