How to play Impostor with U.S. Presidents

What a U.S. presidents round looks like

Every player gets a different president and writes a clue: their number, their century, a decision or something they did before taking office. The impostor gets no president and has to improvise a clue that fits the rest.

Then the table compares clues, debates and votes. Numbers and centuries are easy to cross-check, so a vague clue about the Civil War exposes the impostor as soon as somebody asks for the year.

• Best with 4 to 12 players
• Rounds last 3 to 6 minutes
• Works for friend groups, classrooms and family gatherings
• Nothing to install, it runs in the browser
• Pairs well with the TV shows and historical figures categories

How the U.S. Presidents category works

The category is listed exactly as U.S. Presidents in the room picker, in every language, and the presidents keep their original names. It comes from the English-language pack of the game.

The deal comes from a database of twenty presidents, from Washington to Biden. The impostor reads the other clues and looks for a gap, usually by attaching a war to a president who never lived through it.

1. Create the room and pick U.S. Presidents
2. Write a clue with a verifiable detail: number, century, war or achievement
3. Read the other clues and flag the contradictions
4. Ask the suspect what job they held before the presidency
5. Vote together and the ejected player reveals their president

The real presidents in the database

These are the names in the category. Placing the number and the era is enough to catch the impostor on the first pass.

The database also carries Carter, Clinton, Trump and Biden, so a table that only knows the classics has plenty of room to be wrong.

Strategies for an impostor who does not know U.S. history

You do not need to have studied the White House. The impostor wins by sounding like someone who watched a documentary, not by naming the right president.

• Anchor your clue to something safe: century, party, war or previous office.
• Avoid exact term numbers. Talk about the twentieth or the nineteenth century.
• Use institutional vocabulary: White House, Congress, veto, vice presidency.
• Never copy a clue word for word. Rephrase it.
• If asked which war, answer with a question: was it before or after 1900?
• Lean on shared memory: mentioning the Civil War president sounds plausible.

How to catch the impostor if you know the history

History buffs only have an advantage if they ask rather than accuse. One narrow question forces the suspect to commit to a checkable fact.

1. Ask for the century: clues about distant presidents cannot share one century
2. Compare wars: Wilson and FDR did not serve in the same conflict
3. Look for the impossible: the Father of the Constitution can only be Madison
4. Watch who writes late: the impostor tends to copy the general tone
5. Coordinate votes before casting them: split accusations hand over the round

Common mistakes that ruin the round

• Naming the president outright: it kills the fun and makes the next round trivial
• Voting on likability instead of evidence
• Arguing about exact dates without proof and wasting half an hour
• Confusing this category with the historical figures category
• Going above 12 players: the chat becomes unreadable

Recommended settings for a history game

If the table does not know U.S. history, limit clues to century and achievement. If they are fans, requiring the president number and the war raises the difficulty a lot.

House rules for history groups

Once your regulars know the whole list of twenty names, adjust the rules:

• One century only: every clue is limited to the twentieth century
• Double round: president and vice president in the same round
• Two impostors with different fake clues
• No war names allowed: only achievements, years and previous offices
• The ejected player becomes the impostor in the next round

Frequently asked questions

Game guides