Where to play situation puzzles, alone or with friends

Finding a story to read

A web library lets you browse several situations before picking one. YesNoGame has search, categories, and sorting by popularity, rating or difficulty, in a list or a grid. It runs in several languages, and the English catalogue holds far more stories than the French one.

When preparing a game, start with the statements. A short scene is not necessarily easy, and a high rating does not tell you whether your particular group will enjoy it. A good first pick is a situation everyone can understand but nobody can yet explain.

Playing with friends

Someone has to know the answer. YesNoGame’s rules describe a presenter who picks the situation, checks the answer without reading it out, and replies only yes, no, or that a detail doesn’t matter. The website supplies the story; the person runs the game.

That role shapes your preparation. If you want to investigate alongside everyone else, leave the answer unread. Ask a volunteer to choose the puzzle, or use one somebody already knows. Check the tone as well: a macabre scene and a small logic problem set very different expectations for the evening.

It works at a distance too. A video call is easiest: the host reads the statement and everyone asks out loud. In a group chat, post the statement once and ask for one question per message. Otherwise the answers cross and nobody can tell which question got the yes.

Around a table, with cards

Card games such as black stories, published by moses., play the same way with no screen and no connection. According to the publisher, one player acts as game master: they read the scene, show the picture and answer from the solution printed on the back of the card.

The game master learns the ending by reading the card, so pass the role round: each person hosts one story and investigates the next. A card you have solved, though, won’t work twice with the same people.

Asking questions without a human host

Tanghenre, the Chinese site 汤很热, offers a one-player game of 海龟汤 ("sea turtle soup", the genre’s Chinese name). Its about page explains that an automated system acts as referee and answers the questions. The browser becomes the place where you investigate, not only where you read.

Language matters as much as the interface. Pick one in which you can draw a fine distinction, question a word and understand a short answer without struggling. Machine translation can help you read a statement, but it can blur the one word the whole scene turns on.

Where Post Mortem fits

Our web library has the free statements in English and French, with their artwork, and each scene has a link you can share. The narrator lives in the app: you ask, it answers, and the facts of the story become readable as you uncover them. Nobody else has to host, so a riddle works on a train or in a waiting room, as long as you have a connection.

To host a Post Mortem riddle for a group, you need its solution in the app. Solving a riddle opens its solution. Owning a pack opens every solution in that pack, before you play. For a game at a distance, sharing from the app sends the full statement and a link, never the solution.

Three questions before you choose

Answer these before you look for a title. The format follows, and nothing stops you enjoying more than one.

• In which language can you phrase a fine distinction and understand a short answer?
• Will someone agree to know the solution and host? If not, you need an automated narrator.
• Do you want to hear a story together, or investigate it yourself, one question at a time?