Would You Rather: Questions Worth Asking
Would you rather is one question with two options and no escape. The Would You Rather Generator supplies them, and the difference between a good one and a dud is entirely in the balance.
A good question has no obvious answer
That is the whole craft. If one option is clearly better, nobody argues and the game stops.
"Would you rather be rich or happy" fails because the room agrees within a second. "Would you rather always be ten minutes early or ten minutes late" works, because both are genuinely annoying in different ways and people split roughly evenly - and then have to explain themselves.
The test is simple: if you can predict what everyone will pick, it is not a question.
The three shapes that work
Two mild inconveniences, where the comedy is in the ranking. Never being able to eat your favourite food again, or eating only that.
Two genuine goods you cannot have both of. A superpower nobody else believes in, or a modest one everybody can see. These produce the longest conversations, because they expose what people actually value.
Absurd pairings where the fun is in taking the question seriously. The debate over an implausible choice is funnier than the choice.
What does not work: anything grim, anything that is really a political argument in disguise, and anything where one option is a joke.
Where it is genuinely useful
Beyond the party. It is a very good icebreaker for a group that does not know each other, because it asks for an opinion rather than information about yourself - which is far easier to give to strangers.
It also works well with children, who have no difficulty taking an absurd premise seriously and tend to produce better reasoning than adults do.
And it is a decent way to find out what someone values without asking directly, which is why it turns up in interviews and on first dates. A choice between two goods reveals a priority; a question about priorities gets a rehearsed answer.
Make them explain
The choice is the setup. The reason is the game, and a round where people only vote is half a round.
Asking why also stops the dominant answer winning by momentum - once one person has explained a minority choice well, the vote often shifts, which is the most entertaining thing that happens in this game.
For a group that wants more participation than conversation, the Truth or Dare Generator asks people to do rather than decide.
Common questions
How many players?
Any number. It scales better than most party games, because everyone answers the same question.
Can you pick neither?
No - refusing is the one move that breaks it. Forcing a choice is the point.
What makes a question fail?
An obvious answer, or an option nobody would seriously consider.
Is it good for a work setting?
Yes, with mild questions. It is one of the few icebreakers people do not resent.
Need a dilemma?