Most would you rather questions arrive as a list somebody has to read out loud. This deck turns ten of them into pairs of picture cards instead: a bird against a fish, a unicorn against a dragon, always winter against always summer. The child taps whichever one they would rather, and that is the entire answer - nothing to read, nothing to write down, and no correct choice hiding behind the question.
The ten would you rather questions in this deck
Ten questions built from twenty options, and unlike most of the decks on this site the matchups are set rather than shuffled together at random. In full: fly like a bird or swim like a fish; be invisible or be super strong; talk to animals or speak every language; ride a unicorn or ride a dragon; live on the Moon or live under the sea; a river of ice-cream or a forest of candy; a pet dinosaur or a pet dragon; always winter or always summer; be as big as a house or as small as an ant; invent a new game or find hidden treasure.
Each option is one large emoji with four or five words underneath. There is no small print on a card and nothing to scroll past, so the whole question stays legible from across a room or inside somebody else's video call window.
The order the ten come up in changes every time the page loads, but the pairings themselves do not. A child waiting for the dragon question knows it is coming and only has to find out when. That predictability is worth something with children who find surprises hard, and it means you can promise a favourite question without having to go hunting for it.
How a round is played
Two cards sit side by side with a VS badge between them. Tap or click either one to answer. On a keyboard, A or the left arrow takes the left option and B or the right arrow takes the right one, while R answers at random. On a tablet a swipe left or right works instead of a tap. The target is a whole card rather than a button, so a hand that lands roughly in the right half still counts.
A counter above the cards reads Round 1 of 5 at the shortest ability setting and Round 1 of 10 at the others, ten being every question the deck holds. When a run reaches the end of a stretch the game stops and asks whether to keep going rather than deciding for you, which is how you finish on a good moment.
A Choose for me button sits under the cards for the moment a child freezes between two things they both want. At the finish there is a podium of the three answers picked most often, a full ranking underneath showing each option's wins and losses, a session log you can print, and a sticker for the winner.
Would you rather as a talking point, not a test
The point of a would you rather question was never the answer. It is the sentence that comes after it. The trouble with a printed list is that a child has to get through the reading and the listening before reaching the part where they say anything, and plenty never reach it. Here the question is the picture, so the talking starts at the pick rather than before it.
Nothing is marked. There is no correct answer to whether you would rather be enormous or tiny, which makes this unusually safe ground for a child who has worked out that a question from an adult is normally a test in disguise.
- Ask the why afterwards. The choice is already banked, so a reason is a bonus rather than a toll charged on the way in.
- Both options stay on screen after a pick, so an adult can model the whole sentence: I would rather talk to animals, because...
- Comparison words come free. A house against an ant does the explaining for you, and so does winter against summer.
- Imagination prompts: what would you do first with a pet dinosaur, where would you keep it, who would you tell about it.
- Vote as a group. Everyone points at their answer at once, count the hands, then tap the side that won.
- A pointed finger, a reach or a flat hand on the screen is a complete answer, which is why the deck suits children not yet using speech.
Warm-ups, waiting time and screen-share sessions
Ten questions is roughly four minutes, which is about the length of a warm-up. This site was built for one-to-one tutoring, and this is the deck those sessions tend to open with: it asks nothing of a child who has arrived flat, and it gives a group something to argue about while the last two are still taking their coats off.
Over a video call it needs nothing installed at either end. Share a tab, drive the pointer yourself, and let the child call the answer out loud or hold up a hand for A or B.
The grown-up controls open with the T key anywhere on the site. For this deck the ability level changes how long a run is rather than the words on the cards, because the questions are already written as plainly as they come. For a longer sitting, add ?mode=bracket to the address: that runs sixteen of the twenty options as a knockout and throws up matchups the fixed pairs never make, a forest of candy against a pet dragon for instance, ending on one overall winner. The printable log lists every question and every answer in order, which is worth keeping if you want to see whether a child's answers hold week to week.
Some of the choices on the cards
- Fly like a bird
- Swim like a fish
- Be invisible
- Be super strong
- Talk to animals
- Speak every language
- Ride a unicorn
- Ride a dragon
- Live on the Moon
Questions about the Would You Rather deck
- Is the would you rather game free?
- Yes. It runs in the browser with no signup, no download. Answers and stickers are kept in the browser itself, so no account is needed to play a full run and nothing has to be set up first.
- How many would you rather questions are in the game?
- Ten questions made from twenty options, and all ten are listed on this page. The pairings are fixed rather than recombined, so the same ten come back on every visit in a different order. Bracket mode is the way to get combinations the fixed pairs never produce.
- Can a child play without reading or speaking?
- Yes. Each option is a large emoji with a short phrase under it, and answering is a tap, a click, an arrow key or a swipe. A point or a hand on the screen counts as a turn, so a non-speaking child can play the whole run while an adult reads both options aloud as the model.
- What age are these would you rather questions for?
- The pictures carry the questions from about age 4. The ideas in them - being invisible, keeping a dragon, living on the Moon - still hold up for a much older child who needs a low-demand activity, because the questions are silly rather than babyish.
- Can a class or a group play it together?
- Yes. Put it on a board, read the two options out, and have everyone point or vote at the same time, then tap whichever side won. The printable session log gives you the group's answers in order at the end.
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