How to play Snare — free online clue trap game
Clue the word — but say what they predicted, and it gets snatched away.
- Players
- 3–4
- Length
- ~8 min
- Type
- Clues
- Price
- Free
Snare inverts the usual clue game. One player is clueing a secret word to a blind guesser, and everyone else is a trapper — betting in advance on which words the clue-giver will use.
Any clue that hits a planted trap is confiscated before the guesser ever sees it. So the clue-giver is trying to be helpful in a way nobody predicted, while the trappers are trying to think exactly like them.
The clue-giver and the trappers hold the secret word. Keep it off the guesser's screen, and never say it out loud.
Free, no app and no sign-up to join — players hop in with a 4-letter code on their own phone.
How to play Snare
The host picks the round count
Eight rounds is the default. Five is quick; twelve is a long session.
Roles are dealt
One blind guesser, one clue-giver, and everyone else becomes a trapper. All three roles rotate over the game.
Trappers plant their words
Each trapper secretly names the words they bet the clue-giver will reach for.
The clue-giver writes clues
Single words, aimed at the secret word — and hopefully around every trap.
Trapped clues are confiscated
Anything that hit a trap vanishes. The blind guesser sees only what got through, and guesses from that.
What Snare looks like
How scoring works
The clue-giver and guesser score when the word is found, so their interests are aligned.
Trappers score when their planted word catches a clue, so they're playing against the clue-giver's imagination rather than against the answer.
Because all three roles rotate, everyone spends time on each side and the scoreboard reflects all three jobs.
Tips for winning Snare
- As clue-giver, skip the top three words that come to mind — those are exactly what's been planted.
- As a trapper, plant the obvious ones. You're predicting a person under time pressure, and people reach for the nearest word.
- Clue-givers should go oblique but not useless. A clue that dodges every trap and means nothing wastes the round.
- As guesser, remember that what you're seeing is the clue-giver's second-best material. Read it generously.
Frequently asked questions
How many players do you need for Snare?
Three to four — a guesser, a clue-giver, and at least one trapper.
How is Snare different from Crosstalk?
Crosstalk cancels clues that two clue-givers happened to duplicate. Snare has dedicated trappers who deliberately predict and confiscate clues, so it's adversarial rather than accidental.
Do we need voice chat?
No — everything is typed. The rule that matters is keeping the secret word away from the guesser.
Is it free?
Yes, free to play and free to host, and joining needs only the room code.
Free, no app and no sign-up to join — players hop in with a 4-letter code on their own phone.