What Were You Thinking?

About this board game

What Were You Thinking? is a 30-minute question-and-answer game for 4–10 players, first released in 1998. Its central challenge is simple but surprisingly tricky: the winning answer is not necessarily the correct one, but the answer chosen by the majority.

Players take turns asking questions from the question cards. Everyone writes an answer to each question, then the answers are compared. If your answer agrees with the majority, you are considered “right.” The goal is to predict what the other players will say and align your answer with the most common response.

That objective creates a constant tension between answering what you believe is correct and answering what you think everyone else will choose. A question may seem easy, but following your own instincts can be risky when the group is likely to think differently. In What Were You Thinking?, understanding the other players matters as much as understanding the question.

• Answer questions from the question cards.
• Try to match the majority answer.
• Move up the penalty track when nobody else gives the same answer as you.
• Avoid reaching the top of the penalty track, or everyone else wins.

When no other player gives the same answer as you, you move up the penalty track—and may eventually be out of the game. If someone reaches the top, everyone else wins, making every answer an important judgment call.

Designed for groups of 4–10, What Were You Thinking? turns ordinary questions into a test of shared expectations. Success comes from setting aside the answer you think is right and anticipating the answer the current players are most likely to choose.