How to Spot the Forger

By Ankur Vijayvargiya (Staarvijay), the developer of WhoDrew · Updated 22 October 2026

As an Artist you have one big advantage: you know the word. The Forger only knows the category. Your whole job is to prove you know the word without making it so obvious that the Forger can read it off the canvas. This guide goes through a round phase by phase, using the real rules of WhoDrew.

A quick reminder of what's at stake. If the room votes out the Forger and they then fail to guess the word, every Artist gets +200 points. If the room votes out an innocent Artist, or the vote ties, the Forger escapes with +300 and the accused Artist loses 50. And if the Forger is caught but guesses the word, they still take +150.

1. Drawing: prove it, don't spell it

Each turn is one stroke, with a 10 or 15 second timer, and a game normally has 3 drawing rounds. That's only a handful of strokes per player, so each one matters.

• Draw the detail, not the outline. If the word is Lighthouse, a tall rectangle could be any building. The light beam is something only a person who knows the word would add. A detail like that proves you're honest, and it is still hard for the Forger to read on its own.
• Avoid the "giveaway" stroke early. In round one, don't draw the single most famous feature (the trunk on an elephant, the hump on a camel). If the Forger sees it early, they can copy it for the rest of the game. Save it for round two or three, once the Forger has already committed to something.
• Build on other Artists. Adding to a stroke you trust makes the honest picture clearer for the Artists, while staying ambiguous to someone guessing from a category.
• Use the timer. You don't need the full 15 seconds. A confident, quick stroke looks honest. Long pauses before a vague squiggle look like someone waiting to see what everyone else does.

2. Reading the canvas: Forger tells

Every stroke on the canvas has its owner's colour, so you can see exactly who drew what. These are the patterns that most often give a Forger away:

• The "could be anything" stroke. A circle, a straight line, a wavy line. Artists draw those too, but a player who draws only generic shapes for three rounds is suspicious.
• The late copier. The Forger often draws a vague stroke in round one, then suddenly draws something very specific in round two, right after an Artist revealed a strong detail. Watch for a player whose drawing "clicks" only after someone else's stroke.
• The wrong object in the right category. If the category is Vehicle and the word is Bicycle, the Forger may start drawing car windows. A stroke that fits the category but not the picture is the strongest clue you'll get.
• Drawing away from the group. Strokes in an empty corner, unconnected to the main picture, often mean the player didn't know where they fit.
• Over-detail on the wrong part. A Forger trying to look confident sometimes adds lots of detail to a small, safe part of the drawing (shading a wheel, for example) instead of committing to anything.

With Invisible Ink turned on in a private room, players can't see the canvas while they draw. That makes copying much harder for the Forger, and makes "drawing away from the group" a much weaker clue, since honest players can miss too.

3. The interrogation: ask questions only Artists can answer

After drawing, the room gets an interrogation phase (60 seconds by default; hosts can choose 30 to 120). You can talk in chat, and voice chat is open in this phase too.

• Ask "what is that part?", never "what is it?" Nobody may say the word, and "what's that line by the door?" is easy for an Artist to answer and hard for a Forger.
• Ask about order. "Why did you draw that before the roof?" A Forger usually can't explain the logic behind their stroke.
• Watch for echoing. A Forger often repeats someone else's explanation in slightly different words, or agrees with whoever spoke first.
• Don't lead with your theory too early. If you accuse the obvious suspect in the first five seconds, the real Forger can simply pile on and blend in with the majority.
• Never hint at the word. If an Artist says "it's something tall by the sea", the Forger's last guess becomes easy. Talk about the strokes, not the word.

4. Voting: coordinate, and watch out for ties

The player with the most votes is accused. Votes can be changed before the phase ends, and each player's "voted" badge shows who has decided, so the vote is a conversation, not a single click.

• A tie means nobody is accused, and the Forger escapes. In a 4 or 5 player game, splitting the vote 2–2 hands the Forger the round. If you're unsure between two suspects, agree on one together.
• Watch who votes last. A player who waits to see where the votes are going, then joins the biggest group, is often the Forger trying to avoid suspicion.
• Change your vote if the argument changes. You can retract and re-vote, so use it.

5. After the catch: the Forger's last guess

A caught Forger sees one blank for every letter of the answer (and small joining words like "of" or "the" in phrases), then gets one guess. That means a clear drawing plus a letter count can be enough for them to steal the round. This is why the best Artists draw "just enough": a picture that proves they know the word, but that still matches two or three different answers with the same number of letters.

Quick checklist

1. Draw a detail that proves you know the word, not the outline that gives it away.
2. Save the most famous feature for a later round.
3. Look for generic strokes, late copying and "right category, wrong object".
4. Ask about specific strokes and their order; never hint at the word.
5. Agree on one suspect. A tie lets the Forger go free.

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