Random charades generator — things to act out, by theme and difficulty

How to use the random charades generator

1. Choose a Theme: Any, Animals, Actions, Jobs, Sports, Objects or Stories.
2. Pick a Difficulty: Any, Easy, Medium or Hard.
3. Leave How many at 1 for a turn-by-turn game, or draw up to 20 at once.
4. Press Draw next. Each prompt shows its theme and difficulty, for example “Guitar — objects, easy”.
5. Press Draw next again for the next player.

What it does and when to use it

Charades needs a steady supply of ideas, and the person thinking them up cannot play. This tool supplies them for a family party, a classroom reward session, a team-building game or a drama warm-up. Use Easy with young children, Medium for mixed ages and Hard for adults who want a challenge. The theme filter lets you run themed rounds, such as jobs only.

To pick teams before the game, use the random team generator. For a picture-based twist, the random emoji generator gives emoji to act out, and the random animal generator has a longer list of animals with groups.

How it works

Each prompt in the list carries a theme and a difficulty. The tool first keeps only the prompts that match both of your filters. It then shuffles that shorter list with a Fisher–Yates shuffle, using crypto.getRandomValues for each swap, and shows the first ones. Every matching prompt has the same chance, and no prompt repeats within one draw. If you ask for more than the filters allow, you get all of them and a note.

Worked examples

Hard sports for adults. Sports, Hard, How many 20 returns all four hard sports prompts, Synchronised swimming, Pole vault, Fencing and Curling, in random order, with “Only 4 items match, so you get all of them.”

Smallest set. Objects and Hard has only three prompts, so How many 20 returns three and “Only 3 items match, so you get all of them.”

Turn by turn. Any theme and Any difficulty with How many 1 gave “Running a race — sports, easy” in one run. Each press is a new, independent draw from all 88.

Limits and tips

• Because each press is independent, a prompt can come back in a later turn. For a game with no repeats, draw a full set at the start and work down the list.
• Prompts are in English.
• Agree on rules before you start: no talking, a time limit such as one minute, and gestures for “sounds like” or number of words.
• Everything runs in your browser.