Discover more about your family and friends while playing this exciting game of guessing everyone’s favorite things. These Cranium Whoonu rules will teach you how simple it is to start a game and how easy it is to play!
Cranium Whoonu is one of the many games in the “Cranium” family. Whoonu is a game about learning (and guessing!) what everyone’s favorite things are, such as road trips, surprise parties, or even broccoli! You might not know everyone’s favorite things as well as you thought you did!
Similar to Apple to Apples and Dixit, players must choose a card in their hand that they think the current “Whoozit” will choose as their favorite. The more you guess correctly, the higher your chance is of winning!
This Cranium Whoonu rules guide will cover the following:
- What is Cranium Whoonu?
- What you’ll need to play Cranium Whoonu
- Cranium Whoonu rules
- How to win Cranium Whoonu
- FAQs
- Similar game guides
Find out how to play Cranium Whoonu by reading more below!
What is Cranium Whoonu?
Cranium Whoonu is a fun family game where you get points by guessing the Whoozit’s favorite thing out of all the cards you have in your hand. Whoever gets the most points at the end of the game wins!
Number of players: 3-6
Ages: 8+
Difficulty: Easy
Length of play: 15-30min
Category: Card, family, party, humor
Similar to: Cranium, Apples to Apples, Dixit
Main Objective: Score the highest points by guessing the Whoozit’s favorite things.
Why We Love It: It’s a fun game for kids and adults of all ages, and it reveals things you may have never known about the people you play with!
What You’ll Need to Play Cranium Whoonu
Everything you need to play Cranium Whoonu can be found in the box:
The following components are found inside each game:
- Instructions
- 400 cards
- 36 Tokens for scoring
- Secret Envelope
Cranium Whoonu Rules
Game Setup
- Determine how many players you have, then set up the number tokens in a row as follows:
- 3 Players: Use tokens 1-4 in stacks of 3 for each number.
- 4 Players: Use tokens 1-6 in stacks of 4 for each number.
- 5 Players: Use tokens 1-4 in stacks of 5 for each number.
- 6 Players: Use tokens 1-5 in stacks of 6 for each number.
- The player who has the closest upcoming birthday becomes the Whoozit first. Provide them with the secret envelope.
- Shuffle the cards and deal 4 cards to each player except for the Whoozit. Each player may look at their own cards but cannot reveal them to any other player.
You are now ready to play Cranium Whoonu!
How to Play Cranium Whoonu
Cranium Whoonu is played in rounds. In each round, everyone (except the Whoozit) is provided cards with various things labeled on them. Then, each player must decide from those cards which might be the current Whoozit’s favorite thing.
- Once per round, each player will choose a card from their hand that they think the Whoozit will like best and place it into the secret envelope, making sure no other players can see the card.
NOTE: In a 3-4 player game, each player adds 2 cards to the envelope. In a 5-6 player game, each player adds only 1 card into the envelope.
- Once all players have added their cards to the envelope, the envelope is passed to the Whoozit. The Whoozit takes the cards out, reviews them secretly, and puts them in order from least to most favorite face-down next to the number token stacks.
Their least favorite card gets placed face-down next to the “1” token stack, and their favorite card gets placed next to the highest numbered token stack available (with all other cards in order in between).
- After all of the cards are placed, the Whoozit reveals each card one at a time, starting with the least favorite card under the “1” stack:
- The player whose card is revealed next to the “1” stack takes the “1” token.
- The player whose card is revealed next to the “2” stack takes the “2” token.
- This continues until all players’ cards have been revealed and everyone has received a token.
- A new round starts! Each card that was revealed gets placed into a discard pile. Then, everyone passes their hand of cards to the player on their left and draws 1 new card.
- The player who had no cards handed to them is the new Whoozit for the round!
- Rounds continue until all tokens are gone. Once all tokens are gone, the game ends.
How to Win Cranium Whoonu
When all of the score tokens are gone, the game ends. Calculate all of the tokens you were rewarded. If you have a higher score than any other player, you win the game!
Video Tutorial for Cranium Whoonu
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Cranium Whoonu out of print?
It seems like Cranium Whoonu is no longer in production (hopefully, just temporarily). However, you can still find copies on Amazon or eBay. You can even find fan-made printable versions of the game online!
Can Cranium Whoonu be played with only 2 players?
Unfortunately, it cannot! This would be impossible as the Whoozit would know who gave them all the cards!
What happens if there is a tie in Cranium Whoonu?
The rules do not state what to do if there is a tie! We would suggest playing one more round (adding another row of score tokens) or granting both players victory!
Other Similar Games to Cranium Whoonu (Our Guides)
If you enjoyed reading about Cranium Whoonu, check out these similar party game guides (if we have covered them):
- Cranium rules
- Apples to Apples rules
- Dixit rules
- Cranium Cadoo rules
- Balderdash rules
- Cards Against Humanity rules
- What’s Yours Like? Rules
- Never Have I Ever card game rules
- Kids Against Maturity (coming soon)
- I Should’ve Known That! trivia game rules (coming soon)
