All games

The Circle

One hundred questions in five depths. The group decides how deep it goes, and the deck never pushes. Every card is written so that what comes back is a feeling and a need, not an opinion.

100 cards · 5 depths · 2 to 12 players · free

One person answers. Everyone listens.

Choose a room, add 2 to 12 names, and read the three agreements together. Start with Warm-up; you can change depth whenever the group agrees.

  1. 1
    The group

    Let the circle choose

    The first spin starts after you agree. The filled name answers; the outlined name reads. Spin the circle chooses again.

  2. 2
    The named reader

    Turn over a card

    Tap the deck, then read the question aloud. The person in the centre answers, or chooses to pass.

  3. 3
    Everyone else

    Listen, then continue

    Listen without advice or interruptions. When the answer is finished, press Next round to choose someone again.

Keep the circle clear
  • Anyone may pass

    Say “pass” and press Next round. No explanation is needed.

  • Colors show depth

    Warm-up begins lightly. The other four depths invite different kinds of sharing. Nothing is locked; decide together before changing color.

  • Empathy echo is optional

    With 3 or more players, this invites another person to guess a feeling and a need they heard. The person who answered can correct the guess.

  • On a call

    Let one person operate and share the screen. A share link opens the current card, but does not keep everyone’s screen in sync.

What listening can sound like

“Were you disappointed because you wanted support?” Leave room for the person to tell you what was actually true.

Where are you playing

Choose the room

You can change this later. Nothing is lost.

Pick a depth

1. Warm-up

Light, playful, and concrete. What you can actually see and hear.

  1. Describe the last thing that made you laugh, without saying whether it was funny. Just what happened.
  2. What did your hands do today, in order, from waking up until now?
  3. Name one sound in the room right now that you had not noticed before this question.
  4. What is the smallest thing you own that you would not want to lose?
  5. Tell us about a food you liked as a child and still like, and what it tastes like.
  6. What did you see on the way here that you have not mentioned to anyone?
  7. If you had two free hours today and no duties, what would you actually do, not what you think you should do?
  8. Describe your morning to us as if you were a camera. No adjectives.
  9. What song has been in your head this week?
  10. Name one thing in your home that is out of place right now.
  11. What is a small thing someone did for you recently that you noticed?
  12. Tell us the last thing you said out loud before you arrived here.
  13. What is a task you enjoy that other people seem to dislike?
  14. Describe the weather today without using the words good, bad, nice, or terrible.
  15. What is something you learned in the past month, however small?
  16. Name one object near you and guess its age.
  17. What do you do when you are waiting for something and cannot do anything else?
  18. Tell us about a place you pass often and have never entered.
  19. What did you eat last, and were you hungry or was it time?
  20. Name one thing you are looking forward to this week, even a tiny one.

2. Where I come from

Family, culture, the rooms you grew up in.

  1. What was the sound of your childhood home when everyone was there?
  2. Who in your family talked the most, and who listened?
  3. What was allowed to be said out loud in your house, and what was not?
  4. Tell us about a room you remember very clearly from before you were ten.
  5. How did the adults around you show they were upset?
  6. What did the people who raised you do for a living, and how did they talk about it?
  7. Was there a family story told so often you could recite it? Tell us the short version.
  8. What language, dialect, or way of speaking did you have at home that you drop elsewhere?
  9. How did celebrations work where you come from? Who did the work?
  10. What did your family do when someone cried?
  11. Name a habit you have that you know came from a specific person.
  12. What was money like in your house when you were small, as a feeling rather than a number?
  13. Who was the first person outside your family that you felt understood by?
  14. What did the neighbourhood you grew up in look like at night?
  15. Was there something your family was proud of that you are not sure you agree with?
  16. What did you believe about adults when you were eight?
  17. Tell us about a teacher or a neighbour who changed something in you.
  18. What smell takes you straight back, and to where?
  19. What did your family do on an ordinary Sunday?
  20. Is there something you needed as a child that the people around you could not give? Say it plainly, without blame.

3. What I care about

Values, said as living needs rather than principles.

  1. Name something you would rearrange your whole week for. What need does it serve?
  2. What do you defend without thinking, and what are you protecting when you defend it?
  3. Describe a moment you felt fully alive. Which need was being met right then?
  4. What kind of unfairness makes you react fastest? What does that say about what matters to you?
  5. If you had to keep only three qualities in yourself, which three, and why those?
  6. What do you spend money on without arguing with yourself?
  7. Think of someone you admire. What need of yours does watching them touch?
  8. What would you want a stranger to notice about how you treat people?
  9. Name a rule you keep even when nobody would know if you broke it.
  10. What do you need in order to say yes to something wholeheartedly?
  11. What kind of work makes you lose track of time? What is being fed in you there?
  12. Describe a promise you made to yourself that you have kept.
  13. What does respect actually look like for you, in concrete behaviour?
  14. When have you chosen honesty knowing it would cost you something?
  15. What do you want more of in your life right now, and what would having it give you?
  16. What do you refuse to hurry?
  17. Name something you used to want badly and no longer do. What changed underneath?
  18. What need of yours is easiest for you to meet on your own, and which one needs other people?
  19. What would you like to be trusted with?
  20. If your life had a quiet motto that you never say out loud, what would it be?

4. Where it gets tender

Feelings, shame, longing, the things usually kept quiet.

  1. When did you last feel lonely in a room full of people?
  2. What do you find hard to ask for, even from people who love you?
  3. Name a feeling you tend to hide. What are you afraid would happen if it showed?
  4. What compliment do you have trouble believing?
  5. Tell us about a time you pretended to be fine.
  6. What are you still carrying from something that ended?
  7. Where in your life do you feel behind, and who is the audience you feel behind for?
  8. What do you long for that you rarely say out loud?
  9. When did you last apologise and mean it fully?
  10. What part of yourself do you soften or hide when you meet new people?
  11. Is there something you wish someone had said to you, that they never did?
  12. What do you do with anger when it arrives?
  13. Name a time you felt genuinely seen. What made it possible?
  14. What is one thing you would like to forgive yourself for?
  15. When do you feel most tired, and what kind of tired is it?
  16. What are you afraid people would think if they knew you completely?
  17. Tell us about a goodbye you did not get to say properly.
  18. What do you need when you are sad, and do the people around you know it?
  19. Where do you notice envy, and what does the envy point at that you want?
  20. What would you want said about you by someone who loves you and is not being polite?

5. The world between us

Difference, conflict, and the groups we struggle to understand.

  1. Name a group you find hard to understand. What need might they be protecting?
  2. Where do you notice yourself judging quickly? What is that judgement guarding in you?
  3. Tell us about a disagreement where you later saw the other side had a point.
  4. What opinion do you hold that most people close to you do not share? What matters to you underneath it?
  5. When did you last feel like an outsider, and what would have helped?
  6. What do you have that you did not earn?
  7. Describe a conflict you avoid. What need keeps you away from it?
  8. What do people from your background often get wrong about people from another?
  9. When have you stayed silent while something unfair happened? What were you needing then?
  10. What kind of person do you find it hardest to be in a room with?
  11. Think of a public argument you feel strongly about. Say the other side as a need, not as a position.
  12. Where are you privileged in ways that are invisible to you most days?
  13. What would you want someone who disagrees with you deeply to understand about you first?
  14. Have you ever changed your mind about something important? What made that possible?
  15. What does safety mean in your body, and who gets it easily in the places you move through?
  16. When did someone from a very different world treat you kindly?
  17. What do you think your generation gets wrong?
  18. Name a difference inside this circle right now that we have not spoken about.
  19. What is something you believe that you would be willing to be wrong about?
  20. If you could send one sentence to a group you are in conflict with, and they would truly hear it, what would it be?

100

How the raffle works

  • On the first Monday of every month we draw three names from everyone who entered since the previous draw. Each entry takes part in exactly one draw.
  • The first name drawn wins free participation in the 2027 NVC Learning Community. The second and third each win €500 (or $500) off.
  • One entry per person per month. You need to be 18 or older. Entry to the raffle is free.
  • Already registered for the Learning Community? You can still win: your prize is applied as a refund of the difference.
  • Winners are notified by email and have 7 days to respond, otherwise we draw a new name.
  • Prizes are personal and cannot be paid out in cash.
  • This raffle is not sponsored, endorsed, or administered by Facebook or Meta.
  • Questions? Write to support@nvcrising.org.