Game rules, explained simply
Rules you can read in five minutes and start playing: setup, turns, scoring, the arguments that always come up, and quick answers.
Generala: a dice game like Yahtzee, explained box by box
Five dice, three rolls, eleven boxes to fill. Generala is the game Argentines and Uruguayans grow up playing at the kitchen table, and if you know Yahtzee, you already know about 80% of it. The other 20% is where it gets interesting.
How to play Mafia: rules, roles, setups for 6–16 players and a narrator that runs itself
Mafia is the party game where half the fun is lying with a straight face and the other half is catching someone doing it. Here are the rules without club jargon, the roles, setups for 6 to 16 players, strategy for both sides, and a way to play with no cards and no narrator: roles live on your phones and the story of each night plays on the TV.
How to play charades: rules, secret signals, 50 ideas and playing online
Charades is the party game where you act out a word or title without making a sound while everyone else guesses. Below: rules for a casual circle and for teams, the hand signals that save half your turn, 50 charades ideas from easy to grown-up funny, and how to play on a video call — in Explain It! only the actor sees the word on their phone, and the game keeps time and score.
¡Basta! (Name, Place, Animal, Thing): rules, scoring and how to play online
Here is how ¡Basta! works: a letter comes up and everyone races to write a name, a place, an animal and more that start with it; the first to fill every box shouts “Basta!” and the rest have to wrap up. A unique word scores 10, a shared one 5. The online version handles the letter, the timer and the scoring, for two to eight players.
The bluffing trivia party game: how to play and how to fool your friends
A bluffing trivia game is truth-or-lie for the whole group: the screen shows a real but obscure fact with a blank, everyone types a believable fake answer, and then you all hunt for the truth among your friends’ bluffs. You score for spotting the truth and for every person who falls for your lie. You can play it on phones in Bluff Club — 3 to 12 people, free.
The explain-the-word party game: rules, tips and how to play online
The explain-the-word game is simple: one player describes a word without saying it while their team races the clock to guess it; a guessed word scores a point, a skipped one costs you. Plenty of well-known board games work this way, and it is easy to play online: in Explain It! only the explainer sees the word on their phone, and the server keeps the timer and the score. Rules, modes and tips below.
Turning your own photo into a nonogram: a step-by-step guide
To make a nonogram from your own photo, open the nonogram editor, tap “From photo” and move the brightness slider until a recognisable silhouette appears on a 10×10 or 15×15 grid. The server checks that the puzzle has exactly one solution, and friends solve it free from a link. The photo is processed on your phone and never uploaded.
Backgammon online with a friend: rules, setup and first strategies
Backgammon is a race for two: each player has 15 checkers, two dice and one goal — bring every checker home and bear them all off first. A lone enemy checker can be hit and sent to the bar, and it must re-enter before anything else moves. Here are the rules step by step, first strategies and how to play a friend online.
Dominoes online: block game rules, locked boards and how not to get stuck with doubles
Dominoes is a game for 2–4 players with 28 tiles from 0-0 to 6-6: you take turns matching a tile to an open end of the line, and the first to empty their hand wins the round. If nobody can move, the board is locked and the lowest pip count takes it. Here are the rules, strategy and how to play online.
Ludo online: race rules, safe squares and tactics that win
Ludo is a race for 2–4 players: each has four tokens that leave home on a six, travel around the board and turn into their own colored lane. A lone rival token can be captured and sent home, while safe squares protect everyone. Here are the rules step by step, tactics and how to play online via a link.
Truco one on one: the deck, the ranking, envido and when to lie
Truco is the rare card game where good cards help but do not decide anything. What decides is how convincingly you pretend. Here is the deck, the ranking, the betting and where the lying lives.
The rules, the scoring, and the paradox in the middle of it
A game where the winner isn't the cleverest player but the one exactly one other person understands. Here are the rules, the scoring, and how to stop writing clues nobody votes for.
Hearts, trick by trick: passing, points and the moon
Hearts is the rare trick game where taking tricks is the problem. One card is worth thirteen penalty points, and the entire table spends the evening trying to hand it to you.
Battleship for two: how to stop firing at random
Most Battleship games are not lost to bad luck. They are lost in the first twenty shots, fired with no system at all. Rules first, then how to hunt ships faster than the person across from you.
Durak from the first deal to the last trump
Durak takes a minute to explain and years to stop losing at. Here is the podkidnoy version step by step, from the first deal to the endgame after the deck runs dry.
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