Opening a lobby

Getting started · 4 of 11

If you're organizing the round, you open your own lobby:

Pick a game on the start page.
You'll be taken to open a lobby. Here you can set a few options (see below).
You get a code and a link. You can pass both on to your fellow players – via chat, messenger, whatever. On a phone both sit behind 👥 next to the number of seats; while players are still missing, you also open them with 🔗 Invite at the bottom.

As the host, you also decide when the game starts. The round only begins once you start it.

Public or private?

When opening, you can choose whether your lobby is private or public:

Private (default): Only those with the code or link can get in.
Public: Your lobby appears in the public list, and strangers can join.

What the host can configure

Depending on the game, there are different knobs, for example:

How many players may join (up to ten with an account, up to four as a guest – the maximum can be lower depending on the game; the minimum is usually two, three for the Shadow Game and Boomtown, four for Doppelkopf).
For the Shadow Game: how many rounds are played and how much time you get for clues and the vote.
For Hangman and Taboo: how many words are played and how much time is left per word.
For the Shadow Game, Hangman and Taboo (where enabled): an own word list instead of the given categories – your own categories with your own terms, one term per line. Each of the three games has a list of its own ("Your words for Taboo"); the dialog shows the list of the game set in the lobby and switches with it. A list from before is the starting point for all three. With an account the lists stay saved and are there next time; you can export the list shown as a file and import it again, also to share it. As a guest it only applies to the current lobby. A game with your own words is not rated: no statistics, no achievements, no place in the leaderboard. Your history then says "Own words · not rated", and the other players see it behind the gear in the row "Own words".
For the Music Quiz: how many songs are played, how long the snippets are, and whether the title or the artist is asked.
For the Trivia Quiz: categories and difficulty, how many questions are played and how much time is left per question.
For Memory: how big the board is (more cards = longer and trickier).
For Naval Battle: which variant (Fleet Duel, Shared Sea or Space Battle), how big the fleet is, and whether you play in teams – drawn at random or picked by the players in the lobby. For Space Battle the host sets the start money instead of the fleet (500, 600, 800 or 1000) and the salvo from three players: "Per opponent" with 1–3 shots on every opponent (2 by default) or "One target" with 2–4 shots on one.
For Texas Hold'em: how many chips everyone starts with and how quickly the blinds rise – with three tempo presets from cozy to brisk.
For Quickshot: three house rules to toggle – stacking of +2/+4 cards, forced play, and whether a drawn card is played immediately.
For Mahjong: how many rounds are played (one, three or five – from three on, the board layout changes automatically every round), which board layout a single round uses (Turtle, Pyramid, Dragon, Fortress or Spider) and the time limit per round (3–20 minutes, default 15).
For Boomtown: the victory-point goal (8, 10 or 12 – a shorter or longer game).
For Rattler: the fence – wrap-around (default) or deadly – and, for a race, the race type: classic or with mischief (default, poison mouse).
For Freight, for a race: the race type – classic or with ballast and dynamite (default).
For Bouncer: two house rules to toggle – whether a six must clear the house first, and whether a possible eviction is mandatory.
For Skat and Doppelkopf: how long a match is (one game, a number of rounds or up to a point target) and the rules of the table – a preset or single house rules.
For Durak: five rules of the table – the variant (throw-in or passing on), who may throw in, the deck (24, 36 or 52 cards), whether the first attack holds 5 cards at most and whether the lowest trump may be swapped.
Ultimate TicTacToe needs no special settings – fixed rules apply there.
Whether guests are allowed to play.

You don't have to worry about any of this – sensible defaults are preset. The options are only there for when you want to adjust something.

Card and board games played in turns share a turn time (off, 30, 60 or 90 seconds). When it runs out, the table plays the most cautious move for you at the card tables; in a board duel the opponent may then claim the win. Chess plays with its own clock instead, Bonanza with its own turn time. Whoever leaves a two-player game gives it up – the other one wins, and it counts; at bigger tables the game goes on without them or ends with a scored result, depending on the game.