Tutorial: how to play a game
Ten minutes with the player: pick a game, play it against the computer, read the rules while you play, then play the same game with friends by link. Nothing to install; everything runs in the browser.
1. Pick a game
Open the games page (or the player itself: without a game chosen it starts with a picker). Every card shows a picture of the game's table, who it is for and two buttons: Play opens the game straight away, How to play opens its page with the rules in plain words, the course of a game as a track and a flowchart.
Not sure where to start? Tic-tac-toe is three taps; Seedbed (tiles) and Yahtzee (dice) are quick; Ashmoor Delve and Bellwake are our own campaigns with cards and a board.
2. The play screen
Press Play. The computer takes the other seats; the screen has three parts:
| Part | What it shows |
|---|---|
| The bar at the top | Where you are in the game (Round 2 › Your turn), a tip the first time something new happens, and Your turn with one line that says what to do |
| The table | The board, piles, your hand and the other players as cards, tiles, dice and dials. Only what your seat may see: other players' hands are card backs |
| All options as buttons | Fold it open when you would rather read the options as a list; the same choices as on the table |
Choosing happens on the table: whatever you may choose lights up.
- A card: drag it onto the table, or tap it. When one card can be used in several ways, a small menu opens with those ways.
- A square or cell: tap it.
- A piece with several moves: tap it first (its targets light up), then the target, or drag it there.
- Hold a card to see it large; on a computer, hovering is enough.
When it is not your turn, the computer's moves are played back one at a time: cards glide from the deck to a hand or onto the table, pieces walk across the map, dice tumble. Skip (or Escape) jumps to your turn. What happened since your last move lists it all in words, so you never miss a move made while you looked away.
The table makes sounds: a card sliding, dice rattling, a piece set down, a chime when it is your turn. The 🔊 button turns sound (and vibration on phones) off and on; the browser remembers it.
Some games tell a story while you play (Ashmoor Delve does): a passage opens like a page of a book at the start, when a scenario begins or something big happens, and at the end. Read aloud reads it with your browser's own voices, by itself if you like; and such a game may have music. In those games 🔊 opens a small menu: table sounds, music and its volume, reading aloud, the voice and the speed. 📖 Story above your turn shows the last passage again.
On a phone the table comes first and the question sits in a sheet at the bottom of the screen; ☰ with the game's name opens the game, players and New game.
3. Rules while you play
Three buttons sit next to the game's name:
- Rules opens the rules in plain words, with two more tabs: Flowchart (every step, loop and branch of the game as a chart) and Track (the same as a rail track, with your current position marked). The track in the left column follows the game live.
- Flow jumps to the track.
- Details switches to the details view: every zone and value, also hidden ones, and the full history with a slider to step back and forth. That is for studying a game or a model; while you play for real, leave it on Play view, where hidden things stay hidden.
3D shows the same table in three dimensions, with the controls of Tabletop Simulator: the left button plays (tap a card, drag it onto the table, drag a piece to its square), the right button turns the camera, the middle button or WASD moves it, the wheel zooms, and hovering a card shows it large. On a phone, one finger plays and two fingers turn and zoom.
4. New game, other players, other games
- New game restarts with fresh seats; the Players box chooses who plays which seat: you, or a computer player (random moves for a quick game, the game's tactic for a real opponent).
- The Game box switches to another game; Watch lets the computer play both sides so you can see the game go before you play it yourself.
- Leave the game ends your game; then start a new one or choose another game. The Game box can be changed at any time.
- Undo (next to Your turn) takes back your last move, with whatever the computer did after it. A game is the same every time from the same start and the same answers, so nothing else changes.
- Close the page in the middle of a game and it continues where you were the next time you open that game in this browser.
- When a game is over, Copy replay link gives a link that replays your whole game, move by move, for whoever opens it.
5. Playing with friends
Press Play online (on the game's page or in the player). Choose for every seat: Me,
Someone else or a computer player, and open the table. Every seat gets its own link: send it
to the person who plays that seat. The game then runs on our server, so hidden cards stay hidden
from the other browsers; everyone sees only what their seat may see, and the page updates as soon
as someone moves. A seat's link also works for an AI agent through the MCP connector
https://tabletwin.com/mcp, see playing online.
When the game is over, Play again starts a new game with the same party: everyone keeps their link and is taken to the new table. Tables are removed 30 days after the last move.
6. Your own game
A game you build in the workshop shows up in the player's Game box as an extra game, with everything above: play against the computer, 3D, rules in words, the track. Playing online works for the games on the games page.
Next: build a game.