How to play.
A prompt comes up. Everyone types an answer on their phone. The answers go up with no names on them, and everyone votes for the funniest. Most points after the last round wins.
What you need
- 3 to 16 players, each with a phone. Anyone past 16 joins as the audience.
- A browser. Nothing to install and no accounts.
- A TV or laptop if you want one. You don’t need one.
- About 15 minutes for a standard three-round game.
Starting a room
- One person taps Start a room and becomes the host.
- Everyone else joins with the link, the QR code or the six-character room code.
- The host picks who’s here (see below), how many rounds, and the timers, then taps Start.
The host can also add their own prompts in the lobby, or a Local Edition deck written about your group.
A round
- Write. Your prompt comes up on your phone. Type your answer, up to 120 characters, and tap Send it. Stuck? Inspire me gives you a starter to edit. You get 60 seconds by default.
- Vote. The answers go up anonymously. Tap the funniest. You can’t vote for your own, and in a Headlines duel the two writers sit the vote out. You get 20 seconds by default, a bit longer with more than 8 players.
- Reveal. The votes come in, the names flip over, the winner gets the bubble, and the points land.
- Summary. The scoreboard, who leads, and who has the headline of the round.
Writing and voting end as soon as everyone is in, so nobody waits on the clock. If someone runs out of time, the Staff Writer (the house) fills in an answer for them.
The three rounds
Headlines
Head-to-head duels. Each prompt goes to two players and everyone else votes between the two answers. With 5 to 8 players you write two prompts each; with 9 or more, one each.
Front Page
Everyone answers the same prompt and every answer goes up at once. Pick one, or rank your top three when there are 8 or more answers. With just three players, a Staff Writer answer joins the board so there is always a real choice.
Last Word
One prompt, up to three answers each, 90 seconds to write them. Everything goes up, the vote is ranked, and points are doubled.
How a game is built
| Game | 5 or more players | 3 or 4 players |
|---|---|---|
| Quick | Headlines, Front Page | Front Page twice |
| Classic | Headlines, Headlines, Front Page | Front Page three times |
| Long Night | Three Headlines, Front Page, Last Word | Four Front Pages, Last Word |
Classic is the default.
Scoring
- Headlines: 1,000 points times your share of the votes. Win every vote with at least three voters and you get a clean sweep bonus of 500.
- Front Page: one point per vote (or 3, 2 and 1 for a ranked vote), scaled so the best possible result is 1,000.
- Last Word: the same, doubled.
- No votes scores zero. Nothing ever goes negative.
- Ties: everyone tied takes their points. No sudden death.
- The audience counts as one voter between them, split by how they voted.
- The Staff Writer never scores. If the house answer wins, that’s a scoop, and the end screen keeps count. Audience letters don’t score either.
The end
Two prizes: the Winner, on points, and the Headline of the Night, the single answer with the biggest share of its vote. It gets printed as a front page you can share, with names hidden if you like.
The audience
Join with the same code and pick Just watch, or turn up when all 16 seats are taken. The audience votes as one bloc, sends reactions, and in Front Page rounds can write a Letter to the Editor: one of them makes it onto the board. If a seat frees up, you can take it at the next round.
With a TV or without
Phones only. Everything happens on every phone. Each time, the next player along becomes the Reader (in a duel, never one of the two writers): they read the answers out to the table, and their tap moves things on.
With a screen. Open playbackchat.com/tv/CODE on a TV or laptop browser, a cast tab, or a Discord screen share. It shows the code, the cards and the scores, and plays the sounds. It never takes a seat. Phones still do all the work, and each phone runs its own clock, so stream lag doesn’t cost anyone time.
A screen can join or leave at any point without upsetting the game.
Who’s here
The host sets the room’s crowd, which picks the prompts and the answer filter together.
| Crowd | Prompts | Swearing in answers |
|---|---|---|
| Kids | Family | Blocked |
| Work | Family, plus work-safe Mates | Masked |
| Mates (default) | Family and Mates | Masked |
| After Dark (17+) | Family, Mates and After Dark | Allowed |
After Dark is opt-in by the host, and every phone is told when it goes on. Slurs are blocked in every room. Anyone can turn on Blur swearing for their own phone. Backchat is rated 17+.
Host tools
- Add 15 seconds, or skip ahead.
- Strike an answer during the vote or the reveal. The Staff Writer replaces it.
- Lock the room so nobody new can join.
- Remove a player. They can’t get back into that room from that device.
- Hand the host role to someone else.
If something goes wrong
- Lost signal? Your seat and your score are held. Open the link again and you are back in.
- Someone typed something they shouldn’t have? Long-press the answer to report it, or hide that player’s answers on your phone.