How to play Head to Head

The same question, at the same moment, for both of you

There are no turns. Each question appears on both screens at once with four things to press, and you have twenty seconds for reading it and answering it together. Neither of you can go back once it is in.

While you are still deciding, the one thing you can see is that the other person has already answered. That is all you can see — not what they picked, not whether it was right, and nothing about it reaches your browser until the question is over. What you do with the knowledge that they were quicker is the part of this that is not a quiz.

Ten for knowing it, and up to nine for knowing it early

A right answer is worth ten. On top of that you take up to nine more for how much of the twenty seconds was still on the clock when your answer landed, so an instant one is worth nineteen and one on the last tick is worth ten. A wrong answer is worth nothing, and there is no penalty for it.

Nine and not ten, which is the one number here worth explaining: it means two right answers always beat one, however fast the one was. A question you are unsure about should never be a reason to press something quickly instead of working it out, and one point of margin is all it takes to say so.

The moment your answer landed is taken when it reaches the server rather than from your own machine, so nobody can shave a tenth off their reaction by any means available to them, and a slow connection costs you a fraction of a point rather than a question.

Nothing in it is a fact you were taught

The deck is written to one rule: every answer can be reasoned to from things anybody already has. Arithmetic you can do in your head, a shape you can picture, a claim you can check against something ordinary. That is what makes a five-minute game between two people who have never met a fair one — it is not a test of who read more, and being older is not an advantage.

Every question is followed by one line saying why the answer is what it is. A reasoning question that is never explained is a question you get wrong twice, and in practice that line is the bit people read out to each other.

The four options are shuffled for every question of every match, so the right one is never where the deck wrote it and there is no pattern to learn. Letting the clock run out is recorded as its own thing rather than as a wrong answer, and nothing is ever answered on your behalf: a one-in-four guess taken by the software would be a point nobody earned.

Two chairs, and what happens if one of them empties

It seats exactly two. Not two as a smallest table — two as the shape: every question is a direct comparison, and there is one person you are being compared to. Anyone else in the room can watch on a second screen, which is given the question and both scores and is never told it is playing.

If one of you leaves for good the match stops there. The questions that were answered stand with the points they were worth, the one that was on the table does not count, and the score is what it was when the other chair emptied. A match with one person in it is not a shorter match, so the software does not pretend otherwise.

Questions people ask

Do we both have to be there at the same time?

Yes, and it is the one thing about this that differs from the game it is built from. That one is played against a recording of somebody else's ten, which is what lets its league run without two people ever being online together. There is no league here and no stored games to replay, so this is live: the same question goes up on both screens at once, you both answer against one clock, and the round turns over when the second answer lands. What you get for it is being able to watch them answer before you do.

Can three of us play?

No. Two is the shape rather than the limit — every question is a straight comparison between the two of you, and a third person would need a different way of scoring rather than a bigger table. A third person can watch: put it on a second screen and it shows the question and both scores without ever being dealt in.

Is it a general knowledge quiz?

No, and it is written specifically not to be. Nothing in it is a fact somebody was taught: every question can be worked out inside the twenty seconds from things anybody already has, and the deck refuses currencies, converted units, dates and anything about a particular country. If you find yourself trying to remember something, the question is not doing its job.

Does answering fast matter more than being right?

No, and the numbers are chosen to guarantee it. The most speed can add is nine points, which is less than the ten a second right answer is worth — so two right answers given at the last possible moment beat one instant one. Being quick is a tiebreak between two people who both know it, which is what it should be.

Does anybody have to install anything to play Head to Head?

No. It runs in the browser everyone already has open. One person opens a room, reads out the six-character code or pastes the link into the channel, and everyone else is at the table in a couple of seconds.

Do we need accounts?

No. There is no sign-up, no password and no email address anywhere in the flow. You pick a name when you sit down, and that is the whole of it.

How many people can play Head to Head?

2 — best with two. A room seats up to 12.

How long does a game of Head to Head take?

About 5 minutes, which is the length of a coffee break rather than the length of a games night. Nobody is the host in the sense of holding the controls, so a round finishes whether or not everyone is still looking at it.

Does it work over a video call?

That is what it is for. The game is on the screen and the talking is on the call — nobody has to describe a board to anybody, and the parts that must stay private stay on the server rather than being read out.